When Meta (Facebook) announced on December 2020 that they were going to introduce new privacy rules and that, since February 2021, it become mandatory to accept these rules to be able to keep using Whatsapp a bell started ringing in my brain – or whatever is left after more than 60 years on this Planet.
Why they want to be able to share my contacts and the content of my Whatsapp chat with Facebook? Oh yes, they say that they want to make our lives better, to offer us products we need, bla bla bla...
But after my recent experiences on Instagram (another platform owned by Meta) I realised they see and "use" us just as we are "products" and, honestly, I’m a bit tired to be a product.
They need more freedom (oh yes they want more freedom) to be able to "use" us to make a profit in change of less and less freedom (for us).
I opened my Telegram account when I still was a software developer. At a certain point, around 2005, I abandoned the Windows platform to adopt Linux. I had enough to stay in "closed" systems, tired to be slave of their abuses.
At that time I was a web developer and everything was free and open source – and most still is.
So an open source software is code everyone can read, understand what it does and modify it. Programmers can look into it and add features to make it better in a vision of true collaboration.
Also, and this is a really important point – if an open source software does "dirty" tricks while being used in your device – i.e. sends your GPS position, sends somewhere in the Internet your list of contacts with their phone numbers, email addresses, etc. – you can be sure that sooner or later some independent developer will let the world know about these tricks.
Ah ah, it makes me smile such candor :)
I don’t know about other European Countries but in Italy privacy is so strong that companies must show the caller number when calling your phone to comply privacy regulations.
As a result they use fake numbers. When you try to call back, you always get an automated message stating something like: "sorry but this number does not exist: please check if you dialed the right number".
At a certain point I had so many calls interrupting me at every hour of the day (and night) that I had to enable a feature of my phone that automatically blocks any call coming from a number I do not have in my contacts.
This is a good example about how privacy is applied in the EU –�at least in Italy.
But nobody is on Telegram!
Another lie: in July 2023 Telegram had almost 700 million monthly active users – Source: bankmycell.com.
Personally I see more and more of my contacts joining every day – and you get a message every time one of your contacts join Telegram!
This mean you can be sure if they try to play "dirt" sooner or later they will be discovered and there will surely be a lot of rumor on the Internet.
On the contrary with proprietary applications like Whatsapp you never know what they do with your device/data – maybe if they release an open source application I might consider to use it but, since then, it’s a no.
But being Telegram an open source software is only one of its advantages.
I’m pretty sure that some of the images I posted on my channel would never have been left on my account on Instagram: their censorship would have been removed them in a matter of minutes.
To reach me on Telegram search for @ugrandolini once you installed the application or follow this link.
For more info about Telegram and its features (you can also accept payments) visit the official web site.
Why they want to be able to share my contacts and the content of my Whatsapp chat with Facebook? Oh yes, they say that they want to make our lives better, to offer us products we need, bla bla bla...
But after my recent experiences on Instagram (another platform owned by Meta) I realised they see and "use" us just as we are "products" and, honestly, I’m a bit tired to be a product.
They need more freedom (oh yes they want more freedom) to be able to "use" us to make a profit in change of less and less freedom (for us).
A bit of history
I already had a Telegram account since some years now – rarely used it as the majority of my contacts were on Whatsapp and were reluctant to move to Telegram (for reasons unknown to me).I opened my Telegram account when I still was a software developer. At a certain point, around 2005, I abandoned the Windows platform to adopt Linux. I had enough to stay in "closed" systems, tired to be slave of their abuses.
At that time I was a web developer and everything was free and open source – and most still is.
Open source
Wikipedia states: "Open source is a source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution."So an open source software is code everyone can read, understand what it does and modify it. Programmers can look into it and add features to make it better in a vision of true collaboration.
Also, and this is a really important point – if an open source software does "dirty" tricks while being used in your device – i.e. sends your GPS position, sends somewhere in the Internet your list of contacts with their phone numbers, email addresses, etc. – you can be sure that sooner or later some independent developer will let the world know about these tricks.
Lies
I read on some Italian magazines articles that these new Facebook privacy rules will not apply in the European Community as we have "stricter" privacy rules.Ah ah, it makes me smile such candor :)
I don’t know about other European Countries but in Italy privacy is so strong that companies must show the caller number when calling your phone to comply privacy regulations.
As a result they use fake numbers. When you try to call back, you always get an automated message stating something like: "sorry but this number does not exist: please check if you dialed the right number".
At a certain point I had so many calls interrupting me at every hour of the day (and night) that I had to enable a feature of my phone that automatically blocks any call coming from a number I do not have in my contacts.
This is a good example about how privacy is applied in the EU –�at least in Italy.
But nobody is on Telegram!
Another lie: in July 2023 Telegram had almost 700 million monthly active users – Source: bankmycell.com.
Personally I see more and more of my contacts joining every day – and you get a message every time one of your contacts join Telegram!
Bye bye Whatsapp
Telegram is open source!This mean you can be sure if they try to play "dirt" sooner or later they will be discovered and there will surely be a lot of rumor on the Internet.
On the contrary with proprietary applications like Whatsapp you never know what they do with your device/data – maybe if they release an open source application I might consider to use it but, since then, it’s a no.
But being Telegram an open source software is only one of its advantages.
7 practical advantages to switch to Telegram
- You do not need to share your phone number when using Telegram. You can set your own name, mine is @ugrandolini and people can contact you by searching for your name –�THIS IS PRIVACY!
- Whatsapp saves all the images, videos and text you receive in your phone. After some time your phone memory is full and it becomes slow and unusable. To get back some memory back you need to delete the data by opening each single conversation: this is a process that takes quite a lot of time, specially if you have a good number of contacts. Telegram on the contrary keeps everything in the cloud and in your phone stores just the most recently used files. You can set the maximum amount of memory that Telegram will use on your phone and automatically remove what is in excess every time Telegram tries to use more than that amount. If after 3 years you need to see a file that was sent to you in a chat, Telegram will download it automatically from the cloud and show it to you. – This advantage alone is a valid reason to switch to Telegram!.
- You can use Telegram on all your hardware including: phone, tablet, computer, notebook even if your phone is powered off! Whatsapp cannot be used on a tablet and there are a series of limitations when you try to use it on a computer.
- Telegram allows you to share files without loosing quality – Whatsapp always compresses all your images and, when you upload them to your socials, they are compressed once again.
- Telegram allows you to create "channels". You share a channel by sending a link and, every time you publish something in that channel all your subscribers will be able to see it: it’s a kind of newsletter. There are a number of channels you can find with different interesting topics like, sales, discounts and non censored information.
- Telegram allows you to send images that self destruct themselves after a number of seconds – you decide! – after the other user have seen it.
- Telegram is frequently updated to protect your security and to offer new features.
About my channel
Channels are a way to share your work in a free environment – after some experimentation I opened a freely available channel where nobody censors any of my images!I’m pretty sure that some of the images I posted on my channel would never have been left on my account on Instagram: their censorship would have been removed them in a matter of minutes.
To reach me on Telegram search for @ugrandolini once you installed the application or follow this link.
For more info about Telegram and its features (you can also accept payments) visit the official web site.
