I have been pro privacy and anti data harvesting for many years now, however it is becoming increasingly more difficult staying off some platforms. Mostly Meta.

Over the years I have convinced most of my friends and family to use Signal instead of WhatsApp. However, there are still chat groups that I am missing from, and trying to keep up to date with local events seems next to impossible without Facebook or Instagram.

Additionally, I am finding it more and more tiring to have the awkward “No I don’t have WhatsApp. No I don’t have Facebook either. Or Instagram, sorry. Do you want to try an app that you’ve never heard of to stay in contact with me?” every time I meet someone new.

I saddens me that it feels like the multi-billion dollar data harvesting companies are winning, but I no longer know if this is a hill that I’m willing to die on.

What are your thoughts on what we have to give up in our lives just to stay in control of our personal information?

  • shrugal@lemm.ee
    10·
    2 months ago

    It can be a bit annoying sometimes, but there are solutions for almost anything, like alternative clients and frontends. But I also think it’s important to remember that this is not an all-or-nothing situation. Every little bit of privacy you can preserve helps, even if you still have to use their services sometimes.

    If your example is mostly about chat then Beeper might be a good option for you. The messages on FB and IG would still go through Meta, but at least you don’t have to install their apps.

  • MrSoup@lemmy.zip
    6·
    2 months ago

    Don’t lose hope, resistance is NOT futile.
    There are third party frontends for most of Facebook/Meta services an desktop apps which can be used when there are no other options.

    Be aware of installing Whatsapp app on iOS and Android, there are vulnerabilities currently exploited by the israelian Pegasus. Nothing prevents anyone else from using these vulnerabilities.

      • MrSoup@lemmy.zip
        3·
        2 months ago

        There was bibliogram (web) which I’ve used a couple of times, but it’s now discontinued.
        Your best bet here would be using instagram web as a webapp with a bunch of addons limiting their tracking. I dunno if there are some limitation on the instagram website, I don’t use instagram at all.

        By looking up on f-droid there is “barinsta” which received a cease and desist letter from a law firm representing Facebook. Maybe you can find an active fork of it.

        If you find something, please update us. There could be someone else in your same condition.

        • joat_mon@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          Thanks. Yeah I found Barinsta but saw it hadn’t been updated in years. I’ll have a look around and report back.

          • tau@lemmings.world
            1·
            2 months ago

            I’ve heard good things about Instander, but it may not satisfy all the requirements of an alternative frontend.

  • lemmyreader@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    I saddens me that it feels like the multi-billion dollar data harvesting companies are winning, but I no longer know if this is a hill that I’m willing to die on.

    It is a very sad thing indeed :(

    What are your thoughts on what we have to give up in our lives just to stay in control of our personal information?

    I guess it depends whether you want to be reachable 24/7 on mobile or not.

    With Signal and with things like WhatsApp and for that matter Telegram a phone number is only required to sign up. And you do not have to restrict yourself to one phone number.

    Actually that is not correct because contacts syncing is another thing. If you are willing to have a private life without Meta and a second life which includes Meta Zuck it is technically possible. Buy a cheap smartphone with another SIM card for signing up and for syncing contacts and then link it to desktop apps that you can check a few times a day to check in with your friends via the Meta Zuck channels. The cheap smartphone can stay off unless you need to sync contacts.

    • joat_mon@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      Thanks, yeah I had thought about using separate SIMs to sign up but then, like you said, would still need to sync contacts.

      Although I hadn’t really though about only using the desktop apps.

    • j4k3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      What’s a town square. -American /s

      Suburbia hell doesn’t install those. We have no public commons.

    • joat_mon@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Thanks for your comment Deckweiss. To reply to your assumptions I’m not American and am definitely not young.

      I’d be interested to hear about how your and your friends learn about local events without any access to the main channels that seem to be used by most venues, i.e. Facebook and Instagram, as I’d happily take some advice on this.

      Also, as per my original post, it is not about meeting new people, that I have no problem with, it is about the inevitable conversation when they exclusively use WhatsApp to stay in contact.

