Privacy

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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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Why is it so hard to get friends to leave Discord, WhatsApp, Instagram, and others? Anyone else feel this? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago by autonomoususer@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I’ve been seeing this more and more in comments, and it’s got me wondering just how big this issue really is. A lot of people feel trapped in apps like Discord, WhatsApp, and Instagram, but can’t get their friends to leave.

It’s really annoying when you suggest trying something new, whether it’s a different app or just not using these platforms so much but sometimes it can feel like no one wants to go first.

So I’m curious, what apps do you feel most trapped in? And have you tried convincing your friends to leave them? What happened? Is it an issue for you, or are you just going along with the flow?

Looking forward to hearing if this is as common as it feels!

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[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

While in the ideal world a non-opensource app would be a deal breaker, in the current world, there is no indication that imessage has any privacy concerns associated with it. It's not just taking Apple at their word, there have been a lot practical analysis of how the protocol works. Plus the underlying cryptography is sound.

https://security.apple.com/assets/files/Security_analysis_of_the_iMessage_PQ3_protocol_Stebila.pdf <- hosted by Apple.
https://www.douglas.stebila.ca/blog/archives/2024/02/21/imessage-pq3/ <-original author
https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity25/sec25cycle1-prepub-595-linker.pdf <- Independent analysis of the protocol and implementation.

Sure you could claim that actually Apple is lying about how they are securing imessage, but that is a lot of effort when they could just take the Facebook approach and straight up admit that they have the ability to read your texts, much easier, and safer legally.

[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I never once wrote 'open source'. I was never writing about that.

Moreover, iMessage requires iOS or similar. Any operating system, iOS, has complete control over its apps, iMessage. iOS fails to include a libre software license text file.

The dangers of this are explained above.

https://lemmy.world/comment/19262111

[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm using "open source" colloquially. The point is that your specific nitpick about imessage not having some specific text file and license associated with it, isn't important in a world where there doesn't exist an alternative that is nearly as robust and supported. Ultimately you are upset that imessage is run by a corporation (a valid complaint) but there is no indication that the corporation is lying to you about the privacy of their messaging service.

[–] autonomoususer@lemmy.world -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Again, I never once wrote 'corporation' or 'lying'. You have completely mischaracterised what I have written.