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Everybody in most of 3rd world uses WhatsApp for everything. The Brazilian Conselho Federal de Medicina (main medical association) published a memo telling doc

Everybody in most of 3rd world uses WhatsApp for everything. The Brazilian Conselho Federal de Medicina (main medical association) published a memo telling doctors not to use it, but very few will pay attention. As always happens in Brazil only a tragedy can make people notice a problem. A couple lawsuits, some national scandal and people will learn. Besides, there is also a cultural element here: privacy is a lot more valued in anglo-saxon cultures than in Latino cultures. Brazilians, Italians and others are a lot less concerned about things such as personal space, body contact, exhibiting in a small bikini, going almost naked in a Carnaval parade, etc. Edit: Just for HN to have an idea of how big WhatsApp is: since May, the number of cell phone lines in Brazil is falling. More than 10 million lines are canceled. Young people are giving up on voice services and using exclusively WhatsApp for communications. Source: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fg1.globo.com%2Ftecnologia%2Fnoticia%2F2015%2F12%2Fefeito-whatsapp-e-crise-matam-10-milhoes-de-linhas-de-celular-no-brasil.html&edit-text=&act=url https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...

antirez 11y ago
More than 3rd world is "world but US and Japan". And a few more excluded countries. But WhatsApp is the default everywhere.
fiatjaf 11y ago
The problem is maybe that people _think_ it is safe to send "personal" messages. No one would send personal information through Facebook public posts, but if Facebook has a "private" or "group" setting then people will trust that thing is really not being seen by anybody. I don't use Facebook or WhatsApp to not encourage these stupidities, but some other day a friend told me she was very annoyed by the fact that advertisign suddenly began to appear on Facebook about a topic she had just mentioned in a "private" chat conversation.
alister 11y ago
>Besides, there is also a cultural element here: privacy is a lot more valued in anglo-saxon cultures than in Latino cultures. Brazilians, Italians and others are a lot less concerned about things such as personal space ... Speaking specifically about Brazilians, privacy works differently but so does "trust". Brazilians prefer to use intermediaries to establish trust much more so than North Americans: - You cannot rent an apartment in Brazil without going through a broker (unless you know the owner personally). Brazilians will pay a middleman for some reason. In Canada and the USA, it's the opposite -- almost nobody uses a broker; the renter and the owner deal with each other. - Professional jobs like software development go through recruitment firms almost exclusively. Whereas a big company would hire directly in the USA, in Brazil they'll use one of the Brazilian recruiting firms and pay a large fee. And professionals (such as programmers) will browse the recruiting firm's site and won't think to apply directly to the company. - Brazilians are unlikely to invite a stranger they met (over the Internet, by phone, or even in person) into their home. Even if the person is a professional business contact. In Canada/USA, people are much more open to inviting a business contact into their home. But if the Brazilian has an introduction to the person by a mutual friend, then the person is no longer a stranger; he is immediately welcome. Both privacy and trust work differently in Brazil.
- threatofrain 11y ago
  I wanted to address one of your subpoints, which is that although some landlords in the US deal with renters directly, many turn to a 3rd-party management company.

antirez 11y ago

More than 3rd world is "world but US and Japan". And a few more excluded countries. But WhatsApp is the default everywhere.

fiatjaf 11y ago

The problem is maybe that people _think_ it is safe to send "personal" messages. No one would send personal information through Facebook public posts, but if Facebook has a "private" or "group" setting then people will trust that thing is really not being seen by anybody. I don't use Facebook or WhatsApp to not encourage these stupidities, but some other day a friend told me she was very annoyed by the fact that advertisign suddenly began to appear on Facebook about a topic she had just mentioned in a "private" chat conversation.

alister 11y ago

>Besides, there is also a cultural element here: privacy is a lot more valued in anglo-saxon cultures than in Latino cultures. Brazilians, Italians and others are a lot less concerned about things such as personal space ... Speaking specifically about Brazilians, privacy works differently but so does "trust". Brazilians prefer to use intermediaries to establish trust much more so than North Americans: - You cannot rent an apartment in Brazil without going through a broker (unless you know the owner personally). Brazilians will pay a middleman for some reason. In Canada and the USA, it's the opposite -- almost nobody uses a broker; the renter and the owner deal with each other. - Professional jobs like software development go through recruitment firms almost exclusively. Whereas a big company would hire directly in the USA, in Brazil they'll use one of the Brazilian recruiting firms and pay a large fee. And professionals (such as programmers) will browse the recruiting firm's site and won't think to apply directly to the company. - Brazilians are unlikely to invite a stranger they met (over the Internet, by phone, or even in person) into their home. Even if the person is a professional business contact. In Canada/USA, people are much more open to inviting a business contact into their home. But if the Brazilian has an introduction to the person by a mutual friend, then the person is no longer a stranger; he is immediately welcome. Both privacy and trust work differently in Brazil.

threatofrain 11y ago
I wanted to address one of your subpoints, which is that although some landlords in the US deal with renters directly, many turn to a 3rd-party management company.