[HN Gopher] Giving More Time for Our Recent Update
___________________________________________________________________
Giving More Time for Our Recent Update
Author : mzs
Score : 47 points
Date : 2021-01-15 19:53 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.whatsapp.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.whatsapp.com)
| dwb wrote:
| It doesn't matter what they say, or what has technically changed.
| I fundamentally don't trust Facebook, I won't agree to any terms
| different to the ones I'm already signed up to, and this has
| nudged me into completely de-Facebooking my life as I was unhappy
| with their reach and influence as it was.
| devmunchies wrote:
| they literally chose the worst week of the decade to be strong-
| handed with users. Now signal and telegram are #1 and #2 on the
| app store.
| xalava wrote:
| I actually wonder if that will help people to move to
| alternatives before what is perceived as a "privacy wall".
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Too little, too late. "More time to review the terms" isn't going
| to help if I've already determined the terms are bullshit. Even
| my tech-illiterate relatives were spooked by the change and
| promptly installed telegram so come whichever date WhatsApp stops
| working without me accepting the terms, I'll delete its ass and
| be done with it. Good riddance, been a user since 2009 but this
| is goodbye :)
| a254613e wrote:
| What exact terms have changed that are "bullshit"? I see a lot
| of hate for whatsapp and statement about people switching etc,
| but nobody can explain what EXACTLY in this privacy policy
| update has changed to warrant that? From what I can tell
| absolutely nothing changed for the average users, only those
| who want to communicate with businesses - but perhaps I'm
| wrong.
| levosmetalo wrote:
| Except you won't have a choice not to communicate with
| business. Businesses will communicate with you, based on your
| data Facebook collects.
| Spivak wrote:
| I'm not really sure what the outrage is then? We're
| providing hosted WhatsApp clients for businesses to use and
| letting them know if your number is registered on WhatsApp
| doesn't sound like "end of days abandon ship" nefarious.
| smolder wrote:
| Fortunately there are alternatives, so it doesn't have to
| be a big reason to switch. Facebook buying WhatsApp was
| enough reason for me to refuse installing it, for no
| other reason than consolidation of services on that level
| is dangerous. The internet belonging to a few companies
| is bad.
| [deleted]
| Johnny555 wrote:
| Wow, I guess enough people really did switch off of WhatsApp to
| make a difference.
| lmilcin wrote:
| Sorry, I don't buy it. Your ToS is binding, not your lousy
| explanation.
|
| If you cared for my privacy there wouldn't be need for this
| change in ToS, would it?
| agakshat wrote:
| The linked page [1] says that Whatsapp does not share contact
| list with Facebook. I have a lot of anecdotal evidence which
| suggests otherwise, where adding new contacts would immediately
| have them show up in my list of suggested friends on Facebook,
| even without any mutual friends. My experiences are from >3 years
| ago, though, after when I stopped using Facebook.
|
| [1] https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-
| privacy/answer...
| Spivak wrote:
| I suspect it's something like Facebook knows both your and
| their phone number, sees a WhatsApp messages between them, and
| connects the dots. Technically there wasn't any contact
| sharing.
| curiousgal wrote:
| I have the same experience but it could be due to those
| contacts installing Messenger/Facebook and sharing your number
| with Facebook:
|
| Contact has your number and shares it with Facebook.
|
| Your Facebook account has your number.
|
| The link is made.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Why is the abandonment of users for WhatsApp not generating the
| same kind of death knell articles like the M1 is doing to Intel
| that we have seen recently? Are there more people with a vested
| interest in shorting Intel than there are for Facebook?
|
| If so many users have switched to Signal in such a short time
| span that it brought the Signal infrastructure to its knees, you
| would assume there would by naysayers climbing over each other
| about the end of WhatsApp. If they are there, they have not made
| it into my news feeds, yet.
| uptown wrote:
| Translation: We're still going to do all the things you're upset
| about, but we're bleeding users to Signal and we're sure you'll
| forget about all of this by May, when we'll make the changes
| gradually to prevent widespread push-back.
| silentsea90 wrote:
| Yep, typical Zuck doublespeak. Treating users like they're
| stupid.
| RandomWorker wrote:
| Signal is having some issues with gaining 40mil users over the
| course of 4 days. I'm happy we get some time to switch until
| signal gets its stuff together.
| yazaddaruvala wrote:
| Disclaimer: I am a Signal user, no other affiliation.
|
| Please also remember Signal is run on donations:
| https://signal.org/donate/
|
| With the WhatsApp news and many of my friends moving to
| Signal, I decided to donate $10 to help them scale. I had
| never donated to Signal before, but Signal has worked so well
| for me for over a year that it is definitely worth at least
| the little I donated.
