380
Iran asks its people to delete WhatsApp from their devices
(www.independent.co.uk)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
380 points (99.7% liked)
Privacy
39004 readers
1344 users here now
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.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I am asking the world to delete Meta apps. Please.
Currently trying to delete WhatsApp and people I know are giving me a hard time...
I have already done as you ask!
rooted device? If not... No its not uninstalled
That's a bit extreme to worry about. If the app is disabled and has no permissions, it can't run or share your data with Meta. It's just sitting there wasting storage space.
What? Your phone came with Facebook in the system image?
Naturally. After all, Meta pays the manufacturers to integrate and pre-install their stuff. As I said, this includes not only the apps you see in the launcher but also the services for integration in other apps, etc. If you really think Meta would do without such a treasure trove of data, you're being naive.
my last android didn’t have it preinstalled
Which one was that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Android_smartphones
Which carrier?
The freedom of Android means that there are tens of thousands of variations of devices / os versions / carriers all with different states of being close or far to vanilla and being more or less locked down. There’s a reason Graphene only officially supports Pixels.
want my social security number while we’re at it?
one of them.
Neither did mine... But it's got Google all up in it.
yes well google makes android, facebook owns whatsapp….
if you want to fully degoogle your android you have to root it and install a different ROM….
nothing to do with whatsapp though
Right, I was just saying I've never had meta on here. And id like to get rid of Google too but... Pixel 9 😅
Pixels are the best phones to change ROMs (it's peculiar but it's true). Take a look at GrapheneOS. I'm running it on a Pixel 7 Pro and all my apps work.
Huh, that is surprising. Lol well cool then!
i mean, Android is made by google….
but i think the pixel is particularly well supported by 3rd party roms…
seems doable: https://xdaforums.com/f/google-pixel-9.12879/
banking apps and some others don’t like if your phone is rooted though…
Thanks, I'll have to look deeper into it.
I'm not just talking about the apps that can be accessed via the launcher. But also other services/modules that cannot be accessed via the launcher.
well a claim like that deserves a source
Oh yes, of course, if you want to completely prevent communication to Meta with a customized host file, you can't avoid root or a solution that then sets up a local VPN so that it can be blocked, but then no other vpn is functional.
Meta services is a dependency for fb messanger. But can be uninstalled with adb or canta
Yes ok that may be with ADB I won't deny that. Never looked if that was enough because I rooted for other things anyway and then uninstalled it.
I have to admit that I hadn't thought of solutions like shizuku, which should make the whole thing more convenient with ADB
Lol there was...
iOS.
Haha. Well, I can criticize Apple for a lot of things, but Alphabet with Android as well. Especially with Apple, I don't know what is pre-installed and how deeply anchored in the system. With Android, I would also prefer to be able to remove all the bloatware without root.
I am actually very confident that Apple is selling what is almost certainly an enormous amount of my PHI to minimal buyers, if any. That’s not where they make their money, and they have no interest in it, and one of their main selling points is that they don’t do it.
Now, over the years, Apple has enshittified to an increasingly maddening degree, however—having worked at the Apple Store for five years some time ago—I can say that I think at the core of the company, it’s just not quite as evil in these terms as, say, Meta and Google. I think it’s a pretty informed, educated opinion to have. I know that many people disagree, especially in this community. And that’s fair.
I would actually be all about setting up my own ecosystem for smart home and sync and media library with Linux if it weren’t so frigging much work and so difficult that, honestly, it would take me forever and I probably would not achieve success. So, as objectively bad as the Apple ecosystem has become, it is sadly the best alternative out there, in my humble opinion.
Indeed, the "evilness" of apple is really directed more frontally at app developers. That's their cash cow.
And now they apparently treat their own develops like shit. At least, according to an article I just read. There’s a lot to get angry about with them, for sure. It was NOT like this back in 2007.
Well, in the end, everyone has to decide what they are happier with anyway. Even though I use Linux, I can understand that people also prefer to work seamlessly in the Apple Ecosystem. I can't comment on the smart home. I don't have any problems there, but I build my own things that the average user might not be interested in.
What do you have? Samsung?
Xiaomi (but i got other Brands too). With hyperOS (Android based) < because of the previous history with the trade dispute over Huawei. Nevertheless, even there you will find various apk's from Meta that are integrated into the system.
My Meta account got locked without explanation and support couldnt tell me why, but suspiciously right after they implemented their new policies allowing hate speech but also I had deleted all of my posts going back to 2006 not long before that and had only been using it fir groups, so it wasn't as big of an impact so wasn't worth suing them to find out why I was locked out exactly or to start a new account.
They can restore everything you deleted tbh
Prolly assuemd your are "threat" actor tho since why would anyone do tha!?
We unfortunately have a school group chat on Instagram, so maybe in 2 years. And we also have family group chat on WhatsApp.