this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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Privacy
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My main goal on year 2018 was delete facebook. Unfortunately im still using whatsapp just because everyone uses it and i have no other place to talk with my friends and family.
Signal, bro.
To do what exactly? Talk to myself?
I told my friends / family if they wanted to reach me, I'd be on Signal/Molly. Turns out it isn't that hard to have them download a new app and use it.
Same here, all the people I care about did. Those I don't really care about use sms to contact me if they really have to. Of course I miss out on some groups on Whatsapp, but honestly I'm glad. It's not really useful to be in a lot of Whatsapp groups, it mostly creates a lot of uninteresting messages for you to read.
Not popular enough. With Whatsapp you get to talk to pretty much everyone, from businesses to second hand sellers to your weird aunt that lives in the middle of the woods.
None of those app is popular enough anyway. You still need sms + Whatsapp + a couple of others. So adding another one is not so much of a burden. Besides, it works just like Whatsapp from a user standpoint, and no password required.
Where I live it sure as fucking hell isn't the case. Nobody uses SMS anymore, and effectively everyone uses Whatsapp.
No one is important enough to justify using WhatsApp
Not everyone can live as a hermit to fulfil their Zucc-hate boner. Some of us have lives.
Then install signal and tell them you're on there. Clearly you're important enough for people to use signal, since you have a life
Riiight, because the corner shop will start using signal just for you...
I think (do correct if wrong!) the EU has approved an interoperability law for big tech companies? So it should be just a matter of time until you can switch messaging app and still be able to communicate with people on wa and big messaging apps
Ofc if all your friends all use whatsapp zuck will still be able to read all your messages and get your phone number via your contacts... so it's only a partial solution. Still better than nothing tho.
Edit https://bgr.com/tech/whatsapp-and-facebook-messenger-are-gatekeepers-in-the-eu-prepare-to-be-confused/
That link you added is being very very negative about it and even after reading it I really don't understand why....
SMS is still a thing. You need to put your foot down to make it happen.
Edit: May the Monty Python foot squish all downvoters into elderberry jam!
Nobody uses SMS in my country.
It still works though doesn't it?
But it comes with significant social drawbacks. I'm not sure if that's really a hill worth dying on.
Is it worth having your credentials sold or stolen cuz people might think less of how they receive the same message in text form from you?
Social drawback? WTF? People already have the app necessary on their phone and they must get SMS for other things, no?
Not every country has unlimited talk and text as a widely as others. I know my husband's family uses what's app because they can always hop on their WiFi or a neighbors and talk to family, but they can't always afford to top up their minutes. The social drawback isn't that they'll look at you funny, it's that they might literally not be able to communicate with you.
Add in that some of those families also play hot potato with phones, swapping who has what phone almost weekly, something that follows the login and not the phone starts to make sense. I know there are better alternatives to what's app and don't defend it, but getting them as a whole to change apps so they can all communicate would mean a lot of work and energy I can say they don't have these days.
Probably referring to group chats and sharing media.
My point is you need to put your foot down and say "I won't use WhatsApp. If you want that functionality with me, we can use Signal, but otherwise SMS."
WhatsApp really doesn't have any features that aren't also in Signal, but Signal isn't owned by Facebook and was never a vector for zero-click access to your device (NSO's Pegasus toolkit used WhatsApp calls to get at Android phones, this was involved with Saudi Arabia's execution of Jamal Khashoggi). WhatsApp is simply not trustworthy, and a massive security risk.
SMS is unencrypted
You say that as if WhatsApp is actually secure, as if Facebook haven't filled it with backdoors. As if it wasn't the vector for zero click access to Android phones in Pegasus. SMS could not do that (although iMessages did).
Holy shit, if you're being targeted by nation states or other seriously motivated actors with Pegasus level spyware then they will get you. For everyone else, encrypted platforms like Signal or, yes, WhatsApp, are more secure than fucking SMS.