Lies, lies, lies from Mark Zuckerberg again. Just like how they tried to negatively spin Apple's privacy approach to hurt small businesses. What BS
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.
WhatsApp Affirms User Privacy Following Backlash Over Data Sharing With Facebook
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Just in: Big Tech is going after Telegram next. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1253876?__twitter_impression=true
...and then they’re coming for you.
...and then they’re coming for you.
If it cannot read my messages then how come shows me ads about a product I wanted to buy I discussed about with my friend only on WhatsApp?
Yeah, I kinda agree. People have gotten lazy, and if it doesn't fit their current laziness, they just flush it. (No wonder the world is in such a state, huh) I remember MySpace. It sucked. I'm sorry, but it just sucked. There was no way to save it either. News Corp bought it, and took a bath on it. Last I heard, some company in Brazil owned it. So, yeah, that worked out well. (I see DirecTV ending just as unceremoniously too)
People have transferred their allegiance to their computer, rather than the TV, and it's been for the worse.
There are no rules on what Alexa does with your every utterance. Corporations 'screwup', and your entire life is dumped onto the internnnet, and their management, and investors, escape all blame or accountability.
The internet has become both 'white knight' and 'skid row'. Huge multi-billion dollar corporations have invested a lot of money into shielding their evil and those that benefit from it. The FCC has almost entirely declared the internet the Wild Wild West.
But, I've had a glass (or two) of a really good Merlot, so I'll stop posting tonight, and wish everyone a good evening!
Cheers...
Interesting but at least to me, an ultimately futile attempt at damage control, I’m on signal now and hopefully for the better, we’ll see
just wanted to point something out for those who hate Zuckerberg (I’m not a fan either)... before decrying him as the devil, consider the person who actually made Facebook what it is - Sean Price. I’m not going to try and moralise here but I will point out he was (with Shaun Fanning) behind Napster, moved on to make Plaxo, then became President of Facebook - actually turning it into the business it is rather than an idea stolen from the Winklevoss twins, following that he ended up at Spotify...
just wanted to point something out for those who hate Zuckerberg (I’m not a fan either)... before decrying him as the devil, consider the person who actually made Facebook what it is - Sean Price. I’m not going to try and moralise here but I will point out he was (with Shaun Fanning) behind Napster, moved on to make Plaxo, then became President of Facebook - actually turning it into the business it is rather than an idea stolen from the Winklevoss twins, following that he ended up at Spotify...
Looks like WA is already in damage control. India being the largest user base of WA, they have issued Full Front Page Ads in almost all newspaper. Indian user base( In India and settled out of India) matters for WA and quite a few have started installing Telegram, but no one is moving out of WA yet. Everyone is too involved in the WA groups. I, myself must be on 26 groups out of which 15~16 are active daily. The utility of WA is for Group usage, rather than 1 on 1 for which may options are available. Banks have Business Accounts on WA through which they communicate with Customers( I suppose they will stop this going forward). India is the only country currently, where WA has Whatsapp pay for user to user payment transfers.
This is exactly the issue. Depending on what country you're in, it's not easy to WhatsApp. In the US it's easy because WhatsApp isn't widely used. But in places like SE Asia and middle East and African WhatsApp is integrated in every day life from work, school and social life.
I signed up for signal today and I literally only have 5 contacts who are using.
This couldn't be more accurate.
Facebook and all its subsidiaries, TikTok and the like are the scourge of society and the cause of several broken generations.
This couldn't be more apparent in the last half decade through the misinformation and lies spread through Brexit, the last two US elections, the UK elections, COVID-19 and more.
I despise them.
Already Deleted Wattsapp and moved to signal. Took a lot of my regular contacts with me and have now set up groups on Signal, bad move by FaceBook taking a hard line with customers is never a good idea
Following backlash after changing its terms and privacy policy to consolidate a significant amount of data sharing with Facebook, WhatsApp is now assuring users about the privacy measures built into its app.
Last week, WhatsApp began informing users of updates to the app's terms of service and privacy policy. The updated agreements, which users must consent to in order to continue using WhatsApp, explicitly give parent company Facebook access to a large amount of user data. While WhatsApp has shared some user data with Facebook for years, this update consolidates data sharing for all users, including those that chose to opt-out of data sharing with Facebook in the past.
The updated terms help WhatsApp to integrate more closely into Facebook's family of products, as it aims to provide a more coherent experience to users across services, and enables the company to use gathered information on all users to display targeted ads. The widely-reported change was met with an outcry of displeasure on social media, leading to a rush to download rival messaging app Signal, and has even sparked an antitrust investigation in Turkey.
Via posts on social media, WhatsApp is now assuring users that "Our privacy policy update does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family." It has also added to its FAQ to address users' privacy concerns relating to data sharing with Facebook.
The FAQ explains that WhatsApp and Facebook cannot see a user's private messages or hear their calls. Logs of who users are messaging and calling are not retained and shared location, contact information, and group membership is kept private.
WhatsApp suggests that the majority of data sharing with Facebook is derived from communicating with businesses that use hosting services from Facebook or after using Facebook-branded commerce services such as Shops. Either may result in targeted ads being shown to users.
