I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about Threads privacy policy lately, where people seem genuinely shocked about it. I think it’s good to raise awareness about how much data you’re selling to Facebook company if you choose to use Threads, but I think it’s also good to remind people (as the article does) that this happens also when you use Instagram or Facebook itself. Ditch Meta
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about Threads privacy policy lately, where people seem genuinely shocked about it.
I know I shouldn’t still be jarred by stuff like this, but I am. It’s like when I encounter people who don’t use adblockers and they just sit in their chair and watch that shit. I really wish normal people gave more of a shit about this stuff.
It’s amazing what people put up with when they don’t know better. It’s the same when ever I sit somewhere with the TV on. It’s just pure garbage wether the commercials are on or not.
TV is just baffling in the internet era. They pay up the ass to watch ads and I don’t get it. Online when I pay for services it’s to avoid ads, but TV viewers get the worst of both.
I feel naive but I had assumed paid-for TV didn’t have ads. That’s super crazy.
The average TV show has a 30-minute timeslot and about 21 minutes of actual show. The rest is for ads.
It’s not the first time either, there were loads of articles about Facebook (the app) and how it collected basically everything, so to me it isn’t that surprising Threads ticked virtually every box Apple offers too.
Threads helps itself to an absurd amount of personal information. That, combined with the fact that you have to DELETE Instagram to fully delete your Threads account, is absolutely ridiculous.
So far, I’ve yet to read a review that enthusiastically endorses Threads as a Twitter replacement. Caveats abound. This could have been truly significant, but in his greed, Zuck dropped the ball.
you have to DELETE Instagram to fully delete your Threads account, is absolutely ridiculous.
TBF if you’re deleting threads for privacy reasons, you’d have to be a moron not to delete instagram too.
I think it’s hilarious when anyone gets outraged about privacy when they are using a Meta app. The ignorance just makes me laugh.
Agreed. Meta and privacy are mutually exclusive. I don’t think Instagram users are particularly concerned/knowledgeable about privacy.
Can it even be called a privacy policy if there is no privacy? Heyo!
There’s good reason this garbage didn’t launch in the EU.
To be honest I don’t understand why people fixate on privacy in social media. The entire point is to accomplish the opposite of privacy. If you want privacy, don’t post personal stuff on the Internet, especially to sites explicitly intended to share it.
It’s not about what you post but what data will Threads/Twitter/FB apps will trick you into sharing on system level (location etc).
They are collecting health information and a category called “sensitive information.”
Fighting to keep apps from gathering my location is old news. Many also want my photos, and I don’t trust them enough. Meta’s policy is a whole different level of creepy.
Don’t know about Android but on iOS health information is something that an app can request on OS level.
There are valid uses for this, for example hearing level measurements from third party app can be added to Health app and then used for adjusting equalizer for AirPods via accessibility options. Or your menstrual cycle (although that probably won’t make your AirPods sound better) or many other data points. This is what Threads is trying to access.
It’s similar on android. Most apps that use it legitimately relate to health or fitness. I suspect that your headphone example would apply to Pixel headphones, also.
Meta probably wants it mostly for advertising purposes. They aren’t exactly cautious when selling data, though, so who knows?
Ah, good point
Well, more to the point they don’t want their identities sold. They don’t want to be a product for some corporation. When you are on a decentralized platform and somewhat anonymous, it is actually a greater degree of privacy.
Lemmy is definitely better.
But my point was if you don’t want to be a product for a corporation… don’t do that. Willingly productizing yourself and your engagement with social media, and then saying “what about my privacy,” seems entirely un-self-aware.
I think people don’t always realize what they are sharing though. If an app tracks your location it means it also tracks what places you like to shop, what type of food you like, what doctor you go to and where you work. Now maybe this type of information isn’t being used at the moment but toss all that Big Data into some ML and you can easily be targeted by other companies for a whole mess of things. Wait til health insurance companies buy that data off of Meta. Your rates could go up because they assume your lifestyle from your movements.
That’s great in theory, but not everyone (like children and the non-technical) will understand the full implications of what sharing too much information can result in (like identity theft, targeted harassment, stalking, misinformation campaigns, etc). Stopping companies from putting people in a dangerous position is plenty reasonable, and is not some sort of abdication of peoples’ personal agency (to be harmed?).
“I should have the right to have my information be n-times-resold to some shady third-party company where it will eventually result in fake student loans being taken out in my name!” - no one, ever.
