Like when Google bought Motorola, like when Facebook bought Instagram, like when Microsoft bought Nokia ... once again, a millionaire purchase makes the web sites almost in unison provide the same information, the purchase of a very successful product at the hands of a large corporation with millions to spare.
This time it is again Facebook who puts the highlight.
Facebook and Instagram
Some time ago there was something called Instagram, many used it because it was something different from the great monopoly? Facebook, allowed to share photos with our friends from the cell phone outside the reach of Facebook and its damn privacy closures, many used it ... many felt safe, but no more. A good day Facebook bought Instagram, but what did that really mean ?:
- Facebook spent a single amount of money that solved many problems for him.
- A potential competitor or enemy was removed, as now they are no longer a competitor, but they are their property
- He took away an alternative, another option from internet users, now there was no other place to go, only to Facebook
- He bought an unparalleled number of user information, that is, he bought the company, the databases, and with them the information that we DID NOT want Facebook to have, because we used Instagram and not Facebook
Do you notice the magnitude of this purchase?
Facebook and Whatsapp
Now with Facebook buying WhatsApp similar happens:
- Facebook spent a single amount of money that, once again, solved many problems for him
- WhatsApp was a semi-competitor for Facebook, since those who used WhatsApp did NOT use Facebook Messenger, therefore, a competitor
- Do you have any idea how many millions of phone numbers and conversations of people Facebook has bought now? Now who owns the WhatsApp databases? …. yes yes ... I'll leave it there ¬_¬
User opinion?
In two movements, Facebook has taken over the king of photography and now the king of messaging. Are the kids smart? 😉 But, this does not mean that it is always well accepted by everyone.
When the Instagram thing, according to a study by crimson hexagon (a company specializing in social media studies) said that only 12% of the 201.000 mentions of the acquisition on Twitter were positive immediately after the announcement. While 10% expressed their dislike on Facebook and another 10% promised to delete themselves from Instagram
Now with Facebook doing its own thing by buying WhatsApp, well, I can do many things but predicting the future is not one of them ... however, whoever writes to them even though they do not use WhatsApp (and I'm glad about that!) Can't be more in Against this type of purchase, purchases where a lot of information from millions of users changes ownership without consulting the most affected, the user.
By the way, did you know that Facebook can see your SMS / MMS? That is, now Facebook has your Instagram information, if you decided download whatsapp and use it (fine on Linux with Pidgin or otherwise) because Facebook also has your information, plus all the information that you have given yourself by filling out your Facebook profile, and so we are, giving away everything that has happened and happens in our lives vidas
You don't feel so 'safe' or so 'protected' anymore LOL!
To sell or not to sell, that is the question
Let's see, let's not kid ourselves ... if Google or Facebook comes tomorrow and offers them several million for their website, 99.9% of those who are in that position would sell, leaving the remaining 0.01% to those who will be called crazy, they will be called even idiots for the rest.
The problem is that when someone is in that position they only have two options: Sell or Don't sell:
- To sell: You sell the product of the result, of the work and effort of your life. You had a good idea, you made a good product, you sell it to a great company and you become a millionaire, and that's it. As simple as that, it would be to put it in some way, take the easy way, but a way that would make you hated by millions of users, because you have sold personal information of those people to another company.
- Do not sell: You can also choose not to sell. Let's see, up to now you started a project from scratch, you gave it life, shaped it and made it grow, and it grew ... it grew so much that one of the greats (Google, Facebook, etc.) noticed you, wanted to buy from you. This only means one thing: You and your project / product are worth a lot! . If a large company is willing to pay 1 million dollars for X product, it means that at that moment or in X time your product will be worth not 1 million, but many more. No large corporation today is stupid, if they are going to buy something for X amount of money, it is because they know that they will profit from it, they will get X + 1000 times the money invested. So, if you've made something go from zero to that high point so far, Why not continue betting on you and that project of yours? So far nothing has gone bad for you, you can continue to be autonomous, not have an owner and continue to grow and
moving on, I repeat, so far you have done well, why would you do disastrously bad? Taking the option to sell is the easiest way, but it is not always the fairest for everyone or the most correct.
- What do you think of buying WhatsApp on Facebook?
- Will they continue to use Whatsapp or they will go to Telegram?
- Are you afraid that Telegram will be bought by another big one in the future?