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| Yeah, this was a classic success disaster for Signal.
| focusgroup0 wrote:
| MAU must have dropped off a cliff LOL
| Analemma_ wrote:
| I wonder if this is a wake-up call for Facebook executives re:
| how completely toxic their brand has become. Every time criticism
| of Facebook comes up here, a bunch of people handwave it off with
| "It's just us HN nerds, 2 billion people don't care", but I'm
| seeing a whole lot of non-tech people fleeing WhatsApp as fast as
| they can.
| dylan604 wrote:
| All of the other "wake-up" calls were ignored, and it did not
| slow down their anything. I'm guessing this will just be
| another notch in their belt of blow back survival.
| eitland wrote:
| I've already uninstalled WhatsApp two - three years ago
| because none of my friends used it anymore. I have Telegram
| and Signal, that's enough.
|
| (I reinstalled it briefly last year and used it for ome
| conversation with a stubborn guy who refused to install any
| of Signal or Telegram.)
|
| "The future is already here - it's just not evenly
| distributed." - William Gibson
| ville wrote:
| "This update does not expand our ability to share data with
| Facebook.
|
| We're now moving back the date on which people will be asked to
| review and accept the terms. No one will have their account
| suspended or deleted on February 8."
|
| Is there an unbiased analysis somewhere about what actually is
| changed by the new privacy policy?
| avel wrote:
| The Verge also claims that not much changed from before:
| https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/15/22233257/whatsapp-privacy...
| sumitgt wrote:
| Yes, I am confused as well.
|
| Something has to have changed or else they wouldn't need people
| to accept new terms right?
| netsharc wrote:
| As much as I dislike Zuck, I think WhatsApp is being honest
| about what's happening, if you follow the link on that page to
| https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/about-...
|
| I.e. it's more about allowing sharing ad viewership data
| between the platforms (FB, IG, WA). "But WhatsApp has no ads?",
| well, I guess in February^W March, Zuck's going to pop up on
| your phone and say "Surprise, motherfucker!".
|
| On the topic of businesses, I remember booking a domestic plane
| ticket in Asia, giving the travel agency my phone number, and
| getting WhatsApp messages from the agency's business account. I
| guess there were no concerns about data privacy laws there...
| dylan604 wrote:
| > well, I guess in February^W March, Zuck's going to pop up
| on your phone and say "Surprise, motherfucker!".
|
| This made me chuckle. I could totally see this becoming a
| thing, but I'm imagining it like Microsoft's Clippy. You're
| doing your normal thing using an app, when all of a sudden
| this caricature of The Zuck pops out of the lower corner and
| screams "I see you are looking at a post from someone in your
| friends list. Wouldn't you rather look at this <insert random
| thing> instead?" The harder/faster you swipe to make him go
| away the more insistent he gets.
| throwaway47634 wrote:
| I think if WhatsApp were serious about "we don't share your
| contacts with Facebook", they would put it in the privacy policy
| [1].
|
| As it stands, the policy refers to an FAQ entry [2] which leaves
| this almost completely open-ended: "The information we share with
| the other Facebook Companies [...] may include other information
| identified in the Privacy Policy section entitled 'Information We
| Collect'"
|
| That is, anything identified as information WhatsApp collects
| (including contact data) could be shared with Facebook.
|
| [1]: https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/privacy-policy [2]:
| https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/what-i...
| ville wrote:
| The statement "This update does not expand our ability to share
| data with Facebook." seems to be perhaps carefully worded based
| on a technicality that _they_ , WhatsApp, are not the ones
| sharing the business conversations with Facebook, but instead
| Facebook is giving the businesses themselves tools to share them
| with FB for ad targeting.
|
| From earlier FB announcement
| (https://about.fb.com/news/2020/10/privacy-matters-
| whatsapp-b...): "When Facebook acts as a hosting provider to a
| business, it will use the messages it processes on behalf of and
| at the instruction of the business. This is an industry standard
| practice among many companies that offer hosting solutions. While
| Facebook will not automatically use messages to inform the ads
| that a user sees, as is always the case, businesses will be able
| to use chats they receive for their own marketing purposes, which
| may include advertising on Facebook."
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-01-15 23:01 UTC)