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.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

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[PSA] If you use Instagram/Facebook/Messenger, check the "off Meta technologies" section. Your other apps may be sending data without you knowing (lemmy.ca)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

45 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Even if you don't enter data into Facebook/Meta directly, they may be getting data from other games/music apps/etc.

How to check

Navigate to the Accounts Center menu.
- Instagram: open your profile page > 3 bar menu > Settings > Accounts Center
- Messenger: 3 bar menu > gear icon > scroll to bottom > Accounts Center
Your information and permissions
Your activity off Meta technologies

There should also be an option for Manage future activity

I use some apps to communicate with family, and clearly my privacy protections weren't as good as I thought they were. I set things up a long time ago, so I imagine something changed since then.

I'm considering of either sending the apps to the work profile, or switching to only using them in the browser. If it's because I connected my account to the other service at some point, I don't know how to sever that connection now aside from dropping that other game/app/service

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Or just stop using Meta services all together.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ok, let me just cut off my entire family and friend circle out of my life just to stick it to some corpo that doesn't even care about me. I sure showed 'em!

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

I mean god forbid using regular text and phone with them is out of the question.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

It is for most scenarios in my life. And in many peoples' lives I will wager.

For the people that are abroad I'd have to pay to call/text them each time, and I can't even send them pictures/videos in a convenient way (no, convincing everyone to use signal just to talk to me is not happening)

And when my family/friends share photos/videos of important events in their lives that I care about I'd just have to accept I'll be the only one missing out and be that awkward guy at family gatherings that's all out of the loop.

And when my family is organizing events I would be the only one left out and have to convince someone to text/call me because I don't want to be in the chat, being an inconvenience to everyone and also losing much of my input.

And I'm not even gonna mention how most workplaces and business expect you to be on WhatsApp.

And what would I get in return for being off WhatsApp? Nothing, that's what. I'd just be the weirdo family member that never wants to interact with anyone online.

Do I like meta? No. But avoiding everything they touch is not worth being a nuisance to everyone else around me. I've just learned to suck it up like most people do. It's not ideal but it's absolutely unrealistic to expect most people to get off whatsapp/messenger when everyone has been on it for like a decade now. It's unfortunate but it is what it is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

And what would I get in return for being off WhatsApp? Nothing

That's rich as you posted this in a privacy sub... lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

It is unfortunate that in my country, you pretty much have to use WhatsApp as it's so common there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The only SMS I've gotten in the last 5 years are the double authentication ones. WhatsApp is the default way of texting in many countries. Outside of the US, when you ask people to stop using WhatsApp, chances are you are asking them to give up texting entirely. Which you must realize is complicated to say the least

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago

That's probably what everyone using Lemmy would prefer to do, but some people believe it would negatively impact their ability to stay in touch with friends or family.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

When everybody uses WhatsApp to communicate, which is a meta service, it's a bit complicated to cut off communication with literally everybody in your country (work, friends, businesses) just to not use a service. It's disingenuous to expect this without some sort of change within the current status quo. And this is coming from someone who doesn't use any of their other platforms but has to use WhatsApp, because that's literally the only choice

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I'm glad Meta seems to be keeping most of the junk they have on Insta/FB away from WhatsApp*

^*so ^far

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

and all the things you find on this list, too