Mastodawn

Aaron Soto Jul 10

Richard MacManus

Oh no…now Meta is automatically sharing our private messages to its AI. As far as I can tell, you can only turn it off for each message thread, one at a time (and there seems to be no option to turn it off *at all* for group threads!). Yet another privacy disaster from Facebook.

I use Messenger btw for family and non-tech friends, so don’t (ahem) shoot the messenger.

Richard MacManus Jul 10

Yet another reason, btw, not to trust #Threads.

Jon Henshaw Jul 10

Without looking, I just assume that if you use one service from Meta, they have a master agreement (ToS) that applies to

@ricmac yeah facebook not only still has a hold of my family but for town messaging it's still the place parents organize the most.

One time a parent tried to get a slack going and I was the only other one to join. lol.

Maria Langer | 📝 🎬 ⚒️🛥️Jul 11

@stefan @ricmac I don't understand why they can't just all use text message threads? You can have as many people as you want in them and they go right to your phone. Why let a third party have access to your conversations? (And yes, I guess you can argue that your cellphone carrier has access, but an ISP would have access anyway.) Texting is so much EASIER.

@mlanger @ricmac I've seen group text threads between iphone and android go very wrong as people get kicked out of groups and possibly can't get added back? TBH the tech differences confuse even me.

Also how do you find and get added to the text thread. A big part is being able to easily find each other.

Draken BlackKnight Jul 10

@ricmac
I deleted my Fakebook account over 4 years ago and haven't looked back. If they want to message me that bad they can download Signal.

crazyeddie Jul 10

@draken @ricmac I looked back a couple years ago and re-connected with family there.

I never saw any of them post anything unless I went directly to their page. It was just a stream of bullshit and advertisements of random shit I'd looked at online.

I forgot the password and didn't care.

In case you had any doubts about your decision... :p

Orca 🌻 | 🎀 | 🪁 | 🏴🏳️‍⚧️Jul 10

@ricmac Imagine went so long as to turn on E2EE for Facebook Messenger, only to later add AI to read all users' messages. FFS 🤮

https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/6/23991501/facebook-messenger-default-end-to-end-encryption-meta

Messenger is finally getting end-to-end encryption by default

Years after it was promised, Meta is now rolling out end-to-end encryption for individual chats and calls in Facebook Messenger.

The Verge

TrimTab 🇺🇦Jul 10

@ricmac
I got my entire family including elderly folk onto signal 3 years ago. I simply pasted this to each straggler:

"Dear -name-, for info i will be deleted from -service- in 2 weeks. I love you but using -service- is morally reprehensible and i value your privacy and safety too much to keep using it. Install signal messenger if you want to reach me, or use the telephone lines"

3 years on, and everyone is happy with Signal and feel smugly superior to facebook / whatsapp schlubs. 😅😅

@TrimTab @ricmac In the USA, RCS is becoming very common. We previously used SMS but I am happy to see most of my texting now is RCS.

TrimTab 🇺🇦Jul 10

@mike805 @ricmac
You'd rather store all messages at google and let them monetize your social graph than use Signal?

Okay I envy your trusting nature... I just cannot believe that something created and promoted by a mega corporation can ever be in the best interests of real people.

Rhys 🦊Jul 10

@ricmac This is also the case with WhatsApp, I believe - on a per chat basis.

No Gods , no Masters! RESIST Jul 10

@ricmac
Boycott Meta.

Dźwiedziu Jul 10

@ricmac
Remember: Han Solo shot first.

Jake in the desert Jul 10

@ricmac don't shoot the messenger but shoot the Messenger. I gotta get off WhatsApp. Sigh (I mostly use it to chat with my wife). But still

Stormdancer Gryphon Jul 10

@ricmac Golly. I'm sure no-one will abuse this knowledge by flooding private messages to certain accounts with absolute gibberish or quite specific linguistic shenanigans. Who would do such a thing?

@ricmac not shooting, but consider encouraging your friends and family to switch away by not being there yourself!

@ricmac what bothers me is how people’s response to things like this is “why does anyone use (insert platform) anymore”. like you said, family is a huge reason for me. i can’t convince the majority of people in my life to move to better alternatives and i don’t wanna socially isolate. this is why we need to fight for changes even with meta and other horrible companies.

haaflife Jul 10

@cybr @ricmac I'm an immigrant and the only way of connecting with other immigrants, finding help and Infos, being part of the local community etc in the country I'm in is through Facebook (groups). "Just get rid of your Facebook" is such an unreflected, privileged, bullshit take. Makes me furious

Emma Liv 🌈 🇨🇦Jul 11

@haaflife I feel like your anger might be a bit misdirected. The problem isn't people telling you to ditch toxic platform, it's that toxic platform has such control and influence.

haaflife Jul 11

@not3ottersinacoat I think both things are true (and problematic). It's the smugness in people's tone that gets me.
"I have deleted my Facebook a long time ago" is the 2025 version of "Well I don't even have a TV!" In my opinion

Emma Liv 🌈 🇨🇦Jul 11

@haaflife Fair.

