In addition, I vaguely remember something about the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook to be only approved under condition that exactly this kind of data sharing would not happen.
Although I have my doubts about it happening soon, because the immediate impact it would have on real everyday life could by rather disastrous initially (something Facebook no doubt is aware of), the EU should probably declare/certify Facebook as a rogue/criminal organization. I just can't see it any other way, with Facebook's blatant disregard for anything but its own greedy interests.
If Facebook keeps pushing their "luck" like this, it should simply have all its assets on EU soil frozen. If eventually rules a criminal organization, confiscated too. It would be very sad and unfortunate for any EU citizens working for the company, who no doubt have no say in Facebook's criminal enterprise. But the current status quo is becoming completely unacceptable.
History has plenty of lessons, about criminal organizations rising to (hard to defeat levels of) power. In many cases more than anything because both societies and governments/authorities failed to respond appropriately in time, when they still had a fair chance containing those (with far less effort).
All that is even without opening the can of worms that is the access US government agencies have to all of Facebook's data.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/refo...
"If you don't live in the European Region, WhatsApp LLC provides WhatsApp to you under this Terms of Service and Privacy Policy."
I've used the Signal app and it's a bug fest. Telegram is not even encrypted by default and there is no option for encrypted groups.
This isn't necessarily true - that's basically the problem with monopolies and the point of anti-trust. The network effect really can entrench an inferior product.
MMS messages are hot garbage but they're still better than a lot of alternatives because everyone with a phone can receive them.
They could just run it as a paid service again? They had a minimal annual charge before the Facebook acquisition and probably could have raised that, instead Facebook made it "free" which should have been a warning sign of things to come.
Friendly reminder that encryption is more than E2E-encryption despite what certain people on HN thinks.
Telegram is encrypted point-to-point by default. Same as banks, modern mail etc.
Can we stop spreading technical misinformation now, please? There's plenty of other issues with Telegram and if we stop crying wolf over the neighbors grand danois people might actually believe us when there is an actual wolf.
99% of people outside of the HN bubble will just look at the dialog, click OK and carry on as normal.
That is to say, both options are bad. Of course it is conceptually better to spread your information over many separate information silos so that your data is harder to correlate. That should not be the bar we aspire to though.
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.
Services now just want some person info they can link to you and that actually scares me a little.
As both the client _and the server_ is open source though it's entirely possible to do things like Signal<->Matrix bridges.
If so, do you have other notable examples or is it insider information? ;-)
I know you’re not engaging in good faith but I’m adding this more for the benefit of onlookers
That was uncalled for. Please adjust your troll-detector and I'll adjust my wittyness dispenser ;-)
I am serious even when I'm joking, but I have never heard anyone saying that in full seriousness and also it feels like we should have known something: even the Russian secret service isn't perfect, in fact they've done some really big mistakes the last few years (in addition to their deliberate "mistakes" that they seemingly do to show off.)
Do you have a source for that. Telegram is built by the VKontakt guys who Putin famously fucked over.
Only if you trust Facebook with their proprietary software.
Same for the Apple (and others') taxes in Ireland: While the Irish have been told by courts and the rest of Europe to collect the taxes they are owed, they just refuse to do so.
Also your understanding of the Apple case is a little out of whack too. There's a lot of subtlety to it, but basically the court ruled in Apple's favour on a technicality and there is a revised appeal pending.
The US sees FAANG as its babies and will protect them at all costs. Its up to the rest of the world to rein them in.