Gee I wish they had just left Facebook as a way to share photos and updates with friends and family, instead of turning it into a viral content clusterfuck to capture the youth audience. It didn’t even work.
Teens are on Facebook?
Isn’t whatsapp another data mining app for Facebook?
Yes, although to nowhere near the same extent as Facebook and Instagram.
The chats are E2EE using Signal’s encryption protocol, so very good.
But they will certainly mine everything else they can get. They may not know what you’re saying, but they do know who you’re talking to, when you’re doing it, your contacts, your profile pic, how often you send images, etc. any web links with tracking info embedded in the URL will likely be tracked too, once you open them.
This still baffles me. What’s Facebook’s end game here? They are built on data collection and spying, but they own an app that is E2EE.
If you go only by the metadata, they know all your friends, their phone numbers, your location history, when do you chat, with whom, how often and how long. And I’m fairly sure they index conversation in some form.
Just location history can paint a decent picture of what you do, where do you go, what do you like, which friends are nearby, etc… and all of that was implemented like 15+ years ago, imagine what they can do today with AI. It’s fair to say FB knows more about you then you do (FB, IG, Wapp…). And to be blunt, it could probably determine what ppls shit smells like, judging by all the pictures of a meal they post on IG.
Honestly, I think they just saw that Whatsapp was becoming the standard chat app for basically all of the world outside of the US and China, and just didn’t want anybody else to have it.
Additionally, metadata is better than no data, I guess.
The metadata. The message content is E2E, but the data about the content isn’t necessarily e2e.
Good point. Figuring out who is talking to who is valuable info for them too.
I think teens abandoned Facebook like 10 years ago
Teens stopped using Facebook in 2015.
Removed by mod
“In the beginning:”
Facebook was a MySpace alternative for “academics” (college students / alums) instead of teens.
LinkedIn was a MySpace alternative for “professionals” instead of teens.
Forums were an evolution of BBSs that predated “social” media because it wasn’t you, it was an avatar, a fake persona you created rather than “first name,” “last name.”
ICQ and Skype were purely chat platforms, competing in a completely different space.
I have no idea what point this rant is trying to make but all the comparisons between services are way off base.
but all the comparisons between services are way off base.
My experience in Russia. No, they are not off base. Just naturally there are different PoVs and for you it may be something entirely else. You can think about that before saying something is wrong.
MySpace
Say, I’m not sure many people even knew of that where I am.
Forums were an evolution of BBSs that predated “social” media because it wasn’t you, it was an avatar, a fake persona you created rather than “first name,” “last name.”
People using real names in the Web were the weird ones, but it was normal to meet IRL those you know via forums.
I have no idea what point this rant is trying to make
Your failure, not mine.
This is news? The article’s own graph puts this about 6 years ago
Gyna
My family has a signal group. I started it two years ago.
Almost no one pays any attention to it, unless they accidentally open the app once a month, but they’re all still there and can be spoken to.
I put a PSA out a month ago that I’ll no longer respond on Facebook Messenger or SMS after the turn of the year. Tough shit. There was some groaning but, if there’s no other way, either use Signal or invest in a Pigeon coop and get training.
There was some groaning but, if there’s no other way, either use Signal or invest in a Pigeon coop and get training.
Any particular reason you are abandoning SMS? Any particular reason for the strict rule?
RCS ain’t universal. I only have it with some iPhone users and the rare Pixel.
If it’s what’s for dinner, I don’t care. Musk can know I had some hamburger steak.
If it’s the code to your tablet, mom, ask on Signal.
RCS is shit, with SMS at least my phone comes with a messenger and I can download one from F-Droid. With RCS only one proprietary app supports it and it functions weirdly on GrapheneOS. In its current state it’s practically a downgrade at this point and considering how bad SMS is that says a lot.
I guess I’ll never know what the kids are saying ever again because there’s no way I’m installing either of those apps.
A decade ago is when teens stopped using Facebook, unless they’re counting Instagram in those metrics?
Look at the graph in the article: it’s the only newsworthy piece. Assuming the numbers are legit, the lines crossed about 6 years ago.
Of course the x axis not having any labeled points there doesn’t fill me with confidence. Perhaps it’s just two points for each and they drew a straight line
Okay? But what does Whatsapp has anything to do with the other? DM?
I don’t consider WhatsApp social media.
WhatsApp has channels (public feeds centered around topics, a bit like microblogging), communities (groups about a subject, much like Facebook Groups), and updates (temporal video/photo statuses to share with your friends). You might only use it for DM, but it has much bigger aspirations.
WhatsApp? The instant messenger boomers use on their phones?
Damn, who saw that coming.
Most countries stopped using SMS ages ago. WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram are ubiquitous.
Spotted the iMessage user who routinly cries about dot colour
Yeah, the other instant messenger owned by Facebook
deleted by creator
Weird, considering facebook does all the shit those other sites do.
People go where their friends are. Their grandparents are on Facebook.
it’s why politicians want to ban it
They’ve been trying to ban it for awhile now, so no. They want to ban it because they can’t directly control the companies that own those platforms overseas whereas Facebook, IG, etc. are very much able to be controlled if necessary by those in power
It’s a delicate topic. TikTok collects a ton of data from devices and infers a ton of data from watching patterns. This is really true of most of the modern web apps, but especially true of TikTok because the short-form means more content to churn through, and the algorithm is practically an IV drip of dopamine.
The much, much more important issues are user privacy and truth-in-media, and is something that just as well needs to be pointed at Meta and Twitter and Reddit and Google. TikTok is probably more critical at the present moment, because it’s run by a country our president-elect wants to start a trade-war with, and they’ve got quite an upper hand with all the data that we, the users, give them for free, via a propaganda machine under their control.
well Facebook still owns them and will own them when they all switch to instagram reels like America wants them to do
Sadly Elon Musk remains a threat to us all.
