WhatsApp Reveals What Happens to Users Who Don't Agree to Upcoming Privacy Policy Changes

[videosoul]

Everyone replying here, indeed probably everyone who reads this website... indeed, anyone who has even thought about moving to Signal/Telegram is living in an echo chamber bubble. Simple as that.

The vast majority of people out there (probably billions) are simply not tech literate enough to care. They likely just accept T&Cs without thinking anything nefarious might be going on, and they certainly don’t read tech focused news.

I tried to get my family and close friends to switch to Signal... I almost succeeded, but then Signal went down for 24 hours when it has growth capacity issues.

That ruined everything. Habit and convenience took us back to WhatsApp, and there we’ve stayed.

I tried to get a big work group (150 or so members) to switch. About 50 did! But I made some enemies by “fussing about something that isn’t to do with our work”, and “upsetting the status quo”. Now all the conversations get fragmented, and happen across both platforms at different rates. It’s a mess. And that’s just one of several professional group chats I’m in on WhatsApp...

In the time I’ve been using Signal, I’ve probably started five times as many new conversations on WhatsApp. Most of them are conversations where the priority (sometimes work critical) is to “just get on with it”. I simply can’t afford to piss people off by saying “oh, sorry, would it be ok if we have this conversation on Signal instead?”.

If I delete WhatsApp entirely, I won’t just have FOMO, I’ll have “AMO”: actually missing out.

For some people like me it’s not as simple as just quitting. WhatsApp is SO commonplace in my work. If I’m the one guy on the job who can’t be added to the project group chat, then I’ll be seen as an inconvenience. That could literally cost me future work. I’ll literally be slowing productivity down.

To many people, saying I don’t have WhatsApp (“but I do have Signal!”) would be just as bad as saying I only have a landline

So I agree with the above commentator: a rebellion of tech/privacy literate people isn’t enough. We’re outnumbered by millions. Regulation is needed... governments need to care. But that’s a very murky and difficult thing to navigate too: not all governments have the same moral compass!

 

[Abazigal]

Telegram is no better. Use signal.

For me, I just want a messaging app that is natively supported on my iPad and desktop.

The funny thing is that quite a number of my friends and colleagues to have telegram installed on their phone, yet they never read their messages when I use telegram to message them.

So it’s back to WhatsApp.

 

[nexu]

I just started my process of migrating from whats app to other apps, thanks for making my decision easier zuck

 

[TobiWahn_Kenobi]

Everyone replying here, indeed probably everyone who reads this website... indeed, anyone who has even thought about moving to Signal/Telegram is living in an echo chamber bubble. Simple as that.

The vast majority of people out there (probably billions) are simply not tech literate enough to care. They likely just accept T&Cs without thinking anything nefarious might be going on, and they certainly don’t read tech focused news.

I tried to get my family and close friends to switch to Signal... I almost succeeded, but then Signal went down for 24 hours when it has growth capacity issues.

That ruined everything. Habit and convenience took us back to WhatsApp, and there we’ve stayed.

I tried to get a big work group (150 or so members) to switch. About 50 did! But I made some enemies by “fussing about something that isn’t to do with our work”, and “upsetting the status quo”. Now all the conversations get fragmented, and happen across both platforms at different rates. It’s a mess. And that’s just one of several professional group chats I’m in on WhatsApp...

In the time I’ve been using Signal, I’ve probably started five times as many new conversations on WhatsApp. Most of them are conversations where the priority (sometimes work critical) is to “just get on with it”. I simply can’t afford to piss people off by saying “oh, sorry, would it be ok if we have this conversation on Signal instead?”.

If I delete WhatsApp entirely, I won’t just have FOMO, I’ll have “AMO”: actually missing out.

For some people like me it’s not as simple as just quitting. WhatsApp is SO commonplace in my work. If I’m the one guy on the job who can’t be added to the project group chat, then I’ll be seen as an inconvenience. That could literally cost me future work. I’ll literally be slowing productivity down.

To many people, saying I don’t have WhatsApp (“but I do have Signal!”) would be just as bad as saying I only have a landline

So I agree with the above commentator: a rebellion of tech/privacy literate people isn’t enough. We’re outnumbered by millions. Regulation is needed... governments need to care. But that’s a very murky and difficult thing to navigate too: not all governments have the same moral compass!

