Reasons not to use WhatsApp

<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> <title>Reasons not to use WhatsApp</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <link media="all" href="/common/stallman.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/common/rms.png" /> </head> <body> <h1>Richard Stallman's personal site.</h1> <h2><a href="/">https://stallman.org</a></h2> <p> For current political commentary, see the <a href="/archives/polnotes.html">daily political notes</a>. </p> <p> <a href="/biographies.html#serious">RMS's Bio</a> | <a href="http://gnu.org">The GNU Project</a> </p> <hr /> <div class="c2"> What's bad about: <a href="/airbnb.html">Airbnb</a> | <a href="/amazon.html">Amazon</a> | <a href="/amtrak.html">Amtrak</a> | <a href="/ancestry.html">Ancestry</a> | <a href="/apple.html">Apple</a> | <a href="/change.org.html">Change.org</a> | <a href="/chatgpt.html">ChatGPT</a> | <a href="/cloudflare.html">Cloudflare</a> | <a href="/discord.html">Discord</a> | <a href="/disney.html">Disney</a> | <a href="/ebooks.pdf">Ebooks</a> | <a href="/eventbrite.html">Eventbrite</a> | <a href="/evernote.html">Evernote</a> | <a href="/twitter.html">Ex-Twitter</a> | <a href="/facebook.html">Facebook</a> | <a href="/flixbus.html">FLIXbus</a> | <a href="/frito-lay.html">Frito-Lay</a> | <a href="/frontier.html">Frontier</a> | <a href="/google.html">Google</a> | <a href="/gofundme.html">Gofundme</a> | <a href="/food-delivery.html">Grubhub</a> | <a href="/in-n-out-burger.html">In-N-Out Burger</a> | <a href="/intel.html">Intel</a> | <a href="/linkedin.html">LinkedIn</a> | <a href="/lyft.html">Lyft</a> |  <a href="/eventbrite.html">Meetup</a> | <a href="/microsoft.html">Microsoft</a> | <a href="/netflix.html">Netflix</a> | <a href="/patreon.html">Patreon</a> | <a href="/pay-toilets.html">Pay Toilets</a> | <a href="/privatization.html">Privatization</a> | <a href="/skype.html">Skype</a> | <a href="/slack.html">Slack</a> | <a href="/spotify.html">Spotify</a> | <a href="/tesla.html">Tesla</a> | <a href="/threads.html">Threads</a> | <a href="/ticketmaster.html">Ticketmaster</a> |  <a href="/uber.html">Uber</a> | <a href="/wendys.html">Wendy's</a> | <a href="/whatsapp.html">WhatsApp</a> | <a href="/zoom.html">Zoom</a> | </div> <h1>Reasons not to use WhatsApp</h1> <p> What can we say about users of WhatsApp? What sApps! <p> <ul> <li> The personal data that WhatsApp collects is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/25/whatsapp-backlash-facebook-data-privacy-users">also available to Facebook</a>. </li> <li> Use of whatsapp requires giving a phone number. </li> <li> Using WhatsApp requires you to run non-free software either in the form of JavaScript code downloaded and run in the browser or through their app. </li> <li> WhatsApp collects lots of personal information about each user, including data given to it by other businesses. Search in <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy-eea">this link</a> for "information we collect". <p> As for what they say about how they do or don't use the data, they probably do not interpret those words in the same way a non-lawyer would. Also, the FBI can demand all that data at any time without a warrant by means of the PAT RIOT Act, and it has no obligation to follow WhatsApp's policies at all. </li> </ul> </body> </html>

CINXE.COM

Reasons not to use WhatsApp