There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

If you live in the EU - you may also be faced with this Meta prompt. Info in text.

If you, like me, live in the EU, Facebook is now entirely clamping down and forcing free users to make their personal data available for monetization.

Attempting to access any Facebook domain and perhaps also other meta products will redirect you to the following prompt with a choice between either accepting the monetization of your user data, or coughing up a region-dependent monthly subscription fee: base (for me ~10€) + an additional fee (~7€) for each additional facebook or instagram account you have.

Now, the hidden third option. At an initial glance, it seems like there is no other option but to click one of the buttons - however, certain links still work, and grant access to important pieces of functionality through your web browser.

If anyone has information to add regarding Facebook or Instagram, please do share it. I’ve only (begrudgingly) used the former up until now, but I know many others use Instagram and don’t feel like giving a single cent (nor their personal info) to Meta.

  1. www.facebook.com/dyi - perhaps most important of all, now is a good time to make a request to download your Facebook data. Don’t forget to switch to data for “all time” and “high quality” if you intend to permanently delete your account.
  2. www.facebook.com/your_information - here you can find and manage your information, but crucially also access Facebook messenger.
  3. The messenger app: Still hasn’t prompted me with anything, though I expect that will change in the not too far future.

Currently my plan is to use messenger to inform any important friends that I intend to leave FB, and where they’ll be able to reach me in the future.

avater , (edited )
@avater@lemmy.world avatar

Easy fix. Stop using crap like meta, or Reddit, or TikTok, or Twitter or another degenerated social media platform…

gtaman ,

Great. Now tell that to my uni please.

avater ,
@avater@lemmy.world avatar

your uni is using facebook?

NostraDavid ,
@NostraDavid@programming.dev avatar

That includes lemmy, right?

Right?

avater ,
@avater@lemmy.world avatar

Nah, Lemmy can somtimes be a little cringe and insulting but has no narcisitic sociopaths in charge like the others have 😅

diffusive ,

The real question, in EU, is not Facebook (or even Instagram). It’s WhatsApp. Business talk with WhatsApp, family talk with WhatsApp, meet a person in a bar? Yep WhatsApp or you are the weirdo

As soon I got the banners, I uninstalled the app and switched to friendly. Not sure if I have such luxury with WhatsApp…. Maybe time to explore matrix? 🤷

Iceblade02 OP ,

WA is also owned by Meta, and was only being used by my privacy-oriented friends. We swapped it for Signal pretty much instantly when the news came, but getting others to move over has been a slow fight.

diffusive ,

Yeah… the result is that now I have WhatsApp, signal, telegram. 99% of my contacts are on WhatsApp, maybe 20% are on telegram (and a number of group chat are there) and 1% take it or leave it has signal (and no group chat).

In practice the only one I can get rid of is signal (that is also the one I would like better 🙄🙄)

catarina ,
@catarina@kbin.social avatar

I would love to ditch WhatsApp, but then I wouldn't be in touch with my family half as much, and it would be a lot more difficult to get anything done.
I am in Spain where people simply assume you have WA, and the majority of small business use it extensively.

sergih ,

What can facebook really gather from whatsapp? Asfaik messages are encrypted, and other than that I’m not really giving info to whatsapp, like my estado and date of birth but that’s pretty much it.

Like I get it from facebook, you are constantly looking things up that can tell what u like, hobbies, or political affiliation, but whatsapp?

lemmyvore ,

They’re “encrypted” meaning they claim so and nobody was able to prove otherwise.

Even assuming they really are encrypted end-to-end, the app can still spy on you directly on your phone. It has access to all your conversation history and everything you type. 😊

Now, I’m not saying they’re sending that verbatim to Facebook but it’s enough to get the gist of a conversation. Like, that you were talking about hair products. That’s enough to be able to sell some ads to you and your conversation partner.

sergih ,

hmmm got it, might be intrtrsting to do an experiment where u look up your facebook feed, see what products u get ads for, yhrn talk with a friend over on whatsapp about a certain product or typr of product u want to buy, and then check if u start getting ads for said product

ABCDE ,

It has happened to me.

sergih ,

r u sure u only talked/mentioned it through whatsapp, and didn’t do any prior or post searches of related things in a browser?

just saying cause it’ easy to miss

ABCDE ,

Positive.

Bazoogle ,

WhatsApp is truly end-to-end encrypted using the signal protocol. The same protocol Signal uses (believe it or not). Meta truly cannot read your messages. But they CAN see who you are messaging, how often you message them, when you are messaging them, where you are when you message them, and plenty more. They can collect metadata. Metadata is the data they actually care about. Honestly, it doesn’t matter as much if you’re asking your friend if they want to hang or sending nudes. The metadata is what they want, and it’s exactly what they’re collecting.

