Wait, who owns WhatsApp again?
checks
Oh.
Got rid of that shit just in time, it seems
Yay EU
Well, this is /MildlyInfuriating and not /Privacy, so I’ll just say that I very much don’t like Facebook and all its spinoff products (or acquired, in the case of WhatsApp).
I will say, Facebook didn’t spend $21 billion on WhatsApp and not expect some kind of return on that investment. Classic WhatsApp charged $1 a year. There’s no way that’s profitable. I don’t think it asks for that money anymore. I think just selling your data/snooping on your business is enough.
There is a somewhat interesting solution, though it’s hardly cheap, or practical in many cases. Have one phone be your daily driver and you’re signed into it with your personal accounts and you have stuff on it you trust. Then you have another phone that is not so easily trusted. You sign in to the provider (be it Apple or Google) with a dummy account that is not related to you, and you install these apps you don’t trust. You don’t give the phone location permissions, and you don’t activate it as a cell phone (no SIM card or eSIM). You use it as a WiFi device and hotspot it off your phone or home WiFi. Do the shady stuff (e.g. WhatsApp, TikTok, etc.) on that. If your main phone has a VPN on it, even better, because the other phone can use network location to help identify you. If you’re always in different places, good luck with that.
The main problem with this (from a stock android perspective) is Google play services. Your private phone/daily driver would literally have to be a non-stock rom or one that doesn’t come with Google play services installed at all. Because otherwise Google and other companies linked to them will fingerprint your device and link it that way because those two devices are often in the same place at the same time or on the same network at the same or similar times etc. The and even when you think you’ve given the apps no permissions, Google has a habit of turning this stuff on (location data, telemetry etc) and gathering it in the background.
https://www.howtogeek.com/how-google-tracks-and-scans-everything-on-your-android-device/
I use android and have work mode enabled that only has contacts for WhatsApp.
The personal side of my phone has all my contacts and has aurora store, new pipe etc…
Been getting them since 2016. Whatsapp is like the default online business platform for almost all small to medium size businesses. (at least in India) That’s when Meta decided to bring the Whatsapp Business app.
Yep in Latin America too. Almost all businesses in Colombia use whatsapp. It’s unlimited use included in most cellular plans. Everyone uses it as default for messaging and calls
In that case it’s not WhatsApp itself, it’s a business using your phone number to message you.
If you open the chat and click the name on top, there should be a toggle to turn off “Offers and announcements” for that account.
If not (or you don’t wanna receive any messages from the sender at all), just block them and make sure to check the “Didn’t sign up” box.
Dies WhatsApp work in GrapheneOS?
Yes, you need the sandboxed Play services and have to gove it a few extra permissions but it works fine after that.
Signal is way better and I wish it was more common for people to use.
I only have it because the neighborhood group chat uses it. I can’t convince hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds to switch to Signal unfortunately. Some of them barely know how to use a smartphone.
The selling point is unlimited video chat, unlike free zoom.
All you really need is to get a few people on board
We used to say the same thing about Messenger.
Try and give them a hand with it. The app has a very low cognitive load and a very simplified UI. Once you set it, its easy to forget its any different. I reminded the older folks in my circle that they could look at it as a guaranteed way to speak to family, and regular texts are more of the spam that come through
My family moved as soon as I asked last year; but my old friend group is rather stubborn.
i tried to convince my family and friends to use signal, only my parents wanted to, so still a win :3
Mompop always come thoo don’t they ❤️
There’s nothing to stop anyone sending you a message on WhatsApp if they have your number, be they an individual or a company.
But it IS absolutely infuriating - not because it’s an advert, but because I don’t want any aspect of my communication with companies to take place on third-party proprietary closed platforms of which that company has no ownership or data control and which would require me to have an account with said platform.
I’m sure many people love being able to contact customer support by shooting them a DM on Instagram, but to me that’s wholly unacceptable.
If companies want to talk to me it should be through email or SMS only - because those are the only methods which are provider-agnostic.
Email and SMS are like the original federated systems. (And the postal service is, too!)
WhatsApp is an absolute menace here in India. 😣
Username checks out
They can’t send messages out of the blue, you have to contact the company via whatsapp first, after which they have a 24 hour window to reply. Marketing messages are opt in.
I guess that’s part of WhatsApp’s terms of service. Good to know, thanks.
Either way, my dislike for corporations using closed platforms still stands. I really wish we had some modern, secure and featureful version of SMS - a federated direct messaging system that everyone was on, and yet nobody owned.
I had one of these marketing messages from Amazon this morning. I’ve never contacted them through WhatsApp, and as far as I can remember, have never contacted them outside of their apps. I definitely haven’t contacted them with my phone number.
They have my phone number, but it’s supposed to be for delivery issues, and I’ve withdrawn all advertising and marketing consent.
EDIT: I just checked, and I was automatically opted in to WhatsApp marketing, despite having turned off all other marketing 😤
Maybe thats a law where you live but ive definitely been contacted by a bunch of companies through wpp without having contacted them first.
I blocked Whatsapp in Whatsapp and so far I got no new messages from them.
Same
Syncthing fork!
As for whatsapp, well it is not ads per se FROM whatsapp but rather them now sending these VIA whatsapp instead of mail or SMS.
Yes, but I didn’t sign up to receive ads in WhatsApp, nor did I agree when creating either account.
I see. So all the spam you receive in your email and sms is because you signed up and agreed to receive it?
Bold of you to assume I get spam in my emails or SMS
Upvote for Levellers and Syncthing 👍
Time to teach your friends and family that if they’re going to keep playing on the corporate intranet then they need to migrate from time to time to stay ahead of the tide of enshitification.
Or they could join the free internet that is actually by and for people, but far be it from me…
My family already moved to Signal about a year ago, and I have an online friend who I talk to over Tox; but my friends from high school pretty much only use WhatsApp, Instagram, ans TikTok, and they have never been open to my suggestions of switching to Signal and the Fediverse.
It’s really just ads by said company, not whatsapp. But whatsapp is partially blamed because they have system to do this, and since some service that you subbed require your phone number, they simply used the data they collected to send you ads via whatsapp. It’s like spam mail from service you give your email to.
