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A comment on WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebook or stop using app. Parent comment

Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by Freak_NL on Thursday January 07, 2021 @07:13AM (#25670143)
All of these apps seem to hate open platforms and third party clients; Signal just as much as WhatsApp. I wouldn't even mind using WhatsApp if I could just open a browser window on any modern computer and log on like I can with Twitter. But no, I need to have a smartphone with either Android or IOS. They all want that magic unique personal identifier that is the mobile phone number to prevent you from having more than one persona, and they all want their closed apps as the sole way of using their service.

Of course, that requirement is exactly how they implement the user lock-in, so it's not going anywhere until legislation forces them to open up.

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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by vorticalbox on Thursday January 07, 2021 @08:07AM (#25670545)
Signal is actually open source but I agree with the sentiment.

Services now just want some person info they can link to you and that actually scares me a little.

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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by Freak_NL on Thursday January 07, 2021 @09:12AM (#25671199)
You're right about Signal having an open source client of course. It's a closed platform because of the 'no-forks-allowed' stipulations.
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Re:WhatsApp gives users an ultimatum: Share data with Facebo... by Bit32 on Friday January 08, 2021 @11:43AM (#25686513)
The main reason for not wishing that Signal is forked revolves around adding new features. It stops things being fragmented.

As both the client _and the server_ is open source though it's entirely possible to do things like Signal<->Matrix bridges.

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