There I leave it 🙂
The truth is, I don't know much about this issue and I'm not worried because I don't have a cell phone with WhatsApp but knowing that Facebook keeps buying applications with personal information if it seems serious to me ... that's all I can say, I really liked this article, I would like put it on my blog with credits in favor of you? Cheers
It would be my pleasure, go ahead! 🙂
The same thing happens to me, I no longer know which site or company to trust and give you my information ... ¬¬
Quite a thorny issue, we all know the amount of privacy violations that Facebook does (the surprising thing is not what Facebook takes, but what its users are willing to give away when accepting the terms and conditions) and the more information it has company will be worse for all of us who want to maintain a minimum of privacy ...
WhatsApp in itself was disgusting when it came to handling private information, I don't want to imagine what it will be like now that it belongs to Facebook… come on, it's like throwing gasoline on a flame and our data is what is burning. And what is truly worrisome in this matter is that most of the people do not give a damn that facebook or whatsappp handles their private data.
I have never used facebook, whatsapp or any social network, I and people like me are the new outcasts of the XNUMXst century, however and sadly I know that many of my data are flying around because of family and friends 🙁
Anyway ... between google and facebook because I doubt that 2014 is the year of personal data privacy D:
Sorry for the intrusion, but this page in one way or another is a social network. So do not say that you have never used a social network, because that, in the XXI century, is a big lie.
Nor was WhatsApp very secure in terms of the privacy of our data. Regarding to sell or not to sell, if they offer you 19000 million ...
1. I have already given up, I think that between google and facebook they even know the address of my house and my daily life. (That happens to me for using android cell phones, facebook, whatsapp, instagram (I already deleted it a few months ago), the google search engine and gmail.
2.I don't think I use telegram because all my contacts are on whatsapp
3. I don't know, but if they offer you enough money they may end up doing it, who knows.
There is nothing safe in these times, there is no privacy even if you think it is. Cheers
The truth is that it is admirable how "the greats" act. It's great.
The only thing that Facebook lacked was to have the phone numbers of its users and now it has them. In addition, these users interact with each other and comment on things like "Camping with so and so", which thanks to 'San G' with its maps and blessed smartphones, we can see on the profile of our face friends the legend "1 hour ago through from your cell phone. Near »😀
We will see how this great novel continues. Facebook and Google are yet to join forces with Microsoft and meet Skynet's goal under NSA orders. Now I wonder: and Ubuntu ... what role does it play?
Facebook already had our phone numbers for a long time, in the basic information of our profiles it is, as long as you have added it. That is why I do not understand such concern. The gps issue is as simple as turning it off or configuring Facebook to not place the tag. Now, if privacy is about that is another issue.
regards
I did not want to read another article of this soap opera ……… I come from a Byzantine debate in the free networks room and we started talking about the lack of killer apps in xmpp. There they hate the idea of their client accessing their agenda, but that was precisely the key to the success of WhatsApp and what they are copying line, viber, telegram, etc. because users DO want that. But of course, that is borreguismo for them.
Oh by the way, this article should be removed.
https://blog.desdelinux.net/como-usar-whatsapp-en-linux-con-pidgin/
Those on whatsapp got pissed off and had their repos removed
https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2014-02-12-WhatsApp.md
Thanks for the notice!
Just in case, we did not delete it but we added a notice at the beginning of the article clarifying that the method described to make whatsapp work in pidgin has stopped working.
Hug! Paul.
In this as most of the pages ask you at least to deliver your mail to participate, in Starship Troopers you had to do military service to be a citizen on the day you have to leave your data just to give your opinion.
I have been leaving facebug for a long time, one day I will get away from the evil clutches of google and when x86 devices arrive I will abandon ios and live like master stallman
Man !, it is not to be so alarmed, anyway, we have nothing bad to hide, or am I wrong?
I agree with you, we are also in the era of social networks, what users are interested in is sharing their life with everyone ...
It's not having something bad to hide or not, it's just that ... do you go around on the street telling all strangers what your birthday is, your tastes and what you do every day? … no? … Then why do it on the internet?
Exact. Also, if I have something to hide, what happens? who will decide if it is bad or not? Facebook? The Yankees? Let's go…
I have already gone to Telegram and many of my friends too. Without being the panacea, it is much better than whatsapp and open source at least 😀
It seems to me something completely normal and expected .. We are talking about companies: D ..
In my opinion the fault lies with the users. If applications such as Facebook and WhatsApp store our information… Why do they use them?
There are other much better options that encrypt our communication to the outside.
Good post, friend, the news really sucks. Luckily I never used WhatsApp just because it asked me for my phone number.
I do not know Telegram, and the problem with instant messaging is always with whom you communicate, if all your friends use a program, it is logical that you also use that one. It is by contagion, let's say, by not being "outside." The same happened with Facebook.
