Apparently Europe finally got Whatsapp to enable 3rd party chats making it easier to switch to more privacy friendly alternatives article However the only other app that currently works with it is “BirdyChat”??
Have anybody found any news about when serious alternatives will be integrated?
The Birdy app requires a work email, which then gets you on a wait list, so that you can subject yourself to their data mining:
Data Categories:
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The email address you use as username on BirdyChat network;
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Your messages and media within messages;
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User identifiers for blocked WhatsApp users;
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Usage information including timestamps related to your communication with WhatsApp users;
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Device and connection information such as IP address, operating system information and the BirdyChat version you are using;
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General location information using your IP address;
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Authentication information including encryption keys that WhatsApp encryption protocol uses;
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WhatsApp user reports in case a WhatsApp user chooses to share this information with WhatsApp.
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I’m going to setup my own open source chat server soon and just give the few people that need to talk to me a copy of the open source client. That you can use to talk to me, the rest will be gone
I’m sooooo fucking tired of every company and government wanting to inspect my asshole just so they know that toilet paper to advertise to me or to be sure that I’m “not a terrorist or a pedophile because the government totally is doing this to protect the children, absolutely!!!”
Fuck your lies
Fuck your marketing
And apologies for my French, I’m just reeeeeeaaaally done with this nonsense
Have anybody found any news about when serious alternatives will be integrated?
…never? They’re not integrated because they don’t want them integrated. This is malicious compliance. Even if they were, the opt-in nature would make it completely useless. Much like Apple’s RCS integration.
yeah this is pretty much what I was thinking, but I made the post just because I was really hoping this was not the case…
Pretty sure signal refused to integrate
As they should, considering Meta would then have access to all that user data. They’re just fundamentally different systems.
Signal should be subject to the same law. So I hope all it takes is someone making a bridge that forces Signal to open up as well.
Oh yeah, it would be great if Signal could send my messages unencrypted to Facebook. I imagine most of their users would love this kind of feature.
WhatsApp uses the same encryption protocol as Signal. Theoretically they should already be interoperable.
Except then the WhatsApp front end could hoover up all the data, or the report feature would upload the entire convo, or the long list of exteremely serious exploits WhatsApp has had
Which would that be?
The Signal Protocol.
State mandated XMPP. I didn’t know I’m cool with authoritarianism until now!
I don’t want to chat with people on WhatsApp with Signal. I don’t want Meta linking my metadata. Interoperability will only keep people from switching to better platforms
Yes this “solution” is just a bandaid to the problem which is capitalism. All this is going to do is make these corpos look like they are doing something good - but in the end, all of this is just a blur.
While I agree with your sentiment, no interoperability obviously hasn’t made people switch to better platforms either. The only difference is that without interoperability, I’m forced to still use WhatsApp to communicate with those unwilling / unable to switch.
I would disagree. I’ve gotten quite a few people in my life to use Signal
Seconded.
this part of the DMA only applies to “gatekeepers”, which are very large providers. the biggest barriers to being a gateway are (imo) turnover of > €7.5bn, 45m active monthly users in the EU
Any link of this BirdyChat?
It seems like a work chat app
It’s definitely something I’ll use, since work chat is all I do on WhatsApp currently.
I only need to be sure it isn’t some scam, although the alternative is Meta, so… yeah…
i cant even find a lot about it, but it seems grim and not like this will ever work with any usefull chat app.
~~apperently meta gets to pick it, and it is not a public api. ~~ (this is not true lol)
essentially the corrupt eu politicians once again failed to represent the people. Just throw them all out already.
apperently meta gets to pick it, and it is not a public api.
No they dont, and it’s a public modified Matrix-protocol. Why would you lie about that?
The problem is that WhatsApp can demand third parties to meet very high standards, making it impossible for independent actors to gain access to this.
You need a pretty well run machinery to live up to the standard, but if they do, WhatApps can legally not deny access.
If they do, it’s in violation of the DMA, which gives you a 10% of all global income in fees.
These has been used against Meta and Google before, and there’s no reason to believe they wont do it again. They actually live up to it.
WhatsApp was originally built on, and still is, a forked version of XMPP. It is nothing like the matrix protocol.
It’s not, but they made a WhatsApp API for the DMA. There’s a Matrix bridge to WhatsApp.
Share the documentation then if it’s public.
https://developers.facebook.com/messaging-interoperability
Again, I dont think you can access it unless you follow the rules.
I guess it’s not true public, but you can if you meet the requirements.
No they dont, and it’s a public modified Matrix-protocol. Why would you lie about that?
Sry i read it on reddit lol…
but so will there be a matrix client i can use soon? or not
because i also read that signal wont do it
Signal wont do it because they cant use their own protocol. You still have to use WhatsApps, which makes it flawed.
I also hope for good clients, but maybe the rules will change further before there’s any real use case for it. Maybe it’s too expensive compared to making your own?
You’re correct, it is not a public API. In fact, just to see the specs, you need to be either an organization (or an indie developer) registered in the EU and have to sign a massive NDA just to get the documentation!
I’m already using a matrix bridge for it because I can’t get some cousins to move natively to Matrix. But if that would make it more stable it would be appreciated.
I can ditch what’s app and use matrix with what’s app 😅👀???
if it works the same as a bridge, message is relayed unencrypted
As your are talking about privacy friendly alternatives, the answer is none, because they would immediately lose their privacy friendlyness
