I understand that it may be problematic sometimes but this was very smooth. I didn’t even say anything.

A: what’s your number for the whatsapp group Me: I don’t have whatsapp because of facebook. B: ok, we have to use signal then A: ok

And that was it. Life can be very easy sometimes

    • @DerisionConsulting@lemmy.caEnglish
      18•11 months ago

      Meta owns it, and meta is one of the large, evil tech corps.

      They are probably the easiest one for most people from English-speaking countries to cut from their lives.

        • @unwarlikeExtortion@lemmy.ml
          7•11 months ago

          Well, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook. They are a large player, so they are under a bunch of scrutiny.

          But at the end of the day, WhatsApp clearly states it takes all this information. They only claim to keep your messages end-to-end encrypted.

          I wonder if this applies to text messages only, or to things like voice memos, images/videos, gifs, etc. as well.

          WhatsApp doesn’t let you send documents if you don’t give it full access to your files. Sure, maybe they pinky-promise don’t do anything but this is Facebook we’re talking about.

          The same caveat goes for photos and videos - you can’t even send a photo if you don’t give it the camera permission and gallery access, something it clearly doesn’t need just to send a single picture.

          Additionally, WhatsApp loads previews of websites. Sure, on the privacy violations list that’s pretty low-priority but I’d still like to not have a link contacted before I can take my 3 seconds to look at it and decide wether it’s worth clicking. Especially since a lot of my contacts send obvious scams (“send this message to 10 contacts for a chance to win a free iPhone” type bullshit mostly).

          Revoking WhatsApp’s contacts permission will not show peoples’ nicknames - it will only ahow numbers. Yet you have to give yourself a nickname on WhatsApp, so they clearly have some interest in your contacts. Otherwise they wouldn’t block it outright when it’s an already implemented feature to show nicknames for numbers not in the contact list.

          All quite suspicious if you ask me. Although I don’t work in cyber security so it’s clearly just incoherent rambing from me.

    • Spectrism
      15•11 months ago

      Because it’s proprietary garbage. If there are FOSS alternatives, I’m most definitely going to use them instead of proprietary software, let alone proprietary software by companies like Meta. And since there are plenty of those alternatives: No WhatsApp for me.

  • @jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
    9•11 months ago

    For people wondering how to do this in your own lives, have two phones. Have a phone that you install work stuff on, including proprietary apps like WhatsApp. Just tell the people around you hey you can contact me on WhatsApp, but I only see it when I’m at my desk during business hours. I do use more privacy focused platforms on my personal device that you can reach me anytime, such a signal or simple x or matrix. And you’ll find a lot of people are very flexible as long as you give them some reason, and you’re not being unreasonable yourself.

    • @Rivalarrival@lemmy.todayEnglish
      4•11 months ago

      There is an app on f-droid called “shelter” that gives you access to Android Work Profiles. This is a sandboxed area of your phone that makes it function like a second phone. You can install apps that are only accessible from within that sandbox. You can install a second, sandboxed copy of an app. You can shut down all your sandboxed apps simultaneously.

      I have a bunch of bullshit, garbage apps I very rarely use installed in my sandboxed “work” profile (Facebook, restaurant apps, and some other assorted trash apps) so they won’t harass me at random.

      • @jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
        2•11 months ago

        Shelter is great, and work profiles are an amazing tool to have.

        My intention with having two phones, one always at your desk for work items, is to set coworkers expectations that your not available on corporate systems 24/7. If they want to reach you outside of business hours, they will need to use better platforms. This demonstrates your being reasonable and using Whatsapp (or whatever) to be on the main platforms, but you have a real motivation to use the better platforms (like signal, etc)

      • @speeding_slug@feddit.nl
        6•11 months ago

        I disagree. I absolutely love the fact that I can just turn it off after office hours and throw it in a corner during holidays and weekends. Sure, it’s a bit cumbersome to take two phones with you, but it’s also cumbersome to take the laptop and everything with you all the time. Just put it in the same bag and you’re good. Good to note, my employer provides me with a phone, so I didn’t need to buy a second one. It also means that if I switch jobs, I just return the phone and still have my personal device.

        But if it doesn’t work for you, by all means, don’t do it. For me the good outweighs the bad.

        • @fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
          1•11 months ago

          I have a second sim card for my phone. I just turn off that sim when I’m not working, and set my status as away for group chat.

          In this context, there isn’t any tangible benefit to having a second phone.

  • D61 [any]English
    15•11 months ago

    Misread the post title, thought everybody jumped and left you all alone.

  • @TCB13@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4•11 months ago

    It is good indeed they’re actually decent people, however I’m sad they switched to a piece of shit of a software that fails to sync messages at any opportunity and delivers a poor user experience in most platforms by not being native / following platform specific UI guidelines.

  • @SLfgb@feddit.nl
    8•11 months ago

    Signal is so bloated compared to Conversations on Android. Also it’s a walled garden requiring your ph number to register (edit: and requires owning a smart phone👎). Based in the US so not great for privacy. Marginally better than Whatsapp suppose.

    Edit: and it requires a smart phone.

    • @threeganzi@sh.itjust.works
      4•11 months ago

      Not that I will convince you to use signal, but there are desktop versions as well, so technically not required to use a smart phone.

    • @SLfgb@feddit.nl
      4•11 months ago

      Signal app size 165MB. Conversations: 42MB.

      I can’t message someone on Signal without installing Signal or Molly which also uses Signal servers, which has to be trusted on good faith (can’t run my own). Ergo a walled garden just like Whatsapp.

      I can’t register with just a username & password. I have to trust their PR saying they don’t store my ph #.

      US has some of the worst legislation when it comes to privacy; when the agencies decide they want your data, Signal will not be allowed to tell you. And don’t give me the bs line that they only store 3 pieces of info about you. Unless you’ve built their server software you don’t know what they collect am store.

    • @Tangent5280@lemmy.world
      2•11 months ago

      I’m assuming OP didn’t just accept a position with the fucking Hezbollah, so Signal probably fits his usecase

      It’ll be fine. If the fucking CIA wanted OP to spill the beans they’ll just send an agent with a wrench directly to OP’s kneecaps.

  • @ReakDuck@lemmy.ml
    8•11 months ago

    People dont install Signal for me, especially feo groups. They use arguments like “yeah, and I also might have reasons not to use Signal like I do with Whatsapp”

    Kinda disrespectful to put a line against a data selling app and comparing it to “nah, I just dont wanna”