Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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wrappers for famous apps (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by m4th1337@lemmy.world to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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i use GrapheneOS since December 2024 without even sandboxed google play services. the only non open source and not safe apps on my phone are instagram, messenger, telegram, whatsapp, tiktok, snapchat and i want to get rid of them but i wanna see the content from people on these apps. are there any wrappers for privacy, for these apps, such as aeroinsta for instagram (i already use it) in order to use them but protect my data at the same time? 😭

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[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Not open source doesn't mean "non-safe"--that's a pretty dangerous and completely incorrect characterization
The apps you list are literally the most non-safe services you could have possibly listed
That's not what a wrapper is, I think you mean front-end
Using the services at all means your data isn't protected, no matter which front-end you use the service collects your data, not the application you use

If you want to take your privacy seriously, then stop using these services. It's the service themselves that aren't privacy respecting, not the application in which you use to interface with them...

[–] Armand1@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Well, that's not necessarily true.

Some apps, alongside providing their core functionality, such as messaging, also collect a lot of information from all the permissions they are granted on your device.

Think for example constant location tracking or collecting your contacts, as I believe Facebook Messenger does.

It could be possible to provide a front-end that blocks certain requests or spoofs information.

Of course, that doesn't stop them from collecting information you directly provide to them by using the service, such as profile information, direct messages, interactions etc.

I suppose you could use these services as a skulker which doesn't have an account (or a semi-anonymous one) whilst denying all permissions and providing as little information as possible. It's not wholy black and white.

That said, I do recommend not using these platforms at all if you can. Use alternative platforms that provide similar services. Lemmy vs Reddit is a good example.

It's just not always practical advice for everyone, given that some people have jobs that require social media, or have no other means of contacting some relatives and friends.

[–] m4th1337@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

thank you a lot

[–] Xanza@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago

You got it. Seems like a few people disagree with what I said, but for the vast majority of cases what I've said is objectively true. I'm sure you can find an instance or two where it's not, so take it with a grain of salt.

[–] marauding_gibberish142@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago

You can't protect your data if you use those apps. Pick one.

[–] anon5621@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago

About telegram at least replace ur client with fdroid version which have removed GMs dependencies

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Instagram and Tiktok are usable in a web browser, though they do want you to make an account.

[–] DrunkAnRoot@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

id say use the soical media in a browser and if u dont need a account use it over tor and all the people on telegram,messanger and whatsapp tell them about the privacy concerns with these apps and try and get them to move to simplexchat or matrix (especially if you self host) so theres no real drawback because they dont require any info of yours to work

[–] m4th1337@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

thank you!