However, it is noticeable that WhatsApp has mostly focused on what data is not shared with Facebook, rather than what is. The FAQ update does not acknowledge the fact, as stated under the updated privacy policy, that WhatsApp shares device and interaction information, IP address, and unspecified "other information" with Facebook.
Article Link: WhatsApp Affirms User Privacy Following Backlash Over Data Sharing With Facebook
Those figures goes to prove just how valuable peoples personal information is in that Facebook uses it as a tradable commodity'. It's your data and you have no rights as to who buys it, who sells it and who uses it and worse of all, you make no money off your own personal information.
Every business on the planet looks at Facebooks business model and see's how can they do the same thing, make money off their customers data, which is why when you look at the terms and conditions of ANY company or business they will have provisions in those T&C's allowing them to sell your information to others.
Intel is going to change direction though, and they are not exactly down and out yet.
I want Facebook to go further down than Intel.
One thing to note, everyone here is hating on Facebook but in reality Amazon and Google are not any better. Google in fact is worse because that cthulhu tentacles' are gripping on people's emails, map locations, video history, search history, smartphone's operating systems, web browser, cloud storage, even hardware like wifi routers and Chromecast dongles..there is even more...
Telegram is not as secure as you think+they will monetize it soon by displaying ads.
Telegram is not as secure as you think+they will monetize it soon by displaying ads.
Fellow European here - I can't really answer you questions, I don't think anybody can, but heres my take:
You can trust that Facebook will use every way possible within the TOS to collect, analyze, store and use every single bit of data with Facebooks interests ahead of yours. This is proven over and over again.
If you (rightly so) feel uncomfortable - stop using their services. There are many alternatives, and yes, I know, cutting Whatsapp can be difficult because most people don't really care about their privacy (yet). But do what feels right for you - communication will work out in the end anyways. Think about what you might actually miss out on, and you'll soon realize that it's not too much or too important. If it is, well then you'll have to either accept FOMO or the Whatsapp TOS.
I'm 45, my entire childhood and most of my youth was without cell phones, internet etc - as much as I enjoy and appreciate all of the new forms of communication, I also quite easily get by without them, probably because for half of my life they didn't exist in their current form.
I stopped using Whatsapp a few days ago. Have been a happy user since day one. Yes - I will probably miss out on something. No - it's not that important to me. I'm still available via phone, text, email and even analog mail. Since I quit other social media things I've noticed that all the important stuff reach me anyways, I just have to wait a bit longer sometimes.
Don't use a service that makes you uncomfortable! I felt the same as you're describing, and after I stopped using all social media (and I was a very light user to begin with) these feelings of discomfort is mainly gone. I only use Linkedin nowadays, which I more or less have to for work. But only on my work PC, and only during work hours.
Trust your gut feeling.
Or another analogy is for Apple to fail, like the predictions of some, when Tim Cook took the reign in 2011. (Every business should fail like Intel and Apple)
My main buddies and I agreed to move to signal. Although I have a lot of fun stuff on whatsapp, in about a week it is being deleted.
In the end it might be back to imessage for me.
I simply can’t stop using WhatsApp as it’s used by everybody I know, including for business use. I use Facebook too and have done since 2006, so can’t really complain too much personally. I also use Amazon and Google which are just as bad for monitoring you.
What you describe there is not the platform at fault but more the people or companies that use them for their own gains. The solution is to stop people having the ability to voice their own views and agendas to the masses. Social media is just the carrier really.
Business needs, that is quite true. I have worked few places in manufacturing. Sustaining teams are mostly using WhatsApp group and I am fortunately not in those chat groups. It will be so restless even at midnight.
Zoom also has risk of privacy issues. With current WFH arrangement, better stay away from that too.
We can just limit usage/de-risk to certain extent.
That’s why winning lottery is one of my need to stay off the grid.
Winning lottery basically becomes a need to steer off from the daily work and life
The problem we have in the UK and Europe is that literally everyone uses whatsapp, so its hard to get people to implement this positive change and move over to Signal or other messaging apps. People get stuck in their comfort zones. Me and the missus have installed Signal and its pretty good, nice and simple to use (wallpapers would be nice tho). I have a few other contacts who use it. My plan is to slowly completely migrate over to it and get my family/friends and colleagues to do the same. For facebook i only use the website sparingly, the sooner it goes the way of myspace the better.
Here’s to breaking out one day 🍻
I’m no software developer but can relate as I C# a lot in game dev, shaders for vfx and generic art.
Not rich by any means but I have no wife/kids/personal-home-mortgage; just a cheap single room rent and this allows me to save over half of my income per month (to then burn on Apple products)
That Homer lifestyle in a main city hub, say Austin, I think it’s translates to needing over $200K? If someone can chime a light on that because I think too it isn’t achievable anymore with an ok-paid technician’s job.
It is not about famility and friend, there are also business that use Whatsapp and it is always conveniant to drop a message in order to cancle a reservation or ask if a product is in stock or if their business is open. I personally have all popular messaging apps installed on my phone so people can always reach me in Telegram, Signal, Facetime or whatever if they wish. The problem is that any such transition is slow, and many people just dont like changes.