Is it time to uninstall WhatsApp?

[Juggy777]

I’m going to keep this really short because they broke their promise about sharing our data with Facebook, and I don’t know about you’ll, but I’m not at all comfortable with the way they broke their promise. So the question remains will you uninstall WhatsApp or continue to use it despite your data being openly shared with Facebook.

There has also been a lot of inaccurate and careless information circulating about what our future partnership would mean for WhatsApp users’ data and privacy. I’d like to set the record straight […]

Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible […] If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn’t have done it. Instead, we are forming a partnership that would allow us to continue operating independently and autonomously. Our fundamental values and beliefs will not change. Our principles will not change.

WhatsApp users are receiving an in-app notice today regarding the service’s new terms and privacy policy. The notice, as you can see in the attached screenshot, talks about three key updates that affect how WhatsApp processes your data, how businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats, and how WhatsApp will soon partner with Facebook to offer deeper integrations across all of the latter’s products. It further reveals that these changes will go into effect on February 8th, and users will have no choice but to accept these changes if they wish to continue using WhatsApp

Source:

https://9to5mac.com/2021/01/06/whatsapp-share-your-data-with-facebook/

[o_e_l_e_o]

Is it time to uninstall WhatsApp?

Yes. The best time to do it was in 2014 when Facebook bought it. If you haven't already, do it now. I suspect Facebook have probably already built backdoors in to it to bypass the end-to-end encryption, but if they haven't then they will soon.

I will recommend Signal in its place: https://signal.org

It is free, open source, can do everything WhatsApp can do, and has a bunch of extra privacy features.

[Mpamaegbu]

I will recommend Signal in its place: https://signal.org

It is free, open source, can do everything WhatsApp can do, and has a bunch of extra privacy features.

WhatsApp is overrated. I think those who use it do so just to chitchat and nothing serious or business like. Its lack of edit feature drove me crazy until I found Telegram which I am so much in love with Telegram. I hope Telegram is secured too like your recommended "Signal"?

[Indymoney]

I will recommend Signal in its place: https://signal.org

It is free, open source, can do everything WhatsApp can do, and has a bunch of extra privacy features.

WhatsApp is overrated. I think those who use it do so just to chitchat and nothing serious or business like. Its lack of edit feature drove me crazy until I found Telegram which I am so much in love with Telegram. I hope Telegram is secured too like your recommended "Signal"?

Now we are living in Social Media era so we have to be very careful about these things I also never like Whatsapp after reading this all feeling happy that I uninstall this sometime back and enjoying all on telegram because its much better and secure then this hopefully now many others also understand this all and leave this without any issue for some other alternative solutions.

[franky1]

Is it time to uninstall WhatsApp?

Yes. The best time to do it was in 2014 when Facebook bought it. If you haven't already, do it now. I suspect Facebook have probably already built backdoors in to it to bypass the end-to-end encryption, but if they haven't then they will soon.

you dont need to build in backdoors to gain access to the house. if you own the house

unless you personally are creating a private key and passing that private key to a recipient by hand(away from device) and then encoding a message separately and then just pasting in the encoded message into the app..
then they still have access to the key.

if a hacker turns up after that handshake. then fine they cant see the handshake to get the key and listen in. but if they are involved as you handshake they also see the key exchange and thus they can listen in.

apps that offer encryption dont actually make themselves outsiders. it is not meant to stop them. its meant to stop random people later on trying to tap in mid conversation.

[tvbcof]

Is it time to uninstall WhatsApp?

Yes. The best time to do it was in 2014 when Facebook bought it. If you haven't already, do it now. I suspect Facebook have probably already built backdoors in to it to bypass the end-to-end encryption, but if they haven't then they will soon.

I will recommend Signal in its place: https://signal.org

It is free, open source, can do everything WhatsApp can do, and has a bunch of extra privacy features.

Says it builds against closed source Google libraries.  No thanks.

[Coyster]

The reason Whatsapp is breaking their initial stance of not data sharing to Facebook is they know they have built a strong and large community of Whatsapp users and it's going to be difficult for quite a lot of users to stop using/uninstall the App if a major and insensitive change like this is made, I use whatsapp, but only for casual discussions with friends and if this policy is going to affect my data and privacy, I don't think I'll have too much of a problem uninstalling the App.

I hope Telegram is secured too like your recommended "Signal"?

There is no app or service thats completely safe by 'default', the users still have their own responsibility to play, AFAIK, Telegram is the 'home' of scammers and it's a bad choice for people who lack the know-how on the modus operandi of scammers, but like i said, it's about responsibility and if you know all the safety precautions and protocols, and the app isn't using selling or sharing your data, then you can safely use it.

[yazher]

I will recommend Signal in its place: https://signal.org

It is free, open source, can do everything WhatsApp can do, and has a bunch of extra privacy features.

WhatsApp is overrated. I think those who use it do so just to chitchat and nothing serious or business like. Its lack of edit feature drove me crazy until I found Telegram which I am so much in love with Telegram. I hope Telegram is secured too like your recommended "Signal"?

The only reason I used Whatsapp is to send some questions regarding some important matters to the people who know the answer. besides that, I don't even know what else should I do. so far, it is helping me to solve some problems in my homework which google cannot answer. But for socializing as anybody does, I don't do such things. I can use it right now without any problem or whatsoever, maybe uninstalling it later if I don't find any use for it.

[squatz1]

Is it time to uninstall WhatsApp?

Yes. The best time to do it was in 2014 when Facebook bought it. If you haven't already, do it now. I suspect Facebook have probably already built backdoors in to it to bypass the end-to-end encryption, but if they haven't then they will soon.

