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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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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[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago

It isn't unique, it provides text, voice and video chatting. These are not new services to the world of technology.

What makes Discord stand apart is that they require that your chats, calls and streams are not private and, in exchange for people giving up their private data the users only have to install one piece of software instead of two. It is like a company giving people a 'free' phone as long as they or their advertisers can listen into the calls, read the texts and look at the videos on the phone.

The only thing that Discord does is to package the software in such a way that you can't access it until you give them information about you and then they gate features behind you identifying yourself with a credit card and a phone number.