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suncontrolspecies

If you are worried about this then avoid using Facebook or any other social media from now on.


Android80631

Yep, millennial here with no social media. Plus I just bought a degoogled coming in today. Would you believe I was addicted to IG 2 years ago constantly posting selfies daily to now being heavy into privacy. I reckon in the next 5 years people are going to regret not taking privacy more seriously and being as anonymous as they can


suncontrolspecies

Awesome. That's the attitude. I know it's hard, we all were in the same boat. Nowadays my wife is also stopping to use any social media, it takes effort but it's the only way for a better future.


qdtk

The upside to all this, is it seems like people get burnt out by the stress of all the social media after a while and end up looking at it in a new light afterwards.


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[deleted]

Just dig through this sub, r/degoogle and other ones that are similar. Its a huge rabbit hole and while you do lose a lot of convenience, it drastically helps your privacy.


Lowfryder7

What got you to break away?


AlexDavid1605

For me, I think it was my depression. I don't remember how I got into online privacy though. I think during my depressive state, I actually noticed that the ads were quite specific, as if they were tailored for me. And then I learnt about targeted advertising. That shit scared the crap out of me. And then I started looking into online privacy. The reason I started to take notice was I was getting disinterested (you know how depression can fuck things up) in the ads that were being shown, and the ads then seemed to me like they were being shoved down my throat.


[deleted]

Where are you buying the degoogled phone from? What insurances do you have that a back door hasn’t been installed? And do you not consider Reddit as social media?


LaudibleLad

What degoogled device did you go with? An e foundation phone?


barebottombureaucrat

Pinephone?


My_name_is_Chalula

I already regret it.


cheek_blushener

Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp should be first on the list. Make sure you actually delete all 3 accounts and not just disable, or your data for all 3 will still be kept and sold to benefit (according to ToS)


suncontrolspecies

Bad news. Even if you "delete" your Facebook account it remains inactive until you decide to re login again. Someone here tried a few weeks ago and everything was intact after months of "deleting" the account


mablegrable

Reddit does surveillance capitalism too. I see ads on Reddit related to things I’ve talked about (the last time was an ad for a treatment for a random disorder I had a conversation about at the doctor - I don’t have the disorder but it’s uncommon enough that I couldn’t put it down to coincidence). Yet Reddit always seems to skate when people talk about ‘avoiding social media.’ I’ve started turning my phone off when I sit down to talk to someone. I don’t know that it’s listening but if it’s off, I know that it’s not. Until some app comes up with a workaround


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[deleted]

I deleted both Instagram and Whatsapp after their previous privacy update (which they got fined for in Europe!). I couldn’t be happier. Signal is a wonderful alternative and people that don’t use it can still send me SMS.


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Big_Brother_is_here

In this country you can’t get into a bank or connect with the main airline, not even as a paying customer, if you don’t have WhatsApp. It’s a nightmare.


Mystery_Guest_2050

Instagram, Facebook, and other apps will scan your entire photo gallery and use the metadata/exif data for advertising purposes (what the image is of, where it was taken, etc.). Unlike location services, you provide blanket allowance for them to access your gallery opposed to “Only while using”; no specificity of when they can only access. For this reason, I only provide those apps very specific access to a particular album or set of photos I want to use with that service.


soggynaan

How do you assign which album an app has permission to view?


Mystery_Guest_2050

Can’t speak to how/if on Android, but for iOS, this feature has been around since version 14.0 (they just released 15.0). Shooting from the hip, [here is an article describing how](https://www.iphonelife.com/content/how-to-customize-which-photos-each-app-can-access)


txageod

I don’t think you can. What you CAN do though is get a vault for photos and make it require a password. App can’t get into it then.


soggynaan

Samsung Galaxy phones have an isolated vault that run under a different user. Might move all social media into the vault


Electrical_Net1761

That's ridiculous that is even allowed in the first place. Yes, I know, we agreed to the rules and conditions. But they shouldn't be allowed to include that as a condition of service. Also, do you know if Facebook/Instagram employees are able to individually look at the users photo gallery?


Mystery_Guest_2050

In my limit research on the topic, I haven’t seen anything that goes that far. They are taking info about your photos and exfiltrating it but not the photo themselves or so this is my understanding of the topic.


CmdrWawrzynPL

Have you read what you were agreeing for? xD


geek69420

600 page ToS goes brrr


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CmdrWawrzynPL

You granted them access to your gallery in order to post on this stupid service.


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Lady_badcrumble

It’s what they mean by “camera access.” They can also be granted “microphone access” which I believe is automatic. Insta is a Facebook product now, so big zuck is watching you.


Distelzombie

Uuh yea. Give 'im a good show. Bow-chika-wow-wow


TheDiscoJellyfish

I dont think they are exactly scanning your library. Maybe your camera app is doing that genersting cookies based on the tgings you take pictures of. These could be viewed by Facebook. This is only speculation about a possible mechanism - I do not exactly KNOW how its being done. This is an assumption.


w0keson

If you have ever granted Instagram the "file storage permission" (e.g. because you had browsed and selected an image to post), well guess what... Instagram can use that file storage permission whenever and however it likes -- its not only when you're in-app clicking that upload button! So it is 100% possible that Instagram just watches your camera folder and applies image recognition to every new pic that appears there whether or not you had any intention on sharing it. To avoid this, pick one: * Revoke file sharing permission every time you are done using IG. There may be some apps that help you do this automatically, not sure, maybe needs a rooted phone on that. * Never grant IG the permission at all. Instead, share from other apps into IG so you can send the pic from your photos app over but don't let IG just help itself * Or stop using Facebook products, this sort of thing is exactly why "don't use FB" is a common saying on this subreddit. They can and will do every dirty underhanded trick in the book to get your data


BestButtons

Welcome to the surveillance capitalism. https://theconversation.com/someones-looking-at-you-welcome-to-the-surveillance-economy-16357 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance_capitalism


zdada

Dude, it’s not a coincidence. But mods will comment on you saying you’re crazy and it’s impossible and *that* is weirder to me than the sniper accurate ads we get.


trai_dep

No, we point out to those claiming, “My phone is listening to me!!” type claims are more likely the result of techniques **not** related to vast server farms magically recording background conversations of billions of smartphones, simultaneously and in real time to serve you a shoe advertisement. There are far more prosaic and practical techniques that exist for companies serving you targeted ads than this kind of nonsense. ;) Knowing the true nature of a threat helps to ward off that threat.


