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Apple's new privacy feature reveals astonishing cost of using Facebook...

AuthenticM

AuthenticM

Son Altesse Sérénissime
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,015
I'm using Messenger on my Android phone. Does it also collect as much shit as the main Facebook app?

FliX said:
WhatsApp isn't nearly as bad as the Facebook App.
That said Signal for example collects nothing.
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Transistor said:
Signal is the best, plain and simple.
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Can Signal send messages to other apps (such as Messenger or Whatsapp)? Also, is Signal still janky af to use? I tried switching to it some years back, but had to switch back because sometimes, my messages would not reach their destination. I don't remember the specifics, but it had to do with the switch from wi-fi to my service provider (I don't have data on my phone, so if I'm not on wifi, I can only send text messages). It was too much of a headache to understand, so I reverted back to my default texting app.
 
Engell

Engell

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,615
Aurongel said:
Having these data hungry services like Facebook and Instagram on their mobile platforms is a massive value add from Apple and Google's perspective. Could you imagine the blowback Apple would receive if Facebook weren't available on their platform but was on Android? The recent Fortnite dispute was a taste of this and consumers are more motivated by obvious platform differences like that then subversive and subtle things like mass private data collection. Consumers will always be more vocal about obvious in-your-face issues like the Fortnite dispute rather than more nebulous things like data privacy.

Consumers aren't entirely to blame though, I empathize with a lot of their ignorance surrounding the ubiquity of data collection. Companies like Facebook go to GREAT lengths to make that aspect of their business opaque as hell.

It's why you see so many believers in the asinine conspiracy theory that the phones themselves are spying on consumers when in reality, it's these large data companies behind the scenes that are building consumer profiles on everyone without their full knowledge.
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I'm not saying ban the app, just require authorisation everytime an app wanted access to personal data especially while running in the background or trying access anything without the users input.
 
Keyouta

Keyouta

The Wise Ones
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,193
Canada
Futureman said:
so you use 2 of 3 FB services. I'm not an expert but you are probably be tracked to hell and back. The article mentions people not even on the services have profiles to gather information.
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Possibly. I am on android, by the way. I don't have the instagram app installed and just browse it like once a month through their website.

I should probably just delete my account there though.
 
SimplyComplex

SimplyComplex

Member
May 23, 2018
4,010
I need Facebook for work or I would have been deleted the app. I understand other apps do it but it just feels so intrusive with Facebook lol
 

Sylvestre

Banned
Mar 20, 2020
763
Bigwombat said:
They have so much meta data on people. I'm glad I never downloaded this app.

At some point they will get hacked and troves of info will be available for purchase. How you parse through all of it I don't know but I'm sure with ai learning and scripts all the relevant info will be processed.
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Boy have I got bad news for you....
They dont need to get hacked for the data to be sold man lol
 
FliX

FliX

Master of the Reality Stone
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
9,863
Metro Detroit
AuthenticM said:
Can Signal send messages to other apps (such as Messenger or Whatsapp)? Also, is Signal still janky af to use? I tried switching to it some years back, but had to switch back because sometimes, my messages would not reach their destination. I don't remember the specifics, but it had to do with the switch from wi-fi to my service provider (I don't have data on my phone, so if I'm not on wifi, I can only send text messages). It was too much of a headache to understand, so I reverted back to my default texting app.
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It works fine, no idea why you would expect it to be able to send to other messengers though.
 
lunarworks

lunarworks

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,116
Toronto
Engell said:
how about being able to block all that crap.... why are phones even making this data available to apps
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Because all of them have honest use cases. The problem is you have companies like Facebook looking to scrape as much data as they can, and will take any possible route to get it. They have teams of evil geniuses probing every single aspect of the iPhone and iOS environment for trackable data.
 
StrayDog

StrayDog

Avenger
Jul 14, 2018
2,605
Aiii said:
Anyways, instead of talking about Facebook, which we already know tracks everything. Perhaps we need to address how this website facilitates way too many tracking websites, which of course it discloses, but is kind of ridiculous. It's logging 19(!) distinct websites it contacts for this purpose. One of few website that even hits double digits.

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Bigwombat

Bigwombat

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
3,416
Sylvestre said:
Boy have I got bad news for you....
They dont need to get hacked for the data to be sold man lol
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Yeah good point. It's like the grocery stores with the discount cards they give out. It's all compiled data but yes they already sell it to marketing corps, ur right. It's just anonymous this way where as a hack would give out all your personal info linked to you
 
Transistor

Transistor

The Walnut King
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,119
Washington, D.C.
JigglesBunny said:
But damn, my VR headset sure is cool.
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This is why I hope Sony can knock it out of the park with a single-cable USB-C PSVR2. Imagine if they can make it PC compatible as well.

Give people a non-Facebook alternative to the Quest 2

plain said:
I bet Facebook's own execs use iPhones for its privacy features.
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I mean, they probably just are in a special "no data farming" Facebook group. Either that, or they don't even use the platform.
 
Pikachu

Pikachu

Traded his Bone Marrow for Pizza
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,402
i don't understand how apple plans to get away with letting me just block all data collection and still be able to use facebook app etc?
 
LukeOP

LukeOP

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,749
Hopefully Apple gets sued over this. I want to see them fight.

In the meantime I'll be letting apps collect my data.
 
OP
OP
thisismadness

thisismadness

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,444
Pikachu said:
i don't understand how apple plans to get away with letting me just block all data collection and still be able to use facebook app etc?
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You won't be blocking all data collecting/tracking, this will just limit cross app tracking. So they'll have a harder time seeing what you do once you leave their app.
 
Reinhard

Reinhard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,592
I uninstalled all Facebook owned apps awhile back and very glad I did with this revelation. I have Facebook on my desktop browser just to sell a few things locally and use Facebook Container firefox addon to help contain it (prevents websites from automatically sharing info with Facebook) ;p. I do have messenger lite installed on my Samsung phone, I hope it doesn't share too much with Facebook as a 3rd party app that removes most of the facebook BS.

I really want a Quest 2, I hope that the lawsuit is successful so that I don't need a freaking Facebook account to own one.
 
SquirrelSaysNuts

SquirrelSaysNuts

Banned
May 15, 2018
1,898
Denmark
AuthenticM said:
I'm using Messenger on my Android phone. Does it also collect as much shit as the main Facebook app?



Can Signal send messages to other apps (such as Messenger or Whatsapp)? Also, is Signal still janky af to use? I tried switching to it some years back, but had to switch back because sometimes, my messages would not reach their destination. I don't remember the specifics, but it had to do with the switch from wi-fi to my service provider (I don't have data on my phone, so if I'm not on wifi, I can only send text messages). It was too much of a headache to understand, so I reverted back to my default texting app.
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No, it cannot. Even if it could there would be no benefit of its encryption then because the messages would be decrypted by messenger and whatsapp before its recepients would be able to read it. The whole point is to make sure that facebook and the like cannot read your message data.
Trying to use Signal as the defalt text app is a mistake. If you do so it's more difficult to tell which messages are actually encrypted.
 
everybody_lies

everybody_lies

Member
Nov 19, 2017
196
Just saw Dragon Ball Legends tracks your browsing history, what the heck - deleted.

The amount of tracking the Oculus app does is insane...
 
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