Yeah, I mean outside the US WhatsApp is basically texting for everyone I’ve met. It’s definitely accomplished that. I just can’t imagine something that massive not being used to spy. Especially given that it’s free. I don’t imagine they’re above reading messages. Because all of that server power and access worldwide, they’re definitely prying somehow. Like we are just now finding out they’ve been circumventing VPNs and all methods to block their cookies? It’s literally impossible they’re not prying data out of WhatsApp users.

But google and Gmail are massive spying machines. They’re not just cultural impact loss leaders.

I would bet a ton of money on WhatsApp being a spy machine in a way people don’t know yet. Their bullshit of end to end encryption and privacy while being a free app is undoubtedly some ruse to squeeze data out of people. There isn’t a fucking doubt in my mind.

Facebook is owning and operating a free and private messaging service? To what end? Yeah, nah. Not fuckin buying it.

Dude my van has been breaking a ton of websites lately. I had to turn it off to check the tracking on a package from USPS yesterday. Any time a website is sending me to a broken page, I turn off my vpn and it works immediately.

I was going to ask because I’m somewhat new to vpns, but I just assumed it was one hassle for privacy. Is this a new occurrence?

But if they acknowledged that, how would they be able to high road people?!?

I mean, I know everyone says it’s impossible for phones to be listening, but I feel like there are just too many examples for that to be the case. My friend was looking for something for our other friends birthday. Her husband suggested opening instagram and talking about the thing she was looking for, describing the specific jacket, saying the company started with an “A.” Minutes later, she got the ad for the jacket she was looking for.

When I was driving with some people from work, we were talking about daddy Yankee, and his song “gasolina.” We were using maps to navigate home from an away job. On our route, suddenly there were multiple waypoints suggested on our map, “estaciones de gasolina.” We were speaking English, the person whose phone it was doesn’t speak Spanish.

If they’re not listening, how could these things be possible?

“Okay, good first attempt. But maybe on this second pass we need to limit the scope a little…”

Yeah, this is definitely an issue that needs attention.

But…

That thumbnail. What secret is that hacker carrying in their little tummy basket? It looks like a scrumptious little bitty secret

Care to share what specifically worries you about an offline app utilizing your gps nav data to feed you real time directions? Which permissions I mean. I have org maps but don’t use it too too often because it’s still a little unreliable for me. But I’d love to completely move to it

I got into a long discussion with friends at work who were saying it’s silly to worry about protecting my SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER and getting upset at companies for leaking it because “if it’s gonna get out it’s gonna.” Like…WHAT. How goddamn okay are you people with fighting to prove you’re you and not the person who stole your identity? The fuck. For real.

Yup. I was driving in the car with a few people for work. We were talking about a music video a couple of us had worked on, and we were explaining who daddy yankee/bad bunny was, and we mentioned daddy yankee did the song “gasolina.”

We live in the US, the conversation was in English, but fuck if “estacion de gasolina” didn’t show up on our route.

Yeah, another factor I didn’t even mention. The voluntary surveillance.

Well, we already experience that psychological torture. After 2002/2003, and then especially after 2012, this concept has already burdened our everyday behavior. Browsing behavior, phone calls, texts, emails…every single way we communicate, even face to face meetings with phones in our pockets are open to surveillance. And it’s been shown that it’s been used. Over a decade ago, thanks to Snowden. Now? Things have surely gotten worse and I would bet the farm on behavior very much having changed due these facts.

Or my data

I…responded to your comment.

While i agree with the sentiment thats a ridiculous comparison. Thinking you have nothing to hide from the government is not the same as thinking you have nothing to hide from random entities on the internet. You already give the government all of that stuff when you literally just exist. Go get a social security card or a drivers license. Absolutely asinine to try to compare the two.

And I said “increasingly the entities are the problem.” And you challenged that. And continued to. Hence where this conversation ended up.

In the privacy community, you’re confused as to how big tech is violating your privacy?

Fuckin Forbes knows it. Establishment democrats know it. But you don’t?

Your cars are spying on you. How is this news?

lol this is literally the next article linked after I submitted this comment. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/30/texas-meta-facebook-biometric-data-settlement/

…google, Microsoft, Facebook…need I go on?

In the early 2000s, the issue was primarily the government. Patriot act made sure of that. And yeah, it’s still an issue with regards to the amount and types of data they’re storing and who the government is currently comprised of, but in 2024, the much larger privacy issue is from private data holdings. All those random fuckin apps you have, every cell phone carrier, every goddamn car now. Your data is the product now. And capitalism is the problem.

But increasingly, the data you need to care about not being private isn’t from the govt. airs from those random entities. And their security is godawful.

I use aura, but mostly for credit safety and ease of access to freeze/unfreeze my credit report. Got it after the experian hack ordeal. They have a ton of other services, including a data mining record deletion service and a call monitoring service. I would recommend it for pretty much everything I’ve listed. It’s made my life a lot easier, put my mind at ease. I also work a job where my personal info gets put in a lot of hands I basically have no choice but to trust. So this was kind of a necessity for me. Look into aura’s cheapest plan, see if it includes the data mining removal stuff. The extra layer of security for me is worth it, no question, but the added benefits of this, for example, and the spam call blocking just seals the deal in my opinion.