I wish it was easier for everyone to use Gibberbot, for example ...
Greetings.
It seems to me the most normal thing in the world because obviously Facebook is not interested in the application itself, what they want are its users and their data, it also seems like a huge pasture, an insulting amount of money for a few »Lines of code.
About the item and about selling or not selling I don't see it clear, if you don't sell your application you may die of success and never receive an offer again or at least one that high and perhaps you are no longer interested in the sale so much, you have to take into account that the success of these things fades quite quickly with the passage of time, WhatsApp is worth 14K million today but perhaps in two years it will be worth nothing.
At the level of large companies it can be a complex issue but for an independent developer who may not know how to monetize the product, an insulting purchase offer of this style is a unique opportunity that should not be rejected.
Another thing is the ethical and moral issue, there each dog must lick his tail and bear with the consequences 🙂
It is the same that will happen with Snaptu: At first, the indignation; and then absolute disappearance.
With WhatsApp I did not have a nice good memory to say, since it has been the most mediocre instant messaging service I have tried so far. The truth is that I am not surprised that Facebook acquired it because of its popularity (at least I'm on Telegram, which has let me install it on the external memory of my smartphone).
With XMPP / Jabber, for it to become popular, you should do the following: focus your efforts on the implementation in Diaspora *, and call it "Diaspora * Messenger", since the word "Messenger" has stuck in our brains thanks to the legacy of Windows Live Messenger (which by the way, before his death, Tencent QQ had surpassed in terms of quality of service and functions), and that an official Diaspora * application is required for every smart device that exists on the face of land (including those that still use J2ME / MIDLet).
Before having my first "smartphone", I used my beloved Sony Ericsson W200 to access the Internet from my cell phone. With Snaptu, I could use it as if it were a smart device, since it let me in to Facebook, Twitter and also used it as an RSS feed reader. 3 years ago Facebook acquired the company that was in charge of this application, and now they only make "Facebook for any phone", which I think works much better than the official application for Android.
After all, Telegram has seen the avalanche of thousands of users who were frustrated because WhatsApp suffered a "crash" on its servers.
Anyway, I will be supporting Diaspora * and XMPP / Jabber, and that Kontalk allows me to install it in the external memory as Telegram does.
Not only google and facebook give away our information, but also our own government (Argentine). The other day I looked for the name of my mother and friends directly in the search engine and I skipped a web where all the AFIP data appeared, my phone number, document, address, my occupation, etc. It's a sh ... we can't keep our information. I started deleting accounts of very old pages and I am thinking of deleting those of today, but the but, is that if I do, I am left out of the system and I cannot communicate with anyone. I use Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and almost all the other social networks and it is because since all my friends are there, I have no choice but to use it. I want to go to Telegram, but the bad thing is that nobody of my acquaintances uses it or wants to spend on downloading it. The great fault lies with the users who let ourselves be carried away, for following the mass.
What do I do to protect my data? Maybe I have to change for false data right?
What do you recommend me?
I can give you some steps to take, you have to follow them in order:
1) Have a coffee with milk.
2) Watch a good Christian program (it has helped me, and I'm an atheist)
3) Burn your copies of 1984 and read better Rebellion at the Farm, or Frankenstein.
4) Read this article to you
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/02/how_i_learned_to_stop_worrying_and_love_a_less_private_internet.html
5) Convince yourself that you are not a terrorist or a criminal.
6) take a good nap
7) When you wake up, check that everything is the same in the world
8) Convince yourself that you are not a terrorist or a criminal, again.
9) Take a deep breath and listen to an Enya record
10) While you listen to it, you read this
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/ten-steps-against-surveillance
You do not need to do everything at once, but step by step you will gain confidence and you will feel safe.
And for programs, go to prism-break.org
Well, personally, if Telegram helps enough people to stay in touch, then I think I would migrate, since this program is for all tastes and colors (Webapp, Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, etc. FirefoxOS and others), It is even for PC !! Which means that the other person could have Android on the road and I be in an office and be talking from the web client or Windows program or whatever and him / her from his / her phone since I imagine that Telegram is similar to WhatsApp in the fact that it asks you to be in a place with a connection to inter or data plan
I do not have WhatsApp either, and it is better that I have not bought one with this purchase by Facebook (do not take it to bad FB users, but I personally also hate FB so you are not alone @ KZKG ^ Gaara) also my sister (WhatsApp user) says that she has caused problems in the servers and does not connect, so if I manage to migrate to her and many more I will achieve enough for the matter and that they keep in touch (although I will see how I do because Blackberry does not It appears as a platform and many people I know use it, even in my company)