Read this article if you still didn’t get the time to analyze the privacy policy of WhatsApp.
I was one of the only (maybe only) people in the world to breakdown and explain the whole policy.
Good piece. It seems like they actually are intimately familiar with
Since then anybody joining WhatsApp has to read its 8,000-word user agreement find the specific clause on sharing their data and then opt out of this clause. Virtually nobody goes through this tortuous exercise and therefore overwhelming number of its users today have their data shared with Facebook.
However there still existed a provision for users to opt out if they went through the torture of reading their legal jargon filled 8,000-word privacy policy.
The proposed change removes even this choice.
It would be desirable to evolve this oft repeated sentiment “It is time to examine the risk that data monopolies pose not only to our privacy but also our economy and polity” into actionable plans and identify who is responsible for their execution.
edit: thanks for sharing this—I just convinced my last business contact on WA to switch our communication channel and finally deleted my account.
That was a good read. I wish people here in Brasil gave a damn about their data and made the switch. But WhatsApp is so big here that deleting the app and refusing to use it is basically letting yourself get unemployed and with no relationships.
True, but establishing a parallel medium of communication would be a good start. How would people react if you asked them to write you on Signal or some other WhatsApp alternative? It has been a painful process for me, that literally took years, but now I have most of my chats on Signal and Telegram. At some point I’ve also been able to delete my WhatsApp account for like two years
Not even a chance. I even made a pretty extensive post on my job about it (I work with social media for a radio) but didn’t even catch the interest of any of my friends. I use Signal pretty much to talk to the one friend I managed to make the switch (since he was already interested in doing so).
I find a lot of my Brazilian friends use Telegram now.
Similarly many of my friends have started to use Telegram now. Here in Finland seems to be a vibrant Telegram scene around public groups and channels
For me, I only use it for the couple of bots I use and to talk to the couple of friends who use it.
Some of my work colleagues mentioned using it as their “personal messenger” while keeping WhatsApp for work/college related groups. The problem is Telegram is almost worse, considering the encryption aspect of it.
If all these points could be condensed into a poster, it would have good informative value.
It would be easyer if they said we are going to see all of your writting from fb / instagram / whatsapp are you sure you want to continue ? instead of expensive words
This is a great read. Thank You
