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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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?
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.