this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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Norway has succeeded in getting the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to make permanent and extend across Europe its ban on Meta (Facebook's parent company) harvesting user data for targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram.

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[–] WaxedWookie 158 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Watch them cry foul, threaten to pull out, start a legal fight, then go nowhere like the abusive type they are.

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I wish they would pull out. It's fucking ridiculous that so much of Europe is apparently just ok with using a Meta product for the defacto texting platform (WhatsApp).

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Eh, it's not like we started using it because it was Meta's. They bought it when it was already popular, and switching everyone to something else is difficult.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, WhatsApp was ported to basically every single platform that was relevant in 2009-2010 when it launched: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Series 40 and Windows Phone. Supporting Blackberry and Nokia mobile OS which were huge at the time as well as the new smartphone OS's was genius.

[–] lemming741 2 points 1 year ago

You left out webOS! Oh....

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Sure I understand the reasons why it's this way, but it doesn't make it a good idea.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, it's Messenger in Hungary. Not that it's any better, just saying.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I mean that’s basically the same difference. It’s owned by the same company.

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

But Messenger has always been Facebook, so those users "chose" a Facebook product. WhatsApp users mostly signed up before Facebook bought them (getting those users is why Facebook bought WhatsApp).

The choice to use a Facebook product was made for existing WhatsApp users by the sale. You can personally choose a different service, but then you also have to get all your contacts to make the same choice.

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

That is what I said, yes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Meta is the cancer of the internet. The sooner they leave the better.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I hate that Meta bought it but I have to admit it is the best messaging app I have ever used for the last 10 years. I guess the enshitification will happen at some point.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Better than the US, at least in Europe you are not forced to buy a specific device just to be able to communicate.

Who knows, if Facebook gets severely limited by these laws, maybe we'll all switch to Signal or something.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I use Android and I exchange text messages with iPhone users all the time. They don't use iMessage with me because my friends aren't assholes.

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

You’re not forced to buy a specific device there. They all text each other fine. You just don’t get fancy iMessage features if you’re on Android.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Fancy" features like group chats, or sending pictures that don't look like ass?

When every single alternative (other than RCS, ironically enough) just plain works. People just text, send each other pictures, participate in group chats, and it all just works, no matter the phone, computer, whatever, there are even just plain websites for many services.

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

You get all those features, just not with iPhone snobs who refuse to use acting but iMessage.

[–] NeoNachtwaechter 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Watch them cry foul, threaten to pull out

Ofc. But childish maneuvers are generally less effective in Europe where authorities are still authorities and not just the revenge actors with the bigger guns.

[–] WaxedWookie 1 points 1 year ago

Yep - and they're too big a market to abandon, meaning they'll just roll over in the end.