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Comment by rajeshmr | Hacker News Reader

> "a Facebook user could send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, for example. Currently, that isn’t possible because the apps are separate."

This freaks me out, as i have deliberately chosen to stay away from facebook since the early days! I somehow felt repelled by the idea of facebook back then, now its trying to hunt me down! Oops!

I have been thinking of quitting Whatsapp since facebook acquired it, but continued using it since almost everyone i frequently communicate with does so on Whatsapp.

Maybe it's time to quit whatsapp before this integration happens! Or am i just freaking out ? :D

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I don't think you're wrong. The point of this integration is to start connecting Whatsapp's giant database of phone numbers with Facebook Messenger/IG accounts. At this time, it's still possible to be anonymous on Whatsapp, but that ends once this project is completed.

Been trying to get friends and family to switch to Signal since early 2017 with no luck.

You're only as anonymous as the contact records in all the phones you're communicating with, i.e. not at all. The only winning move is not to play

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/26/how-to-stop-your-phone-from-...

This is a sour point for me. It bugs me that other people can reveal information about me and there is little I can do. I actually stopped entering contacts into my phone because of this. Or I put false names for ones I man need to label. I recognise my contacts by their phone number. I doubt my part is overly effective because others likely don't do this but it is my way of saying screw off. I hope one day legislation will regulate these companies and what they share about us. I thought Facebook promised it would not suck up the whatsapp data how can they integrate without all that data? Reminds me of a child. Was told no so going to just do it anyways and see if there is a punishment after. I hope some regulatory body sinks Facebook over this idea.

It's almost entirely ineffective. Each phone book upload probably nets them something like ~100 contacts, multiply that by 1.74 billion and the war is entirely lost. A bit like how self-driving cars may shortly redefine the meaning of 'public space'.

Depressing to think that it's a lost case already!

May I know why you deleted your reply ? Should I also be careful around here ? :)

Self preservation :) I didn't want to get drawn into a thread about some topic I shouldn't be paying attention to just now!

Ha ha, true! :) but i felt your point was good, there is an upside to the fact we are acknowledging the state of affairs as it is.

> "It bugs me that other people can reveal information About me and there is little I can do"

Very true and it has been bugging me since I have gotten familiar with internet since a long time ago. This was the reason I used to create accounts online without my real data back then. Up until recently that is. Once there were tools in place to get rid of ur discovery online, unless deliberately shared I stayed away. But everything comes under question once more. This is hostile takeover of data.

And yeah, I used to be as meticulous about data as you had been while storing phone contacts etc., But more and more it is becoming evident that what's given away online can never come back to you at least until there is effective regulation in place.

I appreciate the EU for their foresight and strict data policies!

Same with Truecaller, I had been rallying against the use of Truecaller for a long time. At least now, they have provided an option to get yourself delisted, if my memory is correct. :)

https://www.truecaller.com/unlisting

^Site to do so. I figured that I'd share my lesson[s] from my own idiocy: Note that you need to put in your full international number (even though they make you select a country?) for it to work.

So, for Sweden, 075555555 becomes +4675555555 (which most people don't store their contacts' numbers with country code but what do I know, yeah?).

i am surprised i can delist also my contacts, there is no verification SMS or anything

Yeah, it's pretty surprising for them to have such a glaring blindspot.

I've been using the mobile web version of FB for the last few years; aside from a couple of TV show community pages, I don't use it at all. Still, FB likely has a chunk of my contacts anyway from 2012 or whenever I last had it installed.

Exactly, once the integration is complete it's all over.

Also, I have been trying to request people to move on to other platforms with no luck for the past many years.

Just a heads up: Facebook already does this. You don't need to have a Facebook account for them to know who you are.

They already did connect the two databases and were fined in Europe for it.

You could try Wire and see if that would be easier to sell to friends and family. You can sign up with an email address and use usernames. There's no need to reveal your phone number. It has better reliability and user experience compared to Signal.

It's an improvement for me as I'm desperately trying to get away from Facebook but all of my friends and family insist on using Messenger (I don't use the site itself anymore). I know WhatsApp is owned by them but one less Facebook app on my phone (by deleting Messenger Lite) can only be a good thing. I could even delete my FB account if they are truly interoperable.

You can try just using https://mbasic.facebook.com/messages/ on your mobile browser. It's quite limited but it gets the job done. Let's hope they don't shut it down as well.

Ideally, you should've deleted your WhatsApp account when Facebook bought it.

But it's not too late to wean yourself off of it and get rid of your account (though you have given more information to Facebook through WhatsApp all this while).

YMMV, but here are some suggestions. Turn off notifications and the message count badge completely. Then avoid opening the app. Do these for a few days until you realize that you're not missing much and are probably less stressed and happier than before. Get others to use Wire (I won't recommend Signal because it sucks and has a bad user experience even in 2019, and has only its protocol's fame going for it).

> WhatsApp account

There's no such thing though.

I don’t understand on what basis you made that comment and what you intended to convey. There certainly is a “WhatsApp account” and has been for several years.

WhatsApp calls every number as an “account”. I deleted my account when WhatsApp was bought by Facebook. Here are the links to WhatsApp’s own FAQ to delete one’s account on iOS [1] and Android. [2]

[1] https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/iphone/21325453/?category=524524...

[2]: https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/android/21119703

Do you think they will just erase your data? More likely, it gets merged anyways.

FB messenger never really took off outside the US because Whatsapp was dominant.

Clearly FB wanted to not just have access to those users, but also integrate them into the wider FB ecosystem.

FB messenger is absolutely dominant in Australia.

Denmark begs to differ.

I hate to sound pendantic but this part is wrong or very misleading too:

>"a Facebook user could send an encrypted message to someone who has only a WhatsApp account, for example. Currently, that isn’t possible because the apps are separate."

Nothing stops you from encrypting with your own scheme before sending the message to the other service, it’s just added inconvenience. More importantly it implies that you depend on the medium owner for the key management which (as others here are pointing out) defeats the point of encryption (in part) by allowing said medium to read the plaintexts.

Edit: Am I wrong?

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