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
    1·
    2 months ago

    It’s a hill I’ll die on.

    Ive refused to use anything FB since it first launched and I wasn’t permitted to use it anyway (not that I cared).

    I’ve never once been to FB intentionally. I’ve accidentally clicked a link, then closed the tab as soon as I realized.

    I was sent an FB link the other day. Replied that all FB domains are blocked on my networks and devices.

    Sometimes doing what you believe in comes with costs. Oh well. My life is for me, and if someone can’t be bothered to look outside their bubble, put in a tiny bit of effort, then I guess I’m not worth it in their eyes. Message received.

    I even have friends who’ve complained how shitty SMS is for 20 years. I’ve offered multiple solutions, and they simply refuse to change. OK, not my problem when you message me and I don’t get it because SMS sucks and you refuse to solve the problem.

    • joat_mon@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      6·
      2 months ago

      I do run ProtonVPN on all of my devices, daily drive Linux on my PC and laptop, and have GrapheneOS as my ROM. So device privacy is not really the issue. This is more about not wanting to have accounts with the likes of Meta who have time and time again shown that they are completely against user privacy, but I feel it is more and more difficult to live without as most people don’t know/don’t care about personal privacy.

  • Iceblade@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 months ago

    Honestly, it sucks. I’ve been increasingly falling back on regular SMS, because a lot of people seem to prefer cutting me off to the slight effort of a different communication medium. I was thinking that everyone has a phone, but there’s a lot of resistance to using it in my age group.

  • AnAnonymous@lemm.ee
    21·
    2 months ago

    It’s easy, use a VPN and as many fake data as you can, also you can use an AI generated profile pic, if you need a phone number you can use a virtual number like TextNow app.

    • Einar@lemm.ee
      4·
      2 months ago

      You are right on all counts.

      Just not sure if “easy” is the operative word here.

    • joat_mon@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Thanks, yeah I’m always on a VPN, but as you suggested, maybe nowadays it’s not about trying to live without an account, but having the account with generic/fake profile data.

      • AnAnonymous@lemm.ee
        3·
        2 months ago

        Yeah the point it’s into giving them fake data, you keep using the service and they get fake stuff at exchange. Better than not using their service.

  • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
    0·
    2 months ago

    Understandable thought process imo. I‘m in the opposite boat.

    For years I didnt care about data privacy and the amount of phishing attacks and spam mails skyrocketed.

    I had all the social media accounts, connected to each other for convenience. Bit tech cloud managed my pictures and everything else. Stuff started vanishing off of my favorite streaming services.

    Then I started to migrate away from big tech and started my own home server. Ripped all my old dvds on there so I dont have to put them in the player. I disabled my facebook account, twitter, instagram, you name it.

    Now I can chat with people on my Linux phone (postmarketOS), watch videos on my peertube instance, write this comment over my lemmy instance, etc. Is it easy? No. But its doable.

    I do still have whatsapp but i dont use the app and have bridged the 2.5 people that dont have matrix to it. Same for signal and discord. I only use matrix and a couple people switched because matrix can help them use one app only.

    Now comes the hard part: is this end user ready? No, not at all. Stuff can break like every half a year and some people are just tech illiterate and will have constant problems because they have no patience.

    I cant promise you that it works for everyone. But it should work for the 80% or so who are able to follow a basic video tutorial on how to cross sync new devices in matrix for example.

    Oh and the whiners will also have a bad time. If you need „perfect“ and „polished“, apps wont always be up to your standards and you should embrace big tech. They make it perfect for you you give them your data. Thats their way of saying thanks /s

    Addition: The general idea for those who can tinker should also be to not only use but contribute. Either financially or otherwise. The software is dependent on it.

  • hruzgar@feddit.de
    01·
    2 months ago

    Telegram just exposed Signal to not be secure at all. So I don’t think going from Whatsapp to Signal makes any difference at all. They have the same encryption algorithms proposed by the US in the year 2000.