The enshittification of WhatApp has reached a new stage! Now for the first time, the app is introducing advertisements on the status screen.
After years of providing free services without any bells attached, WhatsApp is now going to start showing ads on the popular chat app. To be clear, users will only see ads on the Status screen — the app’s take on Instagram’s Stories.
So just like you see an ad after watching a few stories on Instagram, you will see ads on WhatsApp after you’ve scrolled through a few Status updates.
The company said that its ad mechanism uses signals like users’ country or city, language, and the channels they’re following, as well as data from ads that users interact with.
Meta said it is not using personally identifiable data, such as users’ phone numbers, messages, calls, and groups to serve targeted ads. If a user has added their WhatsApp account to Meta’s Account Center, the company will use their Account preferences to show ads.
TLDR; This seems like most data collection and targeted advertising comes from linking a preexisting Meta account to WhatsApp. Easiest solution is to not have a Meta account in the first place, but you will still see location dependent ads.
Too bad whatsapp is the only meta service i couldn’t dump yet. I got no ig, no fb, but whatsapp is literally a necessity where i live. Family group, friends group, work group etc. Even some government service, notification for bill payments, parcel delivery, food delivery etc are on there. Literally everyone and their grandma are on whatsapp so I’d be cutted off from my local society if i dump it.
I really, really wished decentralised protocol like xmpp would take off back then but whatsapp is what we’re collectively agreed to be at.
Makes sense since business accounts make up most of their revenue. Ads are just another way to milk their billions of regular customers dry
Also, can we talk about how some countries rely on one single messaging app or one “super app”? On one hand yes it is convenient but on another hand it is just a homegrown monopoly that will only screw over users in the long run.
The only companies that can survive offering a free service to everyone on the world are already large and established. Taking a loss in the short-term means nothing if they can dominate the entire market and increase profits later.
I also don’t trust signal enough because the chance for enshittification due to its walled garden nature. The world need to realise that enshittification would eventually come visiting their walled garden service. And its troublesome when its a communication service due to the network effect. You can’t cold turkey leave without also losing access to talk to your grandma.
Enshittifaction doesn’t croach to, as example, to email is precisely because its open decentralised nature. An email service provider turn to crap, change email provider. A local email imap client turn to crap, shop for another imap client. All without losing the ability to communicate via the underlying open protocol. I still felt bad because xmpp lost the chance to be the next email.
None that i can think of. My communication are mundane and 99% on whatsapp. If I’m going to discuss nuclear code then yes, as of right now signal is the choice. But if the world suddenly going to mass migrate from whatsapp, i hope its not to the walled garden signal.
I believe that SimpleX is kind of decentralized and that you can self-host your servers while keeping communications with other servers so I’d say SimpleX
Problem is we’re not really collectively agreed. People just use because it was first, inertia and ignorance, as tons of other things in life. But here the added problem is the network factor that makes it impossible to detach yourself (same happens with things like Microsoft Office, X, Instagram, Windows or Google Maps).
I've never used the status feature, but adding adverts into a messaging app is weird and add bloat into an otherwise fine app. The saying of "If it's free, you're the product" is becomes truer nowdays.
I personally just started to notify all my contacts with RCS that I will no longer be on WhatsApp. They didn’t even noticed that they had RCS, they just assumed it was SMS and, therefore, bad (not because security but because SMS were expensive as hell in my country).
Google is as bad as Meta, but using Meta products now is more of a choice than an obligation, unlike Google’s products.
