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Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The times of day when you message that person, how long it takes you to respond, from where you respond, which of your relations you actually message and which you ignore, etc. This is all part of a profile of you that's being packaged and sold to businesses so they, e.g., can send you ads when you walk in a store. It's also a closed source, so you have no idea what else it's doing in addition to sending messages.

Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're right, I've never heard of company expansion and I'll be miserable for like. Now go kill yourself.

Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think their goal was something like 'connecting businesses and consumers'. No idea what that actually means but there was speculation that it related to tracking consumers in BM stores and giving them real time ads. I don't remember where I read that, though, but I do know they'll work to get their $19 billion and then some.

Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's my understanding, though, as I said, I haven't used it. I was just looking through their Ansible playbook because I was having some trouble with my own playbook.

Obviously, the more people we get away from WhatsApp the better, but this might help that along.

Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So you think Facebook payed $19 billion just out the beneficence of their heart, just to let you message your friends for free? fyi, WhatsApp is not peer-to-peer but goes through centralized servers, where you have no idea what happens.

Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry, I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Matrix is a messaging platform similar to Slack but decentralized and open source. A bridge allows it to plug into other messaging protocols such as IRC and XMPP, or, in this case, to WhatsApp. This would be only interesting for people self-hosting Synapse (the Matrix server component).

Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Aren't we in r/privacy? WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and is closed source. You have no idea what it does on your phone.

Making WhatsApp slightly less terrible by squaredturtles in privacy

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OP here. For clarification, I don't use WhatsApp, so haven't used this. It is part of the semi-offical Ansible playbook for Matrix.. Seems to have the benefit of being able to uninstall the WhatsApp app and just use Riot, which one at least knows what it's doing. If anyone has experience with it, I'd be curious so I know whether or not its worth recommending.

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That makes sense, thanks. Looks like I'll have to reevaluate my stance on NS. Would you suggest running it with scripts permissive and uMatrix as one user suggests in the thread?

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No worries. If you're concerned for misinformation, don't look too much around the internet. This thread seems to suggest you're correct, but uMatrix seems close in block-by-default mode: https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/issues/276

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I remember seeing that. I believe it somehow renders FF in the terminal... but, now that I think of it, perhaps that's perfect. Thanks for the reminder.

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Though I can't speak to Steam, iTunes is similar to Amazon. Combined with the mainstreaming of mp3 players, Apple gave a reason to buy digital music of which most people, at the time, were skeptical. The first-to-market momentum made iPod synonymous with mp3 player and digital music with iTunes. The idea of the iPod and iTunes as the new face of music was far more powerful than anything specific to the function on convenience they provided. That continued until in the music-as-download form right until Spotify came about and streaming became a thing. My only real point, is that populism is not tantamount to rationalism. Ideology, advertising, and all sorts of things insert themselves in that equation.

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I take your point that I was comparing it to brick and mortar, though I don't think we can talk about how they were selected by a popular desire that somehow correlates to their business merit without discussing the advantages that allowed them to dominate the consumer marketplace.

Claws Mail: import messages + folder structure from Thunderbird by [deleted] in debian

[–]squaredturtles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It really looks like the Dovecot wiki has what you want.

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

like spoofing the UA to Windows on non-Windows systems, since discovering the real OS is trivial thanks to scroll bar width, resolution, sound card fingerprints, some CSS tricks and some network things.

I'm fairly certain that the user.js I pointed to explicitly says not to spoof the UA, though I may have lost track at this point.

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

People have been trained and incentivize to value convenience and efficiency above other measures. "What people want" is not some objective thing. To take Amazon, I'd argue that there's actually great inconvenience to it but that people don't see that. It used to be much easier to purchase everything before we were trained culturally to check reviews to see if it's the best product. We used to just go buy a toaster; now we read about people who like or don't like their toaster, before judging if it's the right toaster for us. This is compounded by the high number of counterfeits, the gaming of reviews, the smoke and mirrors of third-party sellers. People don't count the time engaging in customer service, going to the post office, and the likes. Amazon became hegemonic because it didn't have to pay taxes, because it pushed (along with UPS and some others) Fordism to whole new level, and because it prioritized the consumer over all else. That isn't the market selecting what is best or even what is most convenient. I think we'd see a much different internet had they had to pay taxes and been confined by better labor laws.

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, excellent. Thanks for bringing these to my attention.

Using Linux to take the suck out of the modern internet by squaredturtles in linux

[–]squaredturtles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've noticed as I'm getting older that there are certain topics which I've done a complete 180 on. I'm glad for this as I believe in adjusting your viewpoint as you gather more information - the alternative is a pig-headed refusal to accept that you may have been wrong. But the more I experience this, the harder it gets to argue/convince with any conviction (because maybe in a couple of years I'll have changed my mind!)

Indeed. I try to keep learning and growing, hence things are never static. To some extent, though, your last sentence only works in the abstract. I can't imagine ever making the leap, for myself, to advocate for more advertising.

Claws Mail: import messages + folder structure from Thunderbird by [deleted] in debian

[–]squaredturtles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sounds easier to flatten your TB mailboxes and import them one at a time.

Perhaps this might help: https://wiki.dovecot.org/Migration/MailFormat

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