No one chooses to “productize”/ commodify themselves for the benefit of Meta (as opposed to when people do so for their own benefit, e.g. streamers), but people have been forced to accept being commodified by large companies as a prerequisite to accessing online social spaces, and that’s bad.
Then don’t post your identity online.
Everything I post here is public. All of my information is public, whether there’s some flag to say that the info is private or not. It’s still public to the admins that run the server, and I don’t trust them any more than I trust some rando Internet person scraping data.
Everybody seems to forget this, and pretend that large corpos are somehow obligated to protect your privacy.
But they’re collecting more than just what you post. Have you seen the permissions they requested. Do you really want them to be able to track your location at all times? Or to access your phone’s health information so they can sell that to advertisers and others?
Yeah sure I want my memes to be public but do they really also need my gyroscope information, accelerometer, accounts information, search data, etc? I don’t think so unless they’re in the business of selling user data.
https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.instagram.barcelona/latest/
For Android users, the Google Play Store doesn’t require you to hand over the same amount of extensive data to try out Threads. You have more control than Apple users, since you can granularly toggle what personal data is shared with apps.
Data linked to you
Third-party advertising:
Purchases (Purchase History) Financial Info (Other Financial Info) Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location) Contact Info (Physical Address, Email >Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User >Contact Info) Contacts User Content (Photos or Videos, Gameplay >Content, Other User Content) Search History Browsing History Identifiers (User ID, Device ID) Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising >Data, Other Usage Data) Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data) Other Data
Developer’s advertising or marketing:
Purchases (Purchase History) Financial Info (Other Financial Info) Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location) Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info) Contacts User Content ( Photos or Videos, Gameplay Content, Other User Content) Search History Browsing History Identifiers (User ID, Device ID) Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data) Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data) Other Data
Analytics:
Health & Fitness (Health, Fitness) Purchases (Purchase History, Financial Info, >Payment Info, Other Financial Info) Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location) Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info) Contacts User Content (Photos or Videos, Audio Data, >Gameplay Content, Customer Support, Other User Content) Search History Browsing History Identifiers (User ID, Device ID) Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data) Sensitive Info Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data) Other Data
Product Personalization:
Purchases (Purchase History) Financial Info (Other Financial Info) Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location) Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info) Contacts User Content (Photos or Videos, Gameplay Content, Other User Content) Search History Browsing History Identifiers (User ID, Device ID) Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data) Sensitive Info Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data) Other Data
App functionality:
Health & Fitness (Health, Fitness) Purchases (Purchase History) Financial Info (Payment Info, Credit Info, Other Financial Info) Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location) Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info) Contacts User Content (Emails or Text Messages, Photos or Videos, Audio Data, Gameplay Content, Customer Support, Other User Content) Search History Browsing History Identifiers (User ID, Device ID) Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data) Sensitive Info Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data) Other Data
Other purposes:
Purchases (Purchase History) Financial Info (Other Financial Info) Location (Precise Location, Coarse Location) Contact Info (Physical Address, Email Address, Name, Phone Number, Other User Contact Info) Contacts User Content (Photos or Videos, Gameplay >Content, Customer Support, Other User Content) Search History Browsing History Identifiers (User ID, Device ID) Usage Data (Product Interaction, Advertising Data, Other Usage Data) Diagnostics (Crash Data, Performance Data, Other Diagnostic Data) Other Data
In addition to the Meta/FB policy, there is also a Threads Supplemental Privacy Policy.
It states that data from interactions on Threads from Third Party servers is collected to improve Meta/FB services including post content, post actions, public user profile and IP Address.
That in itself isn’t unthinkable or unexpected, but the implication of Threads using all of our interaction data for their own specialized tracking purposes makes me uncomfortable, so I’m glad many Fediverse servers supporting blocking interactions with Threads servers.
As long as you are aware of what is being shared then you have an informed choice to make.
Yes, this is the reason Meta keeps fighting Apple and Google when the app stores add marginal transparency.
I wonder how many people will even consider the possibility that they need to check those permissions carefully lest the social media app collect health data?
I think the culture/training of not even reading terms and conditions leads to people not checking what they give away to apps and software.
Part of the issue is privacy policies tend to creep and become increasingly more opaque.
I think a better rule of thumb is that you cannot trust Facebook or companies like them to ever respect your privacy or that of people they can link to you tangentially on any level. If you’re willing to sacrifice your privacy and that of your family/friends, and you understand that Zuckerberg himself thinks people who use his service are “dumb fucks”, then you’re going in with your eyes open.
I agree that it is almost impossible these days to trust big corporations. Google and Meta are at the top my no trust list.
