Facebook's changes to the terms of service for WhatsApp

[owen]

For my work phone I will be keeping Whatsapp. However for personal phone I will be moving to Telegram or Signal. I have been thinking of moving from whatapp for sometime now due to Facebook's involvement.

I dodged the whatsapp bullet at work long ago when I saw people were using it to avoid writing well thought out emails. Not being on whatsapp has brought me great peace. So many people get sucked in and all they do is endlessly scroll in their spare time. This is most likely a delay tactic to find a easier way to slip it in or convince everyone that targeted ads are the "new normal".

[Chris]

This is most likely a delay tactic to find a easier way to slip it in or convince everyone that targeted ads are the "new normal".

yes, also a delay tactic to make people "get over it" with time. Keep an eye on "Big Tech" fighting against Signal, Telegram and other competition.

[Arch_Angel]

yes, also a delay tactic to make people "get over it" with time. Keep an eye on "Big Tech" fighting against Signal, Telegram and other competition.

Yup. Possible buy outs in the near future.

[owen]

Even when facebook was trying to connect instagram into one account I was like nope-nope fts. They just want to link all your friends and contacts together so they can find the weak links in your network.

[carey]

TL; DR Facebook does not want Whatsapp to be an independent service. Facebook tried to force people to Messenger and kill WhatsApp.

What most are ignoring is the background composition of the whole picture. Mass media distorts memory and focus. Facebook was trying to kill Whatsapp. FB has been ordered to divest WhatsApp and Instagram instead of paying millions in fines. The ruling surprised them, accelerating decisions made to merge the operations that were made long ago.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=whatsapp+f...eaves+facebook
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=whatsapp+i...e+court+ruling
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=whatsapp+instagram+divest

FB had planned to break the law as usual, be punished with fines, have new laws tabled against such a decision so competitors will not be able to do the same. Microsoft has done this numerous times before.

Any self-respecting human would have ditched FB once they found out the founder considered them to be "dumb-f**ks". Any considerate dev would have ditched Whatsapp when they sent cease-and-desist orders to a very supporting community back in 2014 or so to stop contributing modifications and stop interacting with the code. Humans will keep making bad decisions, the more they flock together to do so.

Being forced to have WhatsApp on any of my devices brings me anguish. Email use in business is not being attended to (security and etiquette are too lax). People still think a digital signature is a picture of their handwriting on paper! Until Jamaica embraces independent, free and open standards of doing things, our tech will suck {us dry}.

At the moment, Durov wants to monetize Telegram. Knew this was coming since he refused to put the server into public domain like he said he would. Telegram is his company's creation so let that slide: he pushed client flexibility by opening the api and having free and open clients attach to the servers. If he had started a foundation long ago for donations and tax emptions etc. he would have got free money with such ease, with more reach than even the ginormous matrix protocol will be getting!

[khat17]

TL; DR Facebook does not want Whatsapp to be an independent service. Facebook tried to force people to Messenger and kill WhatsApp.

What most are ignoring is the background composition of the whole picture. Mass media distorts memory and focus. Facebook was trying to kill Whatsapp. FB has been ordered to divest WhatsApp and Instagram instead of paying millions in fines. The ruling surprised them, accelerating decisions made to merge the operations that were made long ago.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=whatsapp+f...eaves+facebook
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=whatsapp+i...e+court+ruling
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=whatsapp+instagram+divest

FB had planned to break the law as usual, be punished with fines, have new laws tabled against such a decision so competitors will not be able to do the same. Microsoft has done this numerous times before.

Any self-respecting human would have ditched FB once they found out the founder considered them to be "dumb-f**ks". Any considerate dev would have ditched Whatsapp when they sent cease-and-desist orders to a very supporting community back in 2014 or so to stop contributing modifications and stop interacting with the code. Humans will keep making bad decisions, the more they flock together to do so.

Being forced to have WhatsApp on any of my devices brings me anguish. Email use in business is not being attended to (security and etiquette are too lax). People still think a digital signature is a picture of their handwriting on paper! Until Jamaica embraces independent, free and open standards of doing things, our tech will suck {us dry}.

At the moment, Durov wants to monetize Telegram. Knew this was coming since he refused to put the server into public domain like he said he would. Telegram is his company's creation so let that slide: he pushed client flexibility by opening the api and having free and open clients attach to the servers. If he had started a foundation long ago for donations and tax emptions etc. he would have got free money with such ease, with more reach than even the ginormous matrix protocol will be getting!

Nice that you brought up back the older things. While Signal is where everyone is flocking to - I'd say go with something else like Sylo.

https://www.sylo.io/wallet/

[Chris]

Whatsapp has posted an update blog on their plans to roll out their updated terms of service and privacy policy ... https://blog.whatsapp.com/more-infor...out-our-update

[khat17]

Whatsapp has posted an update blog on their plans to roll out their updated terms of service and privacy policy ... https://blog.whatsapp.com/more-infor...out-our-update

Considering the security history regarding user information - FB - I'm skeptical about the wording of the information provided. Especially as the original persons from WA have left FB and one of them even said to delete WA. I agree that details are encrypted, but the metrics collected can be used to personally identify traits to "tailor experiences".

In the end - it's a matter of how much you have to hide - or how concerned you are about privacy. Signal and WA use the same encryption, but WA captures far more info. Signal is not the only option, but it's the most popular one. If things are to evolve then changes will need to be made. IMO - WA is trying to be like WeChat in China. If they manage to pull that off then the teething pains will be worth it for them. They will become the mega-app which does everything. Apparently from the reminders given by @carey - they wanted that with FB messenger. Having the larger base with WA they moved the project over to that. We'll see.

[owen]

well the update is good right? or is it just rewording?