Gail Parenti Jul 10

@ricmac One. By. One. Omg

Kevin Russell Jul 10

Our meaning who?

@ricmac Ditched Facebook over a decade ago and never looked back.

@ricmac stopped Threads.. 08/08 It's finished...

Gryficowa Jul 10

@ricmac It probably had to wash their eyes seeing the gifs I sent years ago... possibly they have to go to therapy

@ricmac also the line about how they're using AI for their moderation, yikes 😬😬😬😬

crazyeddie Jul 10

@ricmac For alternative there's Jami and/or Briar. Jami is probably the better for normal person use. Briar is clearly more secure, especially if you give yourself a nickname in Jami so people can find you. I've onboarded two non-tech people in Jami without issue. More than that I don't know yet.

C++ Wage Slave Jul 10

If you absolutely must stay on Messenger then fortnightly pronking pterosaurs in controversial rhomboids with allicin jelly dream of higgledy annoyances with the 16th ninth of the month of mayhem is generally regarded as George Best. Always wash homegrown passata in dashed hopes of flowerpot men in order to cleanse it of Kenneth Williams before ordering the soup in Milan, m'lord, milady and Millicent millstone. And you can quote me on tat!

Jo Rhodes Jul 11

@CppGuy @ricmac and don't forget to mention gravy especially when talking about mediaeval art, poisonous wildflowers and the French Revolution 😆

C++ Wage Slave Jul 11

Gravy was often used as a pigment in mediaeval art, which, of course, is why so many paintings from the middle pages are brown. Some French noblemen, notably Zaphod Le Beeblebrox and Kryten, survived decapitation, and so the French people placed a bucket of #gravy made from poisonous wildflowers under the guillotine so that any surviving spare heads would quickly be killed. This was actually a small act of mercy: can you imagine starving to death in a gastronomic centre like Paris, Texas?

Nelson John Jul 10

@ricmac "Meta always says it’s about connection, but somehow it keeps finding new ways to disconnect us from our privacy. If AI needs my messages to ‘learn,’ then maybe it should learn to ask first."

Infernal_pizza Jul 10

@ricmac I think this is only if you or someone else in the chat explicitly shares a message with meta ai, at least that's what their help page seems to suggest:

https://m.facebook.com/help/messenger-app/671966618200379/?helpref=related_articles

"Meta AI can only read and reply to messages that mention @meta AI, including @meta AI /AI image prompts. Others in your chat will be able to see your message to the AI, as well as the AI's response. Be mindful before including any personal information in your message"

Facebook

Keeping an account with facebook is basically the social media equivalent of electing Donald Trump.

So nobody with facebook accounts should waste energy bitching about their constant privacy violations and information thievery.

Same goes for facebook derivatives.

Graham Phillips Jul 10

@ricmac Never. Never. Ever. Use. Anything. To. Do. With. Meta.

Can’t anyone remember how they sold our data to Cambridge Analytica so that the Brexit referendum could be stolen?

@ricmac Tell it to sieg heil the fuck off and then sieg heil a bit more just like grok…

What could possibly go wrong…

@ricmac
Yeah I feel forced to use messenger with some people. I used to not even have it on my phone but it meant either SMS or for some no text message contact at all, just phone or in person, which made planning things much tougher.
Still trying hard to shepherd people over to Signal but there's always holdouts.

@ricmac I reached a point, ages ago, where I told the stragglers "I'm going over here. You can message me over here. Otherwise, have fun this shit storm without me"

@ricmac im only using llama as meta product. I dont like other products

WriteDragon Jul 10

@ricmac Oh FFS. Thank you. This sort of thing should be off by default, rather than opt-out.

Rodrigo Pio Jul 10

@ricmac I have to say: desperate times call for desperate measures.

My humble suggestion to you:

(1) Prepare a Signal group.
(2) Leave Facebook.
(3) Friends & family will ask why.
(4) Tell them and propose Signal.
(5) Some will migrate, some won't.

Eventually, mid-term, you'll find yourself in a better situation than when you get rid of the Meta leash, and also better than before Meta existed. This is the 1st step of the mile.

It worked for me!

Florian Petry Jul 14

@rrapio @ricmac I dropped WhatsApp years ago, moving to Signal. Missing some groups, but the people who really care just installed Signal. Exactly as you describe.

Hiisikoloart Jul 11

@ricmac
I have to be in FB for a little longer due to not being able to lose so many contacts and groups that I sell my art through, and connect with other trans and IH folk (sleep disorder groups).

Hopefully that will change one day...also need to buy new memory stick for all the pictures I saved there.

I had to delete any chats I had that I couldn't block the AI sharing on. It was time to go through and delete many anyway.

meek cynics Jul 11

now

Torge Wegner Jul 11

@ricmac If the data is used to train Meta AI and all the responsible and wise enough people leave the platform, doesn‘t this mean that it will almost entirely be fed with the output of gullible fools? Isn’t this rather concerning? And isn’t this what we’re already seeing with xAI?

thank goodness i left meta for good