I'm that dad, I'm afraid. The fact that the app demands full access to all contacts on your phone to work nicely is just evil. And people happily give meta the full contact details of their family, doctor, bank, boss etc. - without those people's permission. The value in the harvested social graph is huge
Fair enough, but my Dad sends normal texts because he thinks WhatsApp is too complicated to use, or just because he forgets he has it, not for any security concerns... So you're not quite the same!
I joined WhatsApp after many years of holding out, there was simply no other practical way to keep in touch with many people. The ways I mitigate the privacy concerns are:
I got an international eSIM, for the purpose of cheap roaming abroad but since I now had this extra phone number not tied to my identity, I used it for WhatsApp.
I installed WhatsApp using Island so it has access to just the contacts in the “work profile”, that is, just people who have WhatsApp anyway.
Despite all of its privacy concerns, one can’t really get rid of it if everyone around is using it as the default communication mode, unless you’re a social outcast. The thing with communication apps is that they aren’t a personal choice.
It is possible without beeing a social outcast. Element, Signal, Telegram and Threema cover most of my contacts. If there really is someone with only Whatsapp, I write a SMS.
In my experience everyone has at least one alternative to Whatsapp.
The day it was bought by Meta(Facebook) people should have moved away if you ask me.
Then again that's easy for me to say as someone who doesn't talk to anyone and so doesn't need any messenger apps. However I hear Signal is good.
Google is pushing RCS pretty hard in a lot of markets. It supplants SMS functionality, and in Google’s own “Messages” app, it operates in a way that the end user doesn’t have to actively select one oro the other.
RCS also has all (or most of) the features you see in other apps like WhatsApp, etc. It has the potential for end-to-end encryption in the spec, and Google says it’s on by default when both parties in a conversation support it, but I don’t know if that’s actually true or marketing bullshit.
Here’s to hoping Google will stick with this one long enough for the standard to take hold. RCS is what messaging should be.
RCS depends on having mobile data, right? What happens if I send a RCS message to someone without data? For me SMS has been a backup solution if I need to be sure the recipient receives the message immediately.
Yeah. RCS requires a data connection – wifi, mobile data, whatever. Specifically, an internet connection. It is, basically, an internet service.
I can’t speak to a lot of different implementations, but Google’s “Messenger” app falls back to SMS transparently. Since RCS is a data service, it has the ability to see if the recipient can receive RCS messages and act appropriately.
It’s also worth noting that data coverage in the modernized world is pretty wide-spread. There aren’t really any more analog cell services, and even the 3G networks are being shut down in favor or 4G / LTE / VoLTE and 5G networks, which are data connections.
It’s it not the case that Meta has escrow encryption keys for Whatsapp? This used to be a thing, right? It was never trustworthy because they could always decrypt your comms.
In europe literally everybody uses whatsapp you wont be able to do anything without it (docotrs, food delivery, literally every person like friends and familly, corona test results, company customer support, the list goes on)
That’s grossly exaggerated. I live in western Europe and never once used WhatsApp. There are very occasional frictions, like people being surprised I don’t have it. Then when I explain that it’s operated by Facebook, they are also surprised and sometimes are willing to quit themselves.
Friends and family, sure But in the UK nothing official is using WhatsApp. It’s all SMS or email. In which countries do companies use WhatsApp for customer support?
Also all of South America. Everything from ordering pizza to scheduling a doctor’s appointment. Not having WhatsApp means you are not able to participate in society
There’s a lot of little things like that, that are very different here and we just take for granted without thinking twice. I’m in Argentina and have noticed a ton of stuff like this.
A random example is there’s a handle next to the stove where you close the gas line when it’s not in use. They don’t just have an always on supply of naturals gas ready to leak from the burner if you accidentally twist the knob.
Another one is the freezer will seal itself shut for about 15 seconds after being opened. I thought it was broken the first time I experienced this and tried forcing it open.
The people I most care for use Discord. I worry I will lose constant with most of them if I stop using that too but I’ve never tried to get other to use something else.
in my immediate family (brother and parents) we use signal, but everyone else in my life still uses whatsapp. sadly the zucc has a monopolyomn messaging in europe.
I mean yeah, but i would have no contacts to anyone, here in germany we literally use nothing else, contact to teachers for assignments is lost, couldnt text with my family, would have no contact to my friends etc
Not only everybody, but companies, banks and goverment instances are using it too. Some apps that sends their OTP via WhatsApp. Some companies and instances only reachable.via whatsapp bot and whatnot.
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