[fhdowntheline]

I loved a recent message on social media- when you get something free, they take your freedom as a price. Social media is a want, not a need, barring exceptions.
I am not dependent on WApp for professional or business purposes. I am also a mostly passive participant in my various groups. So if MZ wants to read the weekly updates on the leisure activities of my extended family and friends, by all means!

[roy_libran]

Deleted my FB account 4 years ago.
Have set a Delete date for Instagram and WhatsApp accounts of 31 Jan. Doesn't matter to me if my contacts move or not, groups move of not, extended family moves or not...

Policy change or its deferment means nothing given that they already intrude and collect too much data. This was only meant to regularise a wrong they have long been guilty of committing.
Since I have completely lost trust on their policies, ethics and ways of doing business, it's Goodbye to the Facebook ecosystem forever.

Next step is changing all authentications away from both Google and Facebook, to old fashioned username password. Further improve the personal level network, storage and user segmentation that I already employ. For me it's not a question of WHY PRIVACY, rather the WHAT & HOW of it

[prajwalmr62]

Guys,

There are 3 companies who track most of the internet. Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Even if you uninstall Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp, you still end up getting tracked if one of the sites you visit uses Facebook/Google services.

You can do the following thing.

1. Have different browsers (if sync on, then different accounts). and/or,
2. Have Firefox with containers


Even after this, your ISP can still understand where the request is going to and ISP can do whatever they want with this. I'm not sure about the laws for ISPs, so I cannot comment on whether they will use this data.

---

This WhatsApp privacy update is nothing really horrendous considering that WA has been a Facebook company for a long time, and there might be already lots of shared resources and monitoring. So, if it hadn't bothered you till now, I guess there's no reason for you to worry after Feb as well.

Also on some of the items being shared -

* WA cannot read your texts, they are encrypted.
* No, they can't share your photos. But, you might end up with some features like `Share this story/status on FB`. This requires the permission to share data with FB.
* Track your precise/coarse location. - Everything, including your smart watch from BKK is doing it.

[chetancm7]

Personally WhatsApp is just a multimedia tool and I use it as such. It doesn't make any difference to me if privacy is violated since we are there on many such social platforms. Some of my friends have moved to Signal hence in order to be in touch I have also installed Signal. But it is left to the individual as to how he wants to spend his precious time. Nobody forces us to use these apps but we do it in the name of convenience and also in the name of staying connected. WhatsApp has helped me in connecting with my old school friends who otherwise would have been forgotten as a group. Again just emphasizing that it is a personal choice to use or not to use such multi media apps.

[raghukodali]

Every ping or buzz creates a subconscious compulsion to pick the phone to see what happened and who messaged what.

I have disabled all the notifications from WhatsApp. I now look at WA whenever I have time (sometimes it is just once a week) and feel like looking at it. People would have forgotten me by that time

[CarJunki]

Signal is good. Most of my communication has moved over to Signal. So yes moving towards WhatsApp free phone. I moved out of facebook 6 years back, never joined Insta and unlikely it will happen ever.

I realized there is simply no value add provided by Facebook to me. Their business model is surveillance and agenda shaping. When they launched the tagging feature and i saw it become popular, it became evident where they were going. So that was when i stopped using FB.

WhatsApp was providing a bit of value that you could easily connect with near and dear ones, at the same time it was not like announcing to whole world whom you are talking to.
Now with even more data harvesting and having financial presence, my plans to ditch FB fully will be expedited.

[ZenMaster]

Originally Posted by nagarjun

However, I am stilling wondering about the business model of Signal. Who pays for the server & storage?

This is the reason why I am keeping away from Telegram.

Signal App(or rather its parent company)as of now is a Non-Profit Organisation. Its exists mainly on donations, from people as well as companies who donate to them (kind of like Wikipedia)

They have a "donate" option in their app which allows any user to donate anytime to their organisation.

I don't know if they have any other source of sustained income.

Telegram is a not a NPO but also not trying too much to milk people my sharing their private info. But Telegram founder was recently(before the WhatsApp fiasco) quoted saying that he was open to showing ads (based on area of interests "chosen" by a user )within the app because they needed funds to keep up their operations at this scale. Don't know what's the status after that.

But I wouldn't bank on Telegram's generosity for ever or trust them too much. Its good now, but there is no guaranteed assurance for the future.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by raghukodali

I have disabled all the notifications from WhatsApp. I now look at WA whenever I have time (sometimes it is just once a week) and feel like looking at it. People would have forgotten me by that time

My group usage is miniscule, not even posts every day, but I mute groups. That means that any incoming message is one-to-one, and I treat it the same as SMS. Having said that, I learned to completely ignore phones long before I even had a mobile. eg, the phone does not take precedence over a face-to-face conversation.

[ZenMaster]

Originally Posted by prajwalmr62

2. Have Firefox with containers
Attachment 2111438

Even after this, your ISP can still understand where the request is going to and ISP can do whatever they want with this. I'm not sure about the laws for ISPs, so I cannot comment on whether they will use this data

Can you please explain what this "Container" feature. I've never come across it till now.

As far as ISPs are concerned, they are also now making money by selling user's internet and browsing data(might be anonymised but I don't know more details).

That's why more and more people are using VPN services.