I will recommend Signal in its place: https://signal.org

It is free, open source, can do everything WhatsApp can do, and has a bunch of extra privacy features.

LOL yeah, I was pretty sure that most people knew about Signal and that they should use it more.

In regards to Facebook building backdoors to get through encryption, wouldn’t they be forced to use this sort of thing in the investigations from Mueller into Kushner and such? As it was alleged that Kushner (and other members of the Trump admin) were using WhatsApp to hide their communications and have it be fully encrypted.

Never really noticed personally thats WhatsApp has a great international presence, random thing that I wanted to add for people that aren’t from outside of the US and didn’t know that.

[franky1]

again end-to-end encryption just stops people snooping in at the 'to' part

but if you own the app at each end. you have the same access the users have

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

AFAIK WhatsApp was created by someone but later it bought by Facebook so it is officially their app s they can share any user data between the users for their benefits.No social media is safe even the Facebook itself found selling user data.

Indeed. Facebook already owns WhatsApp, but your data or information is still not safe. There are many rumors that Facebook is selling its user data, so we commonly receive ads that we typically search on online shopping sites and Google. It is why it is too late for us to stop using this kind of apps and social media site because they already have our data and information.

[Smartvirus]

This is the kind of changes you get when a company buys the entire major shares in another company. It's always either break and conquer strategy or the utilization of the bought over company resources to restore the other. It might have been a slow coming conspiracy but not unexpected.

Facebook is by far the least place to have your privacy data in display looking at it's minimal security level and usage by a large population. It's really bad what happens in a company's terms of service which gives users a zero option. It could have been best in times of innovations as these, that the TOS be some worth flexible in a way users can choose in what direction or type of service they which to receive. That's the best way to serve people better.

I don't see anyone who would be really want to uninstall WhatsApp but then, it's also an opportunity for another app like WhatsApp to come up and provide needed services in a way that it respects users privacy data.

[mindrust]

Long overdue.

Whatsapp is a lot more dangerous than facebook now.

For the most people, whatsapp is the main communication app unlike facebook. Facebook is history. Nobody I know is still using it. It is a dead app.

I want to delete whatsapp but nobody in my phoebook uses something else even if they do, I'll lose all my chat groups.

Zuckerberg hit the jackpot when he bought whatsapp.

People cannot even stop using it.

[iamsheikhadil]

Well, most of my friends and family members and college groups are totally based on WhatsApp. I think when Facebook bought it, it kind of gave a signal that soon the privacy thing will be not their top priority since Facebook runs on ads by selling our data and algorithm. Technology is indeed going to put human lives in danger in future as although we know how we don't have much privacy yet we are addicted to social media so much that we can't leave it either. Let's see how it goes, governments should interfere much more to stop these tech companies accessing and selling data just for business.

[mindrust]

Now thinking about it, I want to delete this app so much because I hate everything about Zuckerberg but the chat groups I joined to gather information makes that impossible.

I can uninstall it but the news I get from those chat groups is by far more important than my personal data which whatsapp collects.

Tough choice. I wish I never used this app before because now I have no other choice but to continue using it.

[JohnBitCo]

Is it time to uninstall WhatsApp?

Yes. The best time to do it was in 2014 when Facebook bought it. If you haven't already, do it now. I suspect Facebook have probably already built backdoors in to it to bypass the end-to-end encryption, but if they haven't then they will soon.

I will recommend Signal in its place: https://signal.org

It is free, open source, can do everything WhatsApp can do, and has a bunch of extra privacy features.

The biggest issue is that no one or very few users are using "signal" or any other apps/solution. So if we switch to any other app or quit using WhatsApp, we will be left out of the communications through WhatsApp. Unless everyone decides to leave WhatsApp,  the only option for us is to accept its terms and conditions.

[o_e_l_e_o]

Unless everyone decides to leave WhatsApp,  the only option for us is to accept its terms and conditions.

Then tell your friends to use Signal. I was the first person to start using Signal in all my friend groups years ago. It took some longer than others, but now everyone uses it. If you show people how their private conversations are being spied on and sold to any number of ad agencies, political organizations, and third parties, then any sensible person will be quite happy to make the switch. You don't even need them to uninstall WhatsApp if they don't care about their privacy - just use Signal as well so you can uninstall WhatsApp.

[boyptc]

I'm lucky that I'm not using it nor installed it.

Now we are living in Social Media era so we have to be very careful about these things I also never like Whatsapp after reading this all feeling happy that I uninstall this sometime back and enjoying all on telegram because its much better and secure then this hopefully now many others also understand this all and leave this without any issue for some other alternative solutions.

AFAIK, there's also some data sensitivity that Telegram is doing to its users. They have no ads and if there are no ads and they have no product, the users are.

[Mauser]

I’m going to keep this really short because they broke their promise about sharing our data with Facebook, and I don’t know about you’ll, but I’m not at all comfortable with the way they broke their promise. So the question remains will you uninstall WhatsApp or continue to use it despite your data being openly shared with Facebook.

I also feel very uneasy about this new Whatsapp updates. Why are they sharing all these data with Facebook now. I stopped using Facebook last year and maybe I will stop with WA too. Unfortunately all of my friends are using it, should try to convince them to switch to Telegram maybe. It's hard to find alternatives to WA that are used by so many people around the world.

[Rruchi man]

Uninstalling WhatsApp now really will be something very difficult to do. WhatsApp has become almost a part of our lives as we easily keep in touch with most of our friends and family there. The WhatsApp story feature has also become a marketplace for people who run their businesses online.

 Issues about privacy with Tiktok app on how on agreeing to their terms and conditions to use the app, they could obtain your personal information, you gps location, your contact list etc raised some concerns in the past. This still did not stop people from downloading and using the app. WhatsApp will not be any different.