4 ms·

Just out of interest, why are you keeping your chat history? What for? All my chats are set to burn after 6 months as standard but most are shorter than this.

fsflover 1y ago
If you, after 20 years, can process all your chat history with a (locally run!) AI, you may find a lot of interesting things about yourself and your friends.
- fwn 1y ago
  It is much more likely that someone else will process all my chat history at a border checkpoint or somewhere similar and find out a lot of interesting things about me and my friends.
  - fsflover 1y ago
    Don't keep it all on your phone and unencrypted.
    - fwn 1y ago
      > Don't keep it all on your phone and unencrypted. I've had a 90-day message retention policy set in WhatsApp ever since the feature became available. Not because I doubt my ability to manage secure backups, but because I don't expect my contacts to act equally careful. I wish Signal supported a 90-day retention period. Four weeks (Signal max) is often too short for my contacts, which leads people to disable it altogether. I also find it frustrating that Signal only applies your message retention policy to the conversation when you initiate the conversation, not when others do. As a result, more of my conversations end up being ephemeral on WhatsApp than on Signal, which feels a bit ironic.
- account-5 1y ago
  But why? Genuine question, What's the point? It's not going to improve anything.
  - fsflover 1y ago
    Why are you so sure it's not? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself
- AlecSchueler 1y ago
  So might anyone else, which is very worrying with the new rise of facism.
  - fsflover 1y ago
    If you really care about it, you should probably pursue anonymity on the Internet, too. The worldwide data collection from websites is far more concerning and harder to deal with. I use Qubes-Whonix for that.
ajkjk 1y ago
just curious.. why you are deleting your chats? what if you want to search them for something from a while ago?
- account-5 1y ago
  I can't think of anything beyond a month is need to search for. And I'm definitely not interested in having it just in case. If it's important I'll write it down. I'm also not a social media user. How many people have been caught out over shit they've said decades ago that is now not fashionable to say? What parts of your old chat histories can get you in trouble if the police got hold of your phone?
  - ajkjk 1y ago
    I mean... none of mine, that's for sure, nor am I expecting to get in trouble for anything I've said in the past. I don't customarily do things I wouldn't be okay with somebody finding out about, and if did find something out and decided to become angry at me, that's on them for being a shitty person and doesn't really bother me. Nor am I expecting anyone to be looking at my history other than me anyway; that's why my phone has a passcode.
mrehler 1y ago
I personally keep it all (on iMessage) as a bit of personal history. Trying to see conversations I had with friends and family around fun/important events, searching to see if I ever went on a similar tirade about a product I’m about to send a friend…

fsflover 1y ago

If you, after 20 years, can process all your chat history with a (locally run!) AI, you may find a lot of interesting things about yourself and your friends.

fwn 1y ago
It is much more likely that someone else will process all my chat history at a border checkpoint or somewhere similar and find out a lot of interesting things about me and my friends.
- fsflover 1y ago
  Don't keep it all on your phone and unencrypted.
  - fwn 1y ago
    > Don't keep it all on your phone and unencrypted. I've had a 90-day message retention policy set in WhatsApp ever since the feature became available. Not because I doubt my ability to manage secure backups, but because I don't expect my contacts to act equally careful. I wish Signal supported a 90-day retention period. Four weeks (Signal max) is often too short for my contacts, which leads people to disable it altogether. I also find it frustrating that Signal only applies your message retention policy to the conversation when you initiate the conversation, not when others do. As a result, more of my conversations end up being ephemeral on WhatsApp than on Signal, which feels a bit ironic.
account-5 1y ago
But why? Genuine question, What's the point? It's not going to improve anything.
- fsflover 1y ago
  Why are you so sure it's not? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself
AlecSchueler 1y ago
So might anyone else, which is very worrying with the new rise of facism.
- fsflover 1y ago
  If you really care about it, you should probably pursue anonymity on the Internet, too. The worldwide data collection from websites is far more concerning and harder to deal with. I use Qubes-Whonix for that.

ajkjk 1y ago

just curious.. why you are deleting your chats? what if you want to search them for something from a while ago?

account-5 1y ago
I can't think of anything beyond a month is need to search for. And I'm definitely not interested in having it just in case. If it's important I'll write it down. I'm also not a social media user. How many people have been caught out over shit they've said decades ago that is now not fashionable to say? What parts of your old chat histories can get you in trouble if the police got hold of your phone?
- ajkjk 1y ago
  I mean... none of mine, that's for sure, nor am I expecting to get in trouble for anything I've said in the past. I don't customarily do things I wouldn't be okay with somebody finding out about, and if did find something out and decided to become angry at me, that's on them for being a shitty person and doesn't really bother me. Nor am I expecting anyone to be looking at my history other than me anyway; that's why my phone has a passcode.

mrehler 1y ago

I personally keep it all (on iMessage) as a bit of personal history. Trying to see conversations I had with friends and family around fun/important events, searching to see if I ever went on a similar tirade about a product I’m about to send a friend…