If you remember, Facebook had invested $5.7 Billion in Jio for around 10%stake. I don't know what the details are, but since its Facebook I don't think its anything good intentioned.

[Slick]

Facebook is very intrusive, The whole Cambridge Analytica episode has spooked me. They can play God and choose who wins an election.

I installed Signal, sometime back, as an alternate to Whatsapp but there was no one there. Now I see a lot of family and friends have migrated to Signal post the Whatsapp announcement. May be I can get rid of whatsapp completely.

My policy, in terms of this has always been, like @Samurai explained, Keep your data fragmented. Make sure neither Google nor FB have enough data to make a profile. (I anyways don't need FB).

So Signal has your chat data, Google has your location, and Insta other stuff. I dont think they all will ever collaborate to have the complete set of.

In the age of smart phones the only way to be truly off the grid is to not use the grid. The internet has too much benefit to do that, to use a dumb phone only.
But I hope to work around this.

- I have not logged into FB for 2 years, when I try to login(to delete my account) it asks for my Aadhaar (Which I don't want to provide). I do not have FB or Insta on my phone.
- I use Chrome and Brave browsers for different purposes, Google, Bing and Duckduckgo.
- I specifically check permissions for all apps and if an app wants permissions that they don't need I remove the permission/app.
- I have been wanting to upgrade my mobile for six months, and have been looking for a Linux/other secure phone, but unable to get a good one in India. May be move to an iPhone. So more fragmentation.

May be I am too paranoid but my fear is that an AI run by google or FB will know me inside out.
Like a profile that can predict our behaviour.
eg. Bike Lover, football lover (which team you support), Eats a certain type of food, age, watches action films, supports a certain political thought process, Visits a temple every Saturday 8am, What all you have bought in the last one year, your anniversary, your kids... The list goes on...

Imagine a stranger knowing you that well.

- Slick

[GeeTee TSI]

Staying away from whatsapp payment and communication with caution with business accounts are what I can influence now

Meanwhile, a good watch on Netflix, The Social Dilemma while on this subject

[Romeo_Mike]

Like it has been said many times earlier, Whatsapp has become the default mode for some types of communications like informal office communications, society broadcasts etc and if like me, one's entire circle is on Whatsapp, it will be very hard to move away from it.

But my thought is why bother? We knew this was going to happen right from the day Facebook acquired Whatsapp. And who knows probably would have happened anyway.Whatsapp of today is not what Jan Koum and Brian Acton set out to create - they just wanted show your "last seen" to everyone

And let's say Signal or some other more "Privacy friendly" platform, sees a big jump in user base because of the current uproar against Whatsapp, it will simply become another acquisition target for the Suckerbergs and Bechos of the world, who would then turn it inside out for profit.

I honestly think privacy in today's world is a mythical white elephant of which everybody talks of but no one has seen. At best, we can have an illusion of privacy

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by Slick

My policy, in terms of this has always been, like @Samurai explained, Keep your data fragmented. Make sure neither Google nor FB have enough data to make a profile. (I anyways don't need FB).

So Signal has your chat data, Google has your location, and Insta other stuff. I dont think they all will ever collaborate to have the complete set of.

May be I am too paranoid but my fear is that an AI run by google or FB will know me inside out.
Like a profile that can predict our behaviour.
eg. Bike Lover, football lover (which team you support), Eats a certain type of food, age, watches action films, supports a certain political thought process, Visits a temple every Saturday 8am, What all you have bought in the last one year, your anniversary, your kids... The list goes on...

Imagine a stranger knowing you that well.

- Slick

While it might look safe to keep the data fragmented, I believe the tracking is deep enough to figure out what is happening. Especially, when you have google, facebook, instagram and WA running on the same PC on the same browser, or on the same phone.

And you never know the data-sharing agreements between companies. In the financial domain, I know for sure that companies do share/collaborate for various products. These are legal and documented but just saying that a lot of data sharing happens, even between seemingly rival companies.

Already google and FB know a lot about you to form a profile. The only escape is getting away from gmail which is a bigger source of important data than whatsapp or instagram. Until I find an alternative, my plan is to confuse the AI engine as much as possible.From time-to-time, browse stuff that I have no interest about, subscribe to a bunch of junk, post random shit on FB etc.

[AZT]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

Especially, when you have google, facebook, instagram and WA running on the same PC on the same browser, or on the same phone.

It's also location tagging based on Wifi. If you're on the same wifi network they know it's the same user or same house. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars either buying up start ups or developing new tech. No point thinking up ways to outsmart these companies, there's a reason they are valued where they are.

Best is to install privacy extensions on your browser, limit social media use and continue with Whatsapp. Telegram has active cricket betting groups, pirated movies and also shady stock market tips groups all of which aren't exactly legal so I'd avoid that platform.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jaguar

The only escape is getting away from gmail which is a bigger source of important data than whatsapp or instagram. Until I find an alternative...

That's easy. You get your own domain and get a services supplier to host email services (and a web site if you want!) for you. In theory, you could host your own, but I heard that ISPs block outgoing email: I guess it could potentially flood their networks if they let everyone do this, especially as many would be set up badly and become spambots.

So, where to get that service from a supplier who respects your data and is not just another data fisher? I don't know. Mine has been with a small company in UK for over twenty years. I have a gmail account: it is used for backup only.