Sorry. No. Convenience is always the best excuse not to take a stand. And so many use that excuse. That is why our world is the way it is today, excuses. I haven’t used FaceBook ever. Nor whatsapp. Missed out on a lot of conversations, lot of parties on my younger years. So be it. Real friends and professional workers will know how and when to contact you to stay in touch. The rest? Not important anyways.
we give up our rights and freedoms Inch by inch. Because it would inconvenience us to change something.
<s>And are we not entitled to everything we can grab for ourselves? </s>
Our attitude make us deserve what we have coming for us because we are to lazy to sacrifice unimportant things to keep going the way we do. Which will lead us into a rather grim and oppressive future with lots of poverty and little right. Granted, Facebook is just a small pebble in this but is is a part of this larger picture where we sign our rights away to populist parties and politicians and the global corporations. For what? So that little Ed does not need to send a short message or call us from time to time?
sorry for the rant

 

[ChrisChaval]

Telegram is no better. Use signal.

or threema

 

[MJaP]

I am in the process of deleting myself off anything related to Google or Facebook, I'm finally fed up of my private personal details being abused for profit... so WhatsApp will be next.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Everyone I know despite having iPhone’s uses WhatsApp and it really does bug me. Me and my partner both use iMessage but had no luck getting anyone else to switch.

Time to get better friends. Inform them that you will gradually begin crippling your access to messaging etc. outside of iMessage and on point X, you will be completely cut off outside of iMessage. Those that really care about you will want to remain in contact and make the effort to do so. Sadly a lot of people in our life are nothing more than empty mouthpieces that will only act when it is convenient and following the herd.

 

[one more]

Everyone I know despite having iPhone’s uses WhatsApp and it really does bug me. Me and my partner both use iMessage but had no luck getting anyone else to switch.

WhatsApp is very well known and cross-platform, that is probably why. Imagine having used it for years with your own lists, groups, etc. and having to shift most of it over. If you have time & skills - sure, if not - people might be stuck with their WhatsApp setups.

 

[rgeneral]

For me, I just want a messaging app that is natively supported on my iPad and desktop.

The funny thing is that quite a number of my friends and colleagues to have telegram installed on their phone, yet they never read their messages when I use telegram to message them.

So it’s back to WhatsApp.

If they text you on WhatsApp, don’t read them.

 

[arvinsim]

Create a dang iPad app!

 

[loby]

I think the harsh reality is that most don't care , they click "Agree, Agree, Agree" on most of the popups they will ever get from any big App , assuming that big Apps will never do shady things, this is just a broad day light robbery of private information being done for everyone to see and it goes unpunished , Apple will not be enough to stop Facebook from gathering and abusing private information , it will need to be regulated in the law to have any chance to succeed , as you can see Facebook are willing to bet that most ppl will "Agree" to their agenda rather then move to another messaging app.

Regulation is way behind on this , imagine a world where you buy an Oven and you are obligated to allow the Oven company to use a microphone to hear everything you do in your home and a camera to watch it , that is if you want to use said over to cook your food , sure there are other Oven companies but they are small companies you never used and are lacking features and what not (I,e a lesser product) - I guess we can do better analogies here , but you get the idea.

This is basically where we are now , you text a friend about a new car you saw on the highway in a messaging app , 5 min goes by and you are bombarded with Car commercials in every online interaction you have for the foreseeable future , disgusting.

This is true, I noticed I was messaging someone and talking about a product and literally five minutes later, ads started showing on the side about what I was messaging about. The A.I. Behind the scenes scanning through everything is learning..kind of like Skynet....

 

[fabian9]

I wish Apple would release iMessage as a cross platform messaging app. I'm using four messaging apps regularly now because my contacts have split between the different apps.

whilst I’d also love to see iMessage become cross platform, I feel that this would only add to the problem of having too many cross platform messaging apps on my phone, with no real “leader” that most people use. At the moment unfortunately this leader is WhatsApp.

there is so little product differentiation between the “other” apps, that none of them will become the new defacto standard app to use. iMessage is the same unfortunately.

In my opinion the best outcome of this for the user would be for Facebook to be forced to part ways with WhatsApp (and Instagram for that matter). I’m afraid that’s unlikely to happen though.

 

[one more]

The weird thing: local companies and public services are finally ready to adopt chat... and of course they’re choosing WhatsApp. 🙈

I do not find it weird, as WhatsApp was one of the pioneers amongst the multi-platform chatting apps. Only Facebook really know about WhatsApp real uptake worldwide, so I guess they feel quite comfortable gambling that even if they do lose some users, their show will go on. We need to remember that Facebook’s business model is finding out what we like and then feeding us targeted ads. This is where Facebook get their money from - selling ads. Google are not any better, it is just that they pedal it all through search, rather than messaging. As someone here has mentioned, I would also like iMessage to be available to everyone for free, regardless of their platform. For now, however, we still need to have a bunch of messaging apps installed and there are new ones popping up as we speak, like Clubhouse, which seems to be the new craze. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

Did you miss the obvious sarcasm in that post?

