How much worse is it privacy wise for me to give them access to my contacts?
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- 20 hours
I’ve not read an actual answer to your question in the comments so far.
If you live somewhere where WhatsApp is the dominant chat app, then you are already a data point for Meta. Unless nobody has your phone number in their contacts.
If you’re concerned about a specific entry in your list of contacts, then it depends on your own point of view. You could use the same logic a above to justify sharing it. You could also decide that you don’t like that logic and you do not.
So, how much worse is it? Probably inconsequential.
Just to add some aluminium; when using whatsapp your phone data (brand, android version, etc) are added to big data.
- 2 days
No. Meta is a data harvesting company. Any points of data you give them is bad, privacy-wise.
And don’t believe the claptrap that WhatsApp is “safe” from prying eyes or truly E2EE. Meta is not and has never been trustworthy, and they have been caught lying on countless occasions.
Use their products at your own peril.
- 20 hours
I believe whats app is ‘true’ e2ee, as its easy to audit. Meta couldnt really give a shit about your messages. However, having access to your device is a Goldmine
but everyone I know uses them and no, they’re not switching to signal…
Well, then y’all can enjoy your loss of privacy. I’m not telling you what to do, but that is the consequence of using their products.
I know, but they don’t give a fuck, and I need to keep up with my friends somehow.
Not with that attitude (like, unironically speaking, you have to be more insistent)
- 16 hours
they just said no, I respect that
EVERYONE IN MY COUNTRY USES WHATSAPP, YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT WA HERE YK…
- 4 hours
EVERYONE IN MY COUNTRY USES WHATSAPP, YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT WA HERE YK…
Same thing probably could have been said about my country (Germany) 10 years ago, and look where we’re at now.
I spontaneously deleted my WhatsApp account a few years ago and haven’t regretted it once. When people suddenly can’t contact you through WhatsApp anymore, they can still use SMS (which is horrible as well but still better than any services by Meta) or hopefully give in at some point and also use Signal.
Also, do those friends of yours know that you don’t have to immediately abandon WhatsApp to use Signal? Both can be used simultaneously, like many of my family and relatives do, and I see almost no logical reason to refuse that.
- 3 hours
BRO SMS AIN’T BETTER THAN WHATSAPP IT HAS NO ENCRYPTION, PURE FANBOYISM
They just don’t want another chat app on their phone, they just use wa for almost everything
It’s not “fanboyism”, I already wrote that SMS is horrible. And what makes you so sure that WhatsApp really is really properly encrypted and not doing some shenanigans? Proprietary apps can claim all kinds of things. So call me naive, but I’ll take minimal non-sensitive unencrypted SMS through a somewhat trustworthy service provider over basically spyware on my phone any day, although that may of course be because I live somewhere with relatively decent data protection laws (not that one should put too much trust in those either, but eh, still better than trusting fucking Meta imho).
People install all kinds of crap on their phones, but a single more private messenger is suddenly too much to ask for? Some people really are beyond saving… Though I can kinda relate, my brother is just as stubborn. Any way, I’d still advise to just quit WA and tell them you’ll only communicate through Signal (or SimpleX, Session, etc.) in the future, which should help as an incentive. If you’re willing to do that is of course up to yo
The bigger question is why are your so-called friends not respecting your privacy? Anyone who wouldn’t switch to signal for me is not someone I would want to call a friend.
But as the other person said, no it’s not safe to use WhatsApp.
- 18 hours
because they don’t care about privacy and I also need business associates on there…
how am I their friend if I’m forcing them to care about something they don’t care about.
also they “want to give meta their data so that the algorithm keeps them on the app as long as possible”, since they got nothing to do. also these friends are more like colleagues than anything else, but I need to keep up with them because of work
- 16 hours
You wouldn’t be forcing them to care about something they don’t care about. You don’t have to care about privacy to use signal.
I have friends from all walks of life that message me on signal because that’s all I use, most of them don’t care about privacy. To them it’s just another messaging app like WhatsApp, messenger, discord, etc.
But I guess that’s unfortunately not an option in your particular circumstance
- 2 days
Personally I wouldn’t give Facebook and Meta access to the list of people I know with their names, phone numbers, and some addresses.
- 2 days
DOB, relationships, photos. Multiple email addresses, etc.
1 dayCan you have separate WhatsApp contacts to your phone contacts? Maybe copy them manually to WhatsApp if needed?
- RogueBanana@piefed.zipEnglish1 day
I use Launch Chat for the occasional use. You can paste the number there and press a button to open whatsapp dms for given number. Been using it for a very long time without contacts access and never faced an issue, installed from fdroid repo.
- 19 hours
I do that too, but I got way too many ppl on wa and its hard to keep track of them.
Maybe just don’t use WhatsApp at all?
Or use it in a privacy handbox like Blackbox or a work profile.
- 2 days
This is literally the main thing Meta is interested in. DO NOT EVER DO THAT, please.
This app can be used as a work around to add contacts in WhatsApp: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dev.theolm.wwc/
Or this one: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.vinaygopinath.launchchat/
but it doesn’t show u ppls names, and when you have a lot of ppl on the app, it’s impossible to keep track od them…
also ur carrier knows ur contact list aswell…
- 2 days
It is also inconvenient in many other ways, because Meta makes it intentionally annoying to use WhatsApp without contact permissions 🤷
And no, your carrier does not have access to your phone’s contact list. There is a lot more privacy relevant details in it than pure calling information.
Yes they do, when I message them via sms, which I’ve done w most od my contacts list
- 2 days
No, why would give sending SMS give access to your contact list? The carrier has no system access to the phone contacts app.
Edit: The phone contact app includes a lot more details than just the number. Names, alternative numbers, associated email addresses etc are all in the contacts app and potentially accessible to WhatsApp.
What the carrier has is no different to what WhatsApp gets when you use a number on their service.
Yeah, some do that because that way they have even more control over your data and can trap you in their shitty plans.
- 2 days
Yeah, here in Germany, we’ve had a verdict that you need to get written permission from all your contacts, if you give WhatsApp access to their data: https://www.rv.hessenrecht.hessen.de/bshe/document/LARE190000029
I would assume, the same is true in the entire EU.
- 1 day
You hope that you don’t get sued… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Obviously, the vast majority of people never get sued over this, but if you don’t like someone, it’s one of those lawsuits you can throw at pretty much anyone and they’ll likely be guilty.
- 12 hours
I don’t know, if they collect contact information or how it’s processed, so no idea…
- 2 days
are the terms that you accept when using WhatsApp real enough for you?
You provide us, in accordance with applicable laws, the phone numbers in your mobile address book on a regular basis, including those of both the users of our Services and your other contacts. You confirm you are authorized to provide us such numbers to allow us to provide our Services.
well most ppl in the EU use WhatsApp and give wa access to their contacts…
- 2 days
I’ve been refusing to give them permission for about 5 years now, and the only ill effect I’ve really had is not having a name associated with the contact when texting them
Luckily the folks I tend to chat with the most on whatsapp have a variety of different area codes, so it isn’t too complicated. Groups can still have names, so that also helps