Honytawk ,

Just because it is end to end encryption, doesn’t mean one of those ends can’t send those messages to Facebook (also end-to-end encrypted).

Bazoogle ,

Assuming they didn’t pervert the signal protocol, then they really really cannot access your messages, even if they wanted to. The encryption key would only be stored on the local device. Though, it would honestly benefit them to actually do this. They then cannot provide user data to law enforcement no matter how many warrants there are, they cannot be susceptible to rogue employees stealing the information, and the list goes on. And like I said, they really don’t need to know what your messages say. They get all the information they want from the metadata.

miss_brainfart , (edited )
@miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml avatar

Remind those businesses that if they don’t have explicit consent from the people saved in their contacts, they are violating article 44 of the GDPR.

Same if their websites use Google Analytics without asking for consent first.

thanks_shakey_snake ,

Matrix is pretty good! I use Element. It’s pretty much as usable as anything else I’ve used for similar purposes: Discord, Slack, Messenger, etc.

Hard part is obviously getting people to switch over. But it’s ready for normies!

smileyhead ,

The ElementX developemnt is looking really really good!

diffusive ,

I was more thinking about using the matrix <> WhatsApp bridge for avoiding the pop up. It’s impossible to migrate people (especially strangers)

0x0 ,

I’m surprised the EU hasn’t pounced on them for GRPR infringement, maybe there’s a loophole Meta’s exploiting. Being total assholes ain’t a crime.

ours ,

This is their reaction to new privacy laws in the EU. I’m not sure I’ll fly.

gian , (edited )

Maybe, but there are whispers that EU is not happy with this since it seems to violate the GDPR.

Honytawk ,

The button colours alone are in violation.

brsrklf ,

I don’t know about the rest of EU, but in France for some reason it was decided that this type of choice, i.e. “pay a subscription or accept all trackers”, was in the spirit of GDPR.

I think it’s bullshit, but hey, it helped me choose whose services I will never use any more (really, most of those were already shit before they tried to pull that one, no big surprise here).

ominouslemon ,

In Italy lots of online newspapers do the same: either you subscribe, or you accept the tracking

bort ,

Laws are changing in your region, so we’re introducinga new choice about how we use your info for ads.

Which law?

sndrtj ,

None. The statement is false. The law didn’t change. What did change was the enforcement thereof.

cley_faye ,

You know, the law. That one. That law that changed. The law that changed in your region. That law. That recently changed.

gian ,

No law changed, they simply are now obligated to respect the GDPR (at least formally).

NegativeLookBehind ,
@NegativeLookBehind@kbin.social avatar

Sounds like a lot of hassle, when the real answer is to just get rid of Facebook

lolcatnip ,

The boasts of having already left Facebook and the calls for others to abandon it are predictable and tedious. Everyone already knows Lemmy is full of people who wouldn’t touch Facebook with a 10 foot pole. Y’all are not contributing anything by crowing about it; you’re just making noise.

sergih ,

It is good to know what’s going on out there, I haven’t touched facebook in years and I didn’t know there was now the possibility to oay for it and you’d get a screen like this.

This info can alwaya be valuable and I’m thankful this guy posted it

lolcatnip ,

I was complaining about the comments, not the post itself.

Mango ,

I always choose ‘fuck whoever is giving me an ultimatum’. That’s the control freak. That’s the source of problems.

Bazoogle ,

lol, that’s just not true. If I give my alcoholic friend the ultimatum of “you need to get sober or we can’t be friends” I am not a control freak or the source of problems. Also, every online service gives you an ultimatum. It’s called the Terms of Service. Either you agree, or you don’t use it. Yes, even here. Guess you can’t use anything, or go anywhere. Don’t get me wrong, Meta is the scum of the earth that we as people desperately need to get rid of, but you’re really picking the wrong fight with the “ultimatum”.

AWittyUsername ,

“Your info won’t be used for ads” - but it will be used in other ways

PepeLivesMatter ,
@PepeLivesMatter@lemmy.today avatar

They were already monetizing your data, just like websites were already using cookies to track you before the EU made it mandatory to inform visitors about this.

Honytawk ,

This forced me to look into hosting an own social media as a replacement for me, my friends and acquaintances. Where we can chat, upload files, organise events, and make posts about all sorts of things.

Anyone got a recommendation for software, preferably open source?

Humhub looked promising, but the “free” version only allows 5 people, which is just dumb.

lud ,

How did this specifically make it worse? They didn’t follow the GDPR before so choosing free is the exact same as before.

This is just their latest attempt at avoiding the GDPR and last I checked taking payment for not tracking someone is a grey zone in the GDPR. After looking at the law it shouldn’t be allowed but it might be. Who knows. Other sites do it as well.

If anything this has bought them time.

Honytawk ,

Because I was willing to pay, but not for the exuberant amount they ask.