Not that obvious!

 

[ProfessionalFan]

I now have more messaging apps on my iPhone than I have friends.

Same and I only have 1 messaging app

 

[one more]

Time to get better friends. Inform them that you will gradually begin crippling your access to messaging etc. outside of iMessage and on point X, you will be completely cut off outside of iMessage. Those that really care about you will want to remain in contact and make the effort to do so. Sadly a lot of people in our life are nothing more than empty mouthpieces that will only act when it is convenient and following the herd.

What about your friends who use Android?

 

[Apple_Robert]

What about your friends who use Android?

I only have two family members who use Android and when they communicate with me, they don't use WhatsApp. They use their default messaging app. And any coworkers who need to contact me do the same. I made it very clear early on, that I do not and will not use WhatsApp or anything else FB related.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I only have two family members who use Android and when they communicate with me, they don't use WhatsApp. They use their default messaging app. And any coworkers who need to contact me do the same. I made it very clear early on, that I do not and will not use WhatsApp or anything else FB related.

So you now use other messaging apps for business purchases and contacting official business numbers?

 

[Apple_Robert]

So you now use other messaging apps for business purchases and contacting official business numbers?

I use the default messaging app 99% of the time or Signal when I need better security for classified information.

 

[dlondon]

whilst I’d also love to see iMessage become cross platform, I feel that this would only add to the problem of having too many cross platform messaging apps on my phone, with no real “leader” that most people use. At the moment unfortunately this leader is WhatsApp.

there is so little product differentiation between the “other” apps, that none of them will become the new defacto standard app to use. iMessage is the same unfortunately.

In my opinion the best outcome of this for the user would be for Facebook to be forced to part ways with WhatsApp (and Instagram for that matter). I’m afraid that’s unlikely to happen though.

iMessage could become a leader in some territories because it has the advantage of already being installed on iPhones, iPads and Macs. That gives the users some incentive to use the app. The issue is the people that a large proportion of the market doesn't have access to iMessage. I think iMessage would be popular on Android devices but we won't know unless it's released. With all the furore about WhatsApp/Facebook privacy, now would be a great time to release it, but I agree with you that it's unlikely to happen.

Apple has previously taken the approach of keeping services on their own devices, but they seem more open to offering services on other devices (Android, Amazon, Google and an array of TV devices). Of course, there is money in doing so which is why Apple does it. Opening up iMessage is not going to be a direct income stream for Apple but it could encourage uptake of other Apple services and products (Android users with Macs might be more likely to subscribe to Apple Music rather than Google or Spotify). Apple Watch on Android opens up a whole new market for the product (and would have a functional messaging app built in).

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I am in the process of deleting myself off anything related to Google or Facebook, I'm finally fed up of my private personal details being abused for profit... so WhatsApp will be next.

I'm curious how this "abuse" is affecting you in day-to-day life, to the point that you're "fed up"?

 

[now i see it]

There's over 1.2 billion users of TikTok - the most invasive tracking app ever created - and its users couldn't care less.
Facebook has nothing to worry about. Its addicted sheep don't care what it does with their usage data.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I use the default messaging app 99% of the time or Signal when I need better security for classified information.

I never use text messaging for transactions which is what I believe the concerns here are for WhatsApp. All my messages are for personal conversations apart from replying to automated messages for the doctors/dentist but these are done via standard SMS anyway.

 

[mungo2k]

So something said on Telegram could come back and bite you in the backside if you ever traveled through the UAE - despite the promises of end to end encryption. That promise - is only as good as the pressure put on the owners from a local "government" - and the local government are not too happy about any kind of encryption in the public's hands.

I'm starting to really dislike Telegram. Messaging is NOT end-to-end encrypted by default on Telegram anyway, only if you select it on a per-conversation basis. But the thing I hate the most is that I'm starting to get regular spam from random "ladies" who are apparently "2.5 miles away" according to Telegram, but from their (sometimes verging on soft porn) profile images looking more like they are in Russian apartments. I think with some very careful editing of my privacy settings I may have stopped this now, but an app that allows this with default settings is not one I would recommend to the average consumer.

I just wish WhatsApp was not so clumsy for use on anything other than your main phone. The endless barcode scanning could surely be replaced with something better? I feel like Telegram had the process of adding new devices sorted out very well.

 

[skir]

I wish Apple would release iMessage as a cross platform messaging app. I'm using four messaging apps regularly now because my contacts have split between the different apps.

I wish Apple would stop entangle SMS with their messaging service of doubtful usefulness. I want to send SMS when I need it. Not just for Android people. For anyone having a cellphone but not mobile internet at the moment.