this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I hope that the DMA gets passed in the EU. It'll (hopefully) break the monopoly worldwide

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Interoperability is a weird one though. Imagine WhatsApp can connect to Signal, and people use this feature. What would then be the point of using Signal, if WhatsApp gets the data after all?

(Signal has already announced not wanting to support this, I just used it as an example)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As I understand it, your example should be the other way around. WhatsApp will need to offer a public API to allow Signal to send and receive messages to/from WhatsApp users.

Signal is unlikely to be deemed a gatekeeper, so can keep their closed communication ecosystem. They can just optionally choose to support interop with WhatsApp. If they prefer, they can also have big warning signs in the UI, when their users decide to utilize that interop.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Whatever way it works, I could see people giving up certain services if they allow interoperability with the gatekeepers, because why use these alternatives then.

But then again, the services that take privacy seriously won't do it in the first place, so it should be a non-issue.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

The point is that anyone could switch at any time and we wouldn't have to make switch all at once.

There would be real competition.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I prefer Signal to Whatsapp. IDC about Whatsapp having my data. The point is choosing the app which most suits your needs and wants.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So what needs do you have outside of a different look? Privacy doesn't seem to be one of them, and the two apps are very similar otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So I can use one app I like and message or call anyone I need to reach without having to set up 10 accounts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fair enough. Won't work with Signal though, they've stated that they will never open up

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Signal is irrelevant. It's just an example. I can try Telegram or any other app.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

True. However there are certain advantages

  • WhatsApp gets only a part of your data (coz many people might be on different apps)
  • You don't have to run WhatsApp on your device so they can't collect that data either

I know it's not perfect but better than the current scenario and a step in the right direction

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Since WhatsApp is proprietary, we don't know if the users are the only ones who can decrypt their messages. I'll always have to assume Meta can read everything, which is the most sensible data they could possibly collect.

So that alone should be reason enough to avoid it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. I don't endorse WhatsApp. What I meant is if you chat with 15 people out of which 5 use WhatsApp, only those 5 chats are potentially readable by Meta. Because those are the only chats which will get sent to Meta servers.

So you have the benefit that the other 10 chats are not readable by Meta.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, true. And concerning your name and phone number, they probably already have that too, one way or another.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

At this point I just assume Meta, Google and Apple have my number due to people storing the number on their devices. Amazon also might have it because people might have paid me via Amazon Pay (and given it access to contacts).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh man, I hadn't heard of the DMA before. How exciting!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I only heard of it because I follow Matrix blog.

I saw the technical discussions (if you are a tech person I would recommend watching those on YT) and it seems that EU is trying to find some middle ground where companies won't have to incur a lot of losses but still be open and create a fair environment for newcomers.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it's already been passed, it should be coming into force next year!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh wow. TIL! Any recommendws sources? I want to read the full coverage

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh yeah it says it directly on the wiki page you linked XD

was signed into law by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU in September 2022

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Lmao my bad. Thanks I'll read up about it.