It also made it worse in the sense that now friends were discussing it on their own, which did not happen before.

clot27 ,
@clot27@lemm.ee avatar

Mastodon?

Honytawk ,

Sadly no groupchat features.

Otherwise, solid choice!

clot27 ,
@clot27@lemm.ee avatar

github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/19059 they are adding one

ginerel ,
@ginerel@kbin.social avatar

Friendica should fit the bill right there for you. Or if you don't want ActivityPub, check out diaspora*. There's also Hubzilla which uses AP as well, but internally it uses its own Zot protocol.

Honytawk ,

I was looking into Friendica, and it also looks promising. But the lack of an ios app may be a dealbreaker for some of my friends.

Diaspora has the same issue, although the integration with other social media is interesting.

Huzilla is a bit more for filesharing, isn’t it?

All in all, I think Friendica is indeed one of the better bets.

syfershock ,
@syfershock@syfershock.com avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    Honytawk ,

    Akkoma dropped support for chats, which sucks tennis balls.

    The others are too technical for many of the people I know. They just want something like Facebook, but that I host myself. Not the “every device is its own node” type of deal.

    And connection to the fediverse definitely isn’t a necessity.

    All by all Friendica looks the most promising.

    lemmesay ,
    @lemmesay@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    you can use create a matrix server for e2e conversations.

    Tau ,

    You can delete your account(s) clicking on “accounts in this Account Center” btw

    TimewornTraveler ,

    doesn’t that just hibernate your account?

    Tau ,

    It said “Delete” but Meta could very well be lying to me

    Infinity13 ,

    My relatives are using FB as crazy. Like too much. I was telling them how Facebook is tracking and selling users data, thats why i dont use FB and all i have seen in their eyes was wanting me to shut the f*ck up

    danque ,
    @danque@lemmy.world avatar

    Same. That look that says:"I don’t care, I dont want to know, I just want to use (insert any social media). They have no idea what’s collected and used without their knowledge.

    Same for TikTok. I tried to warn them about the Chinese government watching with TikTok over their preferences and I still get that same “I don’t care” look. But then they receive a promotional mail and complain they get spammed.

    Infinity13 ,

    They say “I have nothing to hide” but talks sh*t about China and comunism 😁

    AutistoMephisto ,
    @AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world avatar

    They figure looking at funny cat videos is worth the spam. Of course, I like the idea of paying users for their data. If data is the new oil, and we are the oil wells, it’s time they paid for it.

    kumatomic ,

    I took a five year break for this reason. As I embraced being an artist it seemed the only way to know what is going on locally in my stupid medium-sized Texas town is Facebook. Even local government news was only on Facebook. So if I wanted to find calls for art locally to submit for galleries then I had to join. Luckily with two fences and uBlock Origin the only information they get is by logging any text I put in. It’s a lot of work to try to maintain my privacy though and no official app ever. I use a couple container apps from F-Droid, but they barely work most of the time so it mostly has to be on Desktop. I’ve tried to get a few friends to switch to federated apps and they look at me the same way. Even my partner’s casino job requires a Facebook account because if you want someone to take a shift for you it’s the only way. Also any company news. It should be regulated as a utility.

    Infinity13 ,

    Exactly. I was looking for renting an appartment. I was looking on specific real estate websites how it should be but my girlfriend found the best one to rent on Facebook. Shouldn’t be like that

    Ilgaz ,

    The real dark, unexplainable and one of the most complex software after Google services is Facebook.apk. No baseless privacy claim that Google promises is valid if one installs and runs Facebook as it isn’t in its nature. Anyone, organisation pushes or even requires an application in today’s age is spyware. The Guardian even says “less ads” and they are supposed to be a bit better guys. How does it show less ads? Because it accesses these play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.guar…It isn’t just an Android thing, Apple tried their best to stop Facebook from leeching but there isn’t anything to do when you “check in” at home.

    KuroiKaze ,

    It’s actually much much worse to use the preload version that came with your phone versus the Play store version. The play store has many rules they force devs to comply with that aren’t true for preloads.

    BaardFigur ,

    deleted_by_author

    •
    Iron_Lynx ,

    Same. Although I have a few services where I use it to log in, sooo…

    PoseidonsWake ,
    @PoseidonsWake@lemmy.world avatar

    Yep I saw that a few days ago (I live in rep. of Ireland), I then deleted my account because fb for me is just a time waster. My mother decided to opt for the free version and so now she sees more ads than friend activities. She’ll probably deactivate her fb account so she can continue to use messenger.

    Obi ,
    @Obi@sopuli.xyz avatar

    Unrelated but we just crossed to northern Ireland today after road tripping the wild Atlantic way and some other bits in ROI, dear god your country is gorgeous 😍 and everyone was so nice too.

    akilou ,

    There should be a “neither, close my account now” option.

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