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The ultimate goal of our project, as many of you already know, is to make as many people understand as possible the importance of privacy, of theOpen source he was born in free software. To achieve this, however, we do not want to tackle the issue in a drastic way by ignoring the needs of people in the real world, which unfortunately is often very different from what we imagine or hope it will become. This is why today we will address a question that is often asked about our Telegram group: help, I have to install WhatsApp! How can I limit the damage?
The most cynical answer would obviously be: “do not install WhatsApp!“. Unfortunately, however, this clashes with what we wrote earlier, that is, in real life we often have to make compromises and we need to face situations that do not depend on us.
It can be the school WhatsApp group, teachers, or the grandmother/grandfather who took 3 years to learn WhatsApp after perhaps we asked them to do it and we don't have the courage to tell her/him that now, instead, you can only find us on Telegram or Signal.
In the meantime, you can still continue to proselytize and recommend different platforms to the same people.
I have to install Whatsapp! How can I limit the damage?
If you have already uninstalled Whatsapp but you find yourself in the situation of having to reinstall it to meet "n" reasons and situations then this short guide is for you. Even if you haven't uninstalled it but already have it installed and want to make changes to be less tracked, these tips can come in handy.
Let's start from the simplest and least effective suggestions to the most complex and most effective ones. Notwithstanding that, as mentioned, the final goal is to be able to distance yourself from these social networks and from these messaging applications toxic and closed code.
First steps
First remove all non-mandatory and unnecessary permissions from WhatsApp. To do this depends a bit on your Android system but generally you have to go to Settings/Apps, to select Whatsapp and then go up Permissions. Here you can decide what the application can know about you. If you don't intend to use it for video calls or for taking photographs, for example, you could decide to remove all permissions. You therefore refuse permission to:
- Camera, Microphone, Contacts, Geolocation, Call logs, SMS, Telephone.
And don't be tempted by the fact that "well, but now I've given him the authorization, what's the point of taking it away". Even if you have committed this imprudence because you have only recently become interested in your privacy it is important to trace a moment when all this ends. WhatsApp will be able to know your history up to today, but from tomorrow it will not know your new contacts or your new activities.
But how do I write to my contacts who are on WhatsApp?
To write to your contacts there are some tricks that work very well. Meanwhile, even if you can't access the address book, you can always reply to anyone who writes to you. So if the need is just to join a group or talk only to a particular person you don't need the address book.
However, if you still want to maintain contact and write to someone first, just install the application Open in WhatsApp. Thanks to this application you can access your address book and write to your contacts without the need to authorize WhatsApp to read your address book. If you don't like this app or it gives you problems you can also try it Launch Chat which does the same thing and also allows you to write on Signal And Telegram.
Another interesting application is OpenContacts, also thanks to a particular option in the settings (Integration with WhatsApp) you can write directly on WhatsApp. OpenContacts it is a little more complex than the previous one and acts as an offline address book so if it is not what you are looking for, give it a chance Open in WhatsApp which is very simple and intuitive.
Already doing these tiny operations you have taken away a lot of power from Facebook. In fact, Zuckerberg will no longer have access to your files or even your contacts. Furthermore, never giving authorization to geolocation, SMS and telephone with call log WhatsApp's firepower is limited at best.
But I don't want to install another app to write to people I know!
No problem, we have an answer for this too obviously! Did you know for example that going through Browsers at the address https://wa.me/39numeroditelefono can you send a WhatsApp message to any number? The initial 39 is mandatory and refers to Italian numbers. The next part we called telephone number it is obviously the telephone number including the area code. By doing so, you will see, WhatsApp will open directly with that person's chat without having given permission to WhatsApp to look at your contacts!
I have to install WhatsApp! How can I limit the damage? We can do more!
On Android in fact there is also something called Work profile. A profile totally separate from your own that allows you to install autonomous and isolated applications that do not interact with the main profile.
You can therefore try using applications like Shelter (Play Store link) or Insular (Play Store link) both Open source 1 2, to clone your application (in this case WhatsApp) and allow it to be used only on the work profile. You will always receive notifications and you will be able to use WhatsApp without problems or difficulties.
However, keep in mind that the profile is totally separate from yours, therefore: you will not have access, for example, to photos or documents in your private profile. You won't even have access to the contacts and therefore you will have to manually transcribe the numbers of the people you are interested in and use one of the methods we explained previously.
Other methods to limit the damage of WhatsApp
Other interesting and effective methods are:
Whatsapp Web To Go
Always on the mythical F-Droid There is this application that uses WhatsApp Web, that is, using WhatsApp on Browsers. The method is simple and intelligent: in practice it is essentially a Browsers dedicated only to WhatsApp Web. It is an excellent system but to be able to use it well you should have two smartphones: one on which WhatsApp is installed and one on which to install this app. This is because you will need to scan the QR code (twice in a short time) to be able to access it Browsers. Legend has it that someone managed to do it via screenshot and in a very short time: it is certainly possible but it is still a method that is not exactly simple to implement if you don't have two smartphones.
Matrix Bridge
Those who have been following us for a long time also know this last alternative well. It's very interesting and allows you to have and use WhatsApp without installing WhatsApp! You got it right: thanks to the bridges of Matrix this is possible and at the price of 5$ per month you can have them too. However, there are some important weak points in this solution: for example you will lose WhatsApp encryption or at least you will allow whoever manages this bridge to read your messages and you will not be able to make video calls.
If you are interested in this solution we recommend reading our review: Element One: use WhatsApp without installing WhatsApp.
As an alternative to this, there are also free bridges such as the one by tchncs.
Conclusions
So if you are somehow forced to use WhatsApp you can try to limit the damage by using these simple measures always remembering that the final goal is not so much to use WhatsApp with greater privacy but to be able to use free and different platforms such as those listed here: Alternatives to WhatsApp.
When this is not possible, however, we welcome solutions like this that help us maintain a minimum of decency in the use of these applications.
Some of our articles about WhatsApp:
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