this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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Whatsapp is privacy invasive, and we likely know that even when using E2EE, this is possible due to metadata tracking.

An easy way to avoid one creepy thing, contact scanning and the creation of "who knows whom" social nets, is to not grant apps permission to your contacts!

But this is not easy, as apps often enforce this, just as they do with

  • embedded cameras instead of using the system camera
  • embedded galleries instead of the 2 available portals (but Google will soon forbid that)
  • asking for unneeded permissions

Only GrapheneOS also allows blocking these permissions

  • sensors
  • internet
  • loading code from memory i.e. from the internet (why would they do that? Is there something they want to hide?)
  • debugging their own code to spy on the system behavior

But this app can help everyone on any Android to at least fix this :)

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Highly recommended to just not use this app vs. trying to bypass malicious features.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

What is that suppose to mean?

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

It means by using this app you're bypassing malicious features but still using malicious software.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That's not life. You can choose to use software that isn't malicious.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

No not if you arent in a position where people you need to contact dont use it lol

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Inform those people that you don't use it, and inform them of the alternatives. Boom, problem solved.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago
[–] pipes 2 points 4 weeks ago

There's also "Open in Whatsapp" which has been around for 5 years, I've used it for all this time actually, I stopped giving Whatsapp access to my contacts around the time I was degoogling, plus I keep it installed in the work profile (Shelter), where I purposefully don't sync my personal addressbook. So this type of apps is very handy for a couple different scenarios:

  • you need to contact someone you have no interest in saving the contact of forever (plumber, guy on craigslist, etc)
  • you want to contact a person you haven't talked to in a long while (otherwise you could just search their name within whatsapp) of which you have the number somewhere else

All in all you save time mostly, and potentially give a little less to Meta.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

embedded galleries instead of the 2 available portals (but Google will soon forbid that)

Is it not using the portal? I thought it was since I'm able to choose every picture without granting media access to WhatsApp

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Interesting, wasnt in the past, that means they are faster than Signal LOL

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

Ah so it is! And yeah, Signal not having it is such a pain

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

I'd rather just use the contact scope feature in GrapheneOS.

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

Well not everyone has GrapheneOS ;) but of course that is also good, but not the same use case at all

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

You can also text yourself a number on WhatsApp and click on the phone number to text them.