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.

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Privacy-focused Whatsapp mods? (lemmy.world)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by rolling_resistance@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I have to use Whatsapp, unfortunately. Are there any good alternatives to the default app on Android?

I'm worried about all the data it shares with Meta. I denied all permissions but this makes it less convenient, and the app probably still sends over the data that available without them.

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[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 11 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

I only know you can use it via Matix with a bridge, but the setup is quite involved, not just an App on your phone. Plus the metadata is still shared with Meta, like who you talked to and when, which they can build a profile and a social graph.

[–] oranki@piefed.social 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This is true.

I use WA via the Matrix bridge. WA requires the official mobile app (not web) to connect every 14 days, so you need to have it on a separate profile, a spare phone or do a complicated Android emulator setup... To be usable you need to allow the WA app access to your contacts, which results in Meta getting just about the same metadata from you it would via using the official app.

If I wasn't using Matrix for other things like notifications from servers, I wouldn't bother with this. The only upside is having only one app for messaging. The bridge system itself works really well, nothing bad to say there.

[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

complicated Android emulator setup

Wait, so a normal stock Waydroid/Bliss/Android-x86 wouldn't work? They need some extra settings?

[–] oranki@piefed.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

It might work, I haven't tried. But I think that's also quite complicated for most people.

I've also heard quite a few people getting their number banned by only running in an emulator. If it's an older WA account, it's probably safe, but I wouldn't do it on a fresh number.

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