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I deactivated my facebook account and I manage to keep in touch with my family and close friends from school and college using Whatsapp alone. I don't pretend l

by nindalf 11y ago

I deactivated my facebook account and I manage to keep in touch with my family and close friends from school and college using Whatsapp alone. I don't pretend like I won't miss out on some cool interactions, or miss out on important updates but for the most part it works pretty ok.

lcswi 11y ago
That just exchanging the kettle for the pot. Hell, whatsapp IS owned by Facebook...
- nindalf 11y ago
  That's true, but I think of it like this. Computers are much better at processing metadata rather than data - its easy to draw inferences when you press a "like" button or click a link. With Whatsapp, they have data (text of conversations) and some metadata (who I'm talking to often) but its much harder to draw inferences from that. I don't see any ads, and my behaviour isn't tracked. With Android M, I'll strip it of all extra permissions like location and microphone, further boosting my privacy. tldr - Its a lot harder to monetise me on Whatsapp.
  - lcswi 11y ago
    It is much easier.to get intelligence on you though (ok, same as if you used Facebook messages). Likes are random and nothing consistent. Your communication with peers can reveal everything though.
    - nindalf 11y ago
      You're thinking from the perspective of a government operative (or another human) snooping through your data, in which case messages are more important. But most of our privacy is destroyed by computers sifting through the mountain of data that companies collect on us. Your cellphone constantly broadcasts your location to your carrier and to Facebook and other apps, if you have them installed. If you analyse this data, it is possible to make out where you work, where your home is, where you like to hang out (and with who), and where you take vacations. Further, it is possible to identify a person uniquely from just 4 points of location data if you have a database of everyone's location data. As former NSA general counsel Stewart Baker said, “Metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebody’s life. If you have enough meta data you don’t really need content.” For more uncomfortable and scary revelations like this, I recommend checking out Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier.
glynjackson 11y ago
Instead of Facebook owing your photos and ID, they now own your phone numbers and your friends phone numbers! Not the best swap. WhatsApp Terms: "In order to prevent and reduce unsolicited spam messages, as well as to improve your in-app experience, WhatsApp uses the phone numbers from your phone's address book." "WhatsApp looks at the phone numbers in your address book, then checks to see which of those numbers are verified in WhatsApp." http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/20971813 http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/20971813
- detaro 11y ago
  So before they knew who he communicated with + pictures + other data, and now they know... who he communicates with. Given how easy most facebook identities are to connect to "real" identities, I don't see how them knowing the phone numbers is noticably worse.

by nindalf 11y ago

lcswi 11y ago

That just exchanging the kettle for the pot. Hell, whatsapp IS owned by Facebook...

nindalf 11y ago
That's true, but I think of it like this. Computers are much better at processing metadata rather than data - its easy to draw inferences when you press a "like" button or click a link. With Whatsapp, they have data (text of conversations) and some metadata (who I'm talking to often) but its much harder to draw inferences from that. I don't see any ads, and my behaviour isn't tracked. With Android M, I'll strip it of all extra permissions like location and microphone, further boosting my privacy. tldr - Its a lot harder to monetise me on Whatsapp.
- lcswi 11y ago
  It is much easier.to get intelligence on you though (ok, same as if you used Facebook messages). Likes are random and nothing consistent. Your communication with peers can reveal everything though.
  - nindalf 11y ago
    You're thinking from the perspective of a government operative (or another human) snooping through your data, in which case messages are more important. But most of our privacy is destroyed by computers sifting through the mountain of data that companies collect on us. Your cellphone constantly broadcasts your location to your carrier and to Facebook and other apps, if you have them installed. If you analyse this data, it is possible to make out where you work, where your home is, where you like to hang out (and with who), and where you take vacations. Further, it is possible to identify a person uniquely from just 4 points of location data if you have a database of everyone's location data. As former NSA general counsel Stewart Baker said, “Metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebody’s life. If you have enough meta data you don’t really need content.” For more uncomfortable and scary revelations like this, I recommend checking out Data and Goliath by Bruce Schneier.

glynjackson 11y ago

Instead of Facebook owing your photos and ID, they now own your phone numbers and your friends phone numbers! Not the best swap. WhatsApp Terms: "In order to prevent and reduce unsolicited spam messages, as well as to improve your in-app experience, WhatsApp uses the phone numbers from your phone's address book." "WhatsApp looks at the phone numbers in your address book, then checks to see which of those numbers are verified in WhatsApp." http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/20971813 http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/20971813

detaro 11y ago
So before they knew who he communicated with + pictures + other data, and now they know... who he communicates with. Given how easy most facebook identities are to connect to "real" identities, I don't see how them knowing the phone numbers is noticably worse.