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Israel using Meta's WhatsApp to kill Palestinians in Gaza through AI system
(www.middleeastmonitor.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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Privacy
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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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Whatsapp is owned by Meta?
Yes, and you everyone should be staying the hell away from it If the creators washed their hands of it and feel guilty for selling out, anyone continuing to use it since Facebook acquisition, has no privacy rights whatsoever.
Unfortunately in some countries like mine, we're stuck with it. Literally everyone here uses it, for everything including business. If I migrate to Signal, I'll have no one to talk to.
There are local businesses who ONLY use Facebook. No website, no nothing. Not even google maps location.
Sucks. I have a generic blank FB with my initials and that's it.
It is easier to live without facebook, than you think.
I mean I do. But there are two businesses I use twice a month where it is straight up impossible to interact with. A small business won't see the investment into a website.
And no. There are no alternative businesses I could deal with in +80 mile range.
Could one live without fb? Yeah obviously. But it's not all redundant with alternatives.
It's hard to relate, because I wouldn't even know if there are businesses in my area which only use facebook - because I don't use facebook.
I wanted to use a business that wanted me to send them pictures of my drive way via Whatsapp. I ended up taking my business to a different guy, who was able to work with mail. No harm done, everyone is still happy, still no need for Meta products.
Edit: of course I acknowledge that I don't know anything about you or your situation. You maybe really can't work/live without facebook.
Word of mouth is how you find such businesses or local boards people advertising their services. That's 90% of it or google search taking me to their FB page.
But yeah, if it means I can support local businesses? It's a price worth paying by having a fb account with no activity or info.
At the end of the day, i care about the local guy running butchers out of a truck going to spots when they have meat more than giving money to tesco who under cuts farmers. Fb allows people to have automaty. While it's not black and white. I do admit it's way more on the dark side.
Those local businesses don't deserve your money.
I get what you're going through. The same is true for my country. However, I understood very early on that I needed to do something about it, because just "following the rest" is the reason why all these companies are getting away with their surveillance and making truckload of money with our data without our consent.
Fast forward to today, and I have not used WhatsApp in over 8 years. My communication with my wife, my business partner and 1 of my friends is done exclusively over Session, the rest is over Signal. Anyone not on those platforms, good luck trying to reach me.
If we ever want things to change, we have to risk losing communication with some people. Those that consider you important won't mind adding another messaging app to their phones.
Yes, it is easier for you to continue using Whatsapp. At least you tried.
"Easier" is what got us to where we're at today in terms of our privacy, and even our security. These companies are betting precisely on us being lazy and choosing easy. Let that comment sink in for a few seconds.
You are absolutely right of course, I was a bit sarcastic in the comment above. I firmly belive that the pursuit of a more convenient live will be our downfall - in terms of privacy, but also e.g. in terms of traffic (cars are very convenient but shouldn't be the future for the masses).
I do love my car, and it pains me to no end to have to agree with you. We're on the wrong road believing that electric cars will have any significant positive impact on pollution. Sure, if we all charged from renewable energy, but that's very rarely the case.
We have electric cars in my house, 2 of them, I and we charge solely from solar energy when at home, but out on the road, I don't believe that to be the case.
Then there's traffic and how cities are built around it, instead of the other way around.
Yeah, we're fucked.
Same here, I really like driving, it can be fun and (sometimes) relaxing and there is no better place to sing along to some songs.
At the same time I try to avoid driving as much as possible, I take the bike, walk, take the train, no matter the weather. I don't want to be one of those cars sitting at the red light, using up space, polluting the environment and giving our local parties the idea, that we need that one more lane.
Some things are more important than a few convenient minutes.