I stopped nearly 100% using WhatsApp since Facebook buy them. Only 1 person once in while send me message WhatsApp and everyone else use iMessages. Lucky nearly everyone have iPhone. I was 1st one my friends and family use iPhone 3GS and I slowly convert everyone to iPhone one by one.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Mandatory WhatsApp Privacy Policy Update Allows User Data to be Shared With Facebook
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I thought that message was a joke, WhatsApp more prevalent in the UK than sms or iMessage
At this point I’d jump off if I could but it only works if everyone you care about talking to does it with you. It’s too popular here in U.K. to do that.
If only BBM had moved cross platform earlier, they could have had this market.. I’d prefer that to be the standard over using something owned by Facebook.
I didn’t actually mind when it was 99p a year as a paid service sometime before the buyout!
If only BBM had moved cross platform earlier, they could have had this market.. I’d prefer that to be the standard over using something owned by Facebook.
I didn’t actually mind when it was 99p a year as a paid service sometime before the buyout!
Result:
Facebook's response:
So having been fined in 2017 for merely having the capability whilst denying that it did, Facebook has now escalated matters by implementing the very merger of data and systems that the EU Commission had warned against.
So Facebook lied, got caught in a lie, paid a fine and now implements its previous lie as a formal policy in a move that runs contrary to EU law and explicitly against its prior submissions to the EU courts, the regulator and the EU Commission.
One can only presume that the EU is ready to enforce the law on a company that brazenly commits the criminal act of contempt of court and such an egregious regulatory breach.
Another fine is a given but we may see a more draconian action such as suspending the ability of FaceBook to trade in the EU until it divests itself of WhatsApp and convinces the regulator that it can make the strategic leadership changes in order to be trusted to operate within the law. Sadly I do not expect any criminal convictions for contempt of court, as much as I would wish it upon them.
Another case of "since we're the land of the free I'm just going to assume a narrative that we are number one"? Like seriously, the whole damn world has pretty much moved on from regular SMS whenever they got the chance to do so; no matter if we get SMS for free for not (and many of us do; free sms and free calls, basically we're just paying for the amount of data that we want).
Looks like I will discontinue the use of WhatsApp and go back to using email and text. I see no benefit in using this app over email and text.
A fine doesn't really mean that it was illegal, only that the one doing it had to pay a little bit extra; a calculated cost of doing business.
Exactly the same for me. It's a good app and everyone I know uses it over any other messaging service. It's a pain but time to find something else. Signal?
They recovered all that money in about 5 minutes. It’s why they don’t care. Government has to fine them a large percentage of their bottom line for the fines to mean anything.
Too many people around me use WhatsApp, and I have only been able to migrate a small number of friends and colleagues onto telegram. We are stuck with it effectively.
SMS is free, pretty much everywhere. People use WhatsApp because it provides so much more functionality over SMS - similar to iMessage - except platform agnostic.
I'm not sure how I feel about this. At every turn, users are being pillaged for data to sell us Ads. If you run an adblocker this is largely wasted. Even if a company like FB or Google got a perfect profile on my spending/usage habits, it impacts my life zero. If I started getting calls, emails, people coming to my house to sell things or any other nuisance, then I'd shut down these apps immediately.
When it comes to cellular services US (or NA for that matter) was always behind. SMS is old and limited which is not the same as other data centric platforms like whatsapp etc.
This new rule sucks so I guess a lot will move to telegram etc.
Or iMessage but that is limited to iOS which not everyone has. We shall see
This new rule sucks so I guess a lot will move to telegram etc.
Or iMessage but that is limited to iOS which not everyone has. We shall see
Whats App is owned by Facebook.
What do you expect? lol. You should expect this more on apps/products that will be developed/owned by them.
What do you expect? lol. You should expect this more on apps/products that will be developed/owned by them.
These guys... being sneaky and sleazy, start like one type of service (which I paid by the way on iOS many years ago when it wasn’t free) and change along the way to something else IS what will give it a competitive disadvantage.
It’s a messaging app, like any other but always tied to a phone number. It has end-to-end encryption by default like what Facebook secret conversations do (except facebook’s is kinda more hidden to start it), so it gave some sense of privacy... not anymore I guess.
Time to do an experiment to see how important you are to your friend group…?Too many people around me use WhatsApp, and I have only been able to migrate a small number of friends and colleagues onto telegram. We are stuck with it effectively.
The problem I run into, and many people in similar situation, is that social groups I'm involved with all use WhatsApp....it's not an easy decision, otherwise I don't use it.
Sorry what?? More insular American rubbish being spouted here. In Europe we have had unlimited texts (as in 10,000 per MONTH) for YEARS.
It's a big old world out there.
Time to do an experiment to see how important you are to your friend group…?
All my work-related chat groups are on whatsapp as well. When I headed the maths department last year, I floated the idea of having everyone communicate via telegram. There was a lot of resistance to needing to download another app. In the end, I decided not to push it.
This is one fight I cannot win, and I am not going to stake my career on it.
Signal. Not sure why you’re specifying the UK though.
So 10k is unlimited? I am not arguing that the US system costs less, but we have had unlimited talk and text for many years, meaning unlimited, not high limit. 10k sounds a lot, but for heavy texters, people involved in groups and such, that’s fewer than 1 text (in or out) per 2 minutes in a 12 hour day. Factor in spamming, and it adds up fast.
Hasn't this already been happening? I have never once entered my phone number into Facebook but any time I open messenger its asking me to confirm my phone number and its showing it correctly. Just assumed they got it from WhatsApp.
This is how modern businesses work as well as politics. You make small steps to the direction you want to go.
In government, it's the erosion of privacy. In business it's the merging.
Look at how the bells are merging back together with government permission after being broken apart.
This is how it works all over the world until the government has to step in and go "ok, you've gone too far, roll it back".