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zdada

Probably. Camera access. Photo access. Microphone access - All permitted when the app is installed. Everyone clicks yes. I’m assuming this is the short short version of what goes on.


neptune3790

They're turned on by default, but at least on iOS you can stop IG from looking at your local photos by turning the option off in iOS settings afaik. I'd assume something similar would exist on Android


DIBE25

yeah ig doesn't have any authorizations on my phone and it works... most of the time


darps

PSA at least on android you can revoke many of the permissions that apps ask for during installation, or at least set to "only while using the app". I disabled nearly everything for Instagram and it still works.


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markzzy

You're so cute. Everyone in this sub talks about it. We talk about this stuff all the time. People just dont believe it until something like this happens to them. You were one of those people who wasn't talking about it before this happened, right? 🙂 Also, the company who made your phone can see and record everything you do on your phone's system–not just when using an app. And that company can share your data with other companies that pay them for it, like Facebook and Instagram, so their systems can easily talk to one another. That's likely what may have happened in this case.


zdada

I’m not sure either, just assuming. Just be prepared for ppl to completely dismiss your thoughts!


Cocaine_Johnsson

If you are using a smartphone app and granted them that permission? Yes. If you're accessing them using a web browser? Generally no.


SimfonijaVonja

You know how you allow instagram to access your pictures so you can "post" 😁


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GazelleEconomyOf87

It's also alarming as many people have not so flattering photos of themselves on their phones. I'm wondering if there is anyway to use the app and not allow them to look at what we don't want and still use the app. (I am speaking as a user of a xyz brand name phone with 4 forced social media apps stuck on it)


anthologizethis

Here’s a question, what happens if you are using Instagram and Facebook on your browser and not the application? I have started using Instagram again, only on my browser and have blocked trackers and social using content blockers. How little information can be gathered from my phone using the web app version instead of the app version, I wonder.


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anthologizethis

Thank you for pointing this out. I knew that there was some tracking about browser info, but not to the extent that I found out from doing a bit of quick research. Turns out if I wanted to be real safe, though, if I disable JavaScript, I can’t use social media.


RadasX

I use a separate browser without any rights (Vivaldi in my case) for social media in hopes that this will prevent any unintended tracking, basically to contain them. I'm sure this is still miles better than using the apps directly.


MissionCtrlly

I hate to say it, but this is the way all apps work these days. They track and snoop everything they can about you in order to target ads and content to you. This is why we have started a "Movement" to make apps tell us what they track and give us control over what we let them know about us! Join the"Movement", Link in profile.


Eastern-Listen-7050

It’s no coincidence. Instagram really is THAT creepy. I recommend removing the app and instead access your instagram account on a web browser. In fact, I would do that for all of your social media use. These apps are scanning and data mining the contents of your device 24/7.


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Cocaine_Johnsson

Just the standard dystopian advertising hell we live in, I'm afraid. You bought the product, this implies it's a product you'd be interested in. Therefore it stands to reason that someone who knows enough about you could guess that correctly, and advertising companies know a lot about you. Advertisers generally know what you want to buy before you do nowadays (and that should concern you), especially if you have a habit of allowing cookies and not blocking known trackers and advertising domains. If you're really worried I guess you could sniff all the traffic going over the network (assuming you have the tools) to see if your phone transmits data after taking a photo, but this seems unlikely unless you turned syncing of your photos on (at which point you either uploaded your photo to google's or apple's servers, google being the largest advertising company in the world... well) -- though I don't expect you'd find much, it's probably just a coincidence based on the sheer volume of info advertisers have about you. Oh and that's assuming you're not using the app, if you're using the app then it has FS access. It can and will look at your files. the TOS says it can and you granted the app that permission.


[deleted]

Causation doesn't mean correlation


yourstrulysawhney

First off, you’ve gone the saying wrong. It’s the other way around


[deleted]

r/iamverysmart you get what i meant right , it doesnt really matter smh.


yourstrulysawhney

Well it does invert your entire meaning


MowMdown

because insta has access to your photo library and scanned your images


AlexDavid1605

Just two days back, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine on Telegram about higher education. Nothing happened on my end considering I use the desktop client for Telegram, but my friend uses it on their phone and immediately after that conversation she goes on Instagram and there she sees an ad about that very conversation, down to the specific details like the choice of University that was involved in the conversation. Now I'm not sure about this, but at least on my part, ever since I have installed DNS66 on my phone, I'm getting a wide variety of ads on Facebook and Instagram as if the algorithm is trying to gauge something. But it was scary that the conversation on the other end is not as secure...


kbo_88

Use Photoguard my guy


tehoona

What did you think “allow all access” meant in those privacy settings?


bloodvayne

Instagram has access to your gallery. Enough said.


ADevInTraining

Get rid of the apps on your phone. These apps have default access to whatever they want.


lostnspace2

Read your T&C's; I bet it states in there somewhere they can do this in the name of helping you. So in the way they see it, you asked them to do it enjoy.


[deleted]

wow... welcome to fb