What I'd like to see is for Messages to be opened up to other apps -- as iChat was on the Mac when it came out. So you could plug in, say, Signal or whatever, but also have iMessage and (as a fallback) SMS -- but all in one place.Signal and iMessage!
I wonder what lawmakers and regulators will say about this. WhatsApp’s acquisition by Facebook was only accepted when Facebook agreed to never share data between the services.
indeed Viber severed all ties with facebook some time ago. https://www.theguardian.com/technol...-severs-ties-with-facebook-in-growing-boycottIs Vibr ok to use?
You are stuck by choice.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.![]()
Given that Whatsapp messages are end to end encrypted, I am unsure as to what data would be shared with Facebook other than your list of contacts and how many times, and when, you have called/messaged them and they have called/messaged you.
There are other regulators worldwide outside the US. Check your own facts before being so parochial.What you stated is patently false. As a condition of approving the merger, the FTC required that FaceBook obtain consent from users before changing privacy terms, and the app does exactly that.
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FTC Notifies Facebook, WhatsApp of Privacy Obligations in Light of Proposed Acquisition
The director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection notified Fawww.ftc.gov
Check your facts before posting.
The biggest problems some people face is getting all your friends to move. Might be worth just sending one more message of changing your ststus on whatsapp saying you've moved to Signal, Telegram, Viber, or back to good old SMS.
Not quite.That’s because their carriers have price-gouged them for SMS messages and they’ve had to outsource their message infrastructure to an app that Facebook provides “free” (aka in exchange for an all you can eat buffet of data).
Fortunately, US carriers never quite got around to making SMS super expensive so we don’t have to do that.
100%I thought the EU only allowed the purchase of WhatsApp back in the day if they kept the two business separate with no data sharing whatsoever???
Is that really the case? I know in many countries cell service is a fraction of what it costs here in the US. In the UK for example there are numerous unlimited data plans in the $30-40 range, but they can be found as low as $22. I always thought Europe cost less due to a greater population density, so lower infrastructure requirements per capita, until I discovered that NZ and Australia were also less than the US.That’s because their carriers have price-gouged them for SMS messages and they’ve had to outsource their message infrastructure to an app that Facebook provides “free” (aka in exchange for an all you can eat buffet of data).
Fortunately, US carriers never quite got around to making SMS super expensive so we don’t have to do that.
Who the heck pays for incoming messages?? Do you also pay your mailperson a receiving fee for the already paid postage on your mail?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.
I'd honestly go to some newspaper/police/court/whatever if I came there as a student and found out that I had to hand my location and communications data over to an American company to participate.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.
So I must be honest, I've not read much about this. Given FB owns the encrypting end, it is unreasonable that they encrypt one payload for the recipient where it is decrypted, and a second payload for FB data mining where it is also decrypted? Could they perform analysis of the message *before* it is encrypted?What data can you collect when all of your communications are end to end encrypted apart from your list of contacts and how many times you have called them?
I believe this is only happening in the USI thought the EU only allowed the purchase of WhatsApp back in the day if they kept the two business separate with no data sharing whatsoever???
No, it's happening everywhere BUT the EU + UK.I believe this is only happening in the US