5 Reasons Why I’m Not On WhatsApp (and Why You Should Consider A Return To SMS) - Forbes
5 Reasons Why I’m Not On WhatsApp (and Why You Should Consider A Return To SMS) - Forbes |
| 5 Reasons Why I’m Not On WhatsApp (and Why You Should Consider A Return To SMS) - Forbes Posted: 10 May 2021 12:02 PM PDT I'll admit it. Being off WhatsApp isn't easy in 2021. I can imagine many readers are wondering how it's even possible - especially given the fact that so many have experienced the entirity of their human interaction being mediated through a pane of handheld glass since the start of this decade. But for those of you who are curious as to whether it's possible to live a fully functioning life off WhatsApp - I can assure you it is indeed - and there are some important reasons why it even might be a good idea.  BARGTEHEIDE, GERMANY - MAY 03: (BILD ZEITUNG OUT) In this photo illustration, a WhatsApp App in the ... [+] DeFodi Images via Getty ImagesWhat follows is my list of 5 principled reasons why it's best to say 'what's up?' anywhere but on WhatsApp: 1. Closed Protocol My pet hate isn't something that's specific to WhatApp, and in many ways is the key contributor to it's success - but the number 1 problem with so many apps is that they are protocols disguised as platforms. To explain, think about some other mass communications systems and how they operate. The telephone network has a protocol as its basis; a common standard specification that as long as equipment connected to it complies with - then it will play fair with the rest of the network. In fact, in many cases it's illegal to connect equipment that doesn't comply to the standards - and even more so to tamper with equipment that does. For good reason too- our faith that the system will work relies on our faith in the protocol, and it's held up for a long time. I have a 1970s rotary-dial phone which I use in case of power outages (where we live, that's a regular thing). Nearly half a century later - and it still works like the day it was new. Another example is email. You and I likely use very different email providers. In fact, you might even run your own mail server and not reply on a 3rd party to deliver your email. Despite these differences, I can write you an email and have absolute confidence that it'll be sent (and received) despite the differences between the hardware, operating system, software provider and email platform that you use. MORE FOR YOU What unites these two examples is that the protocol is what defines the marketplace, and then it's a level playing field for everyone who signs up for the protocol. The complexity is hidden from the user, the system just works. WhatsApp (and other end-to-end-encrypted-messaging platforms) suffer from the problem that they are designed on a closed protocol, which - while providing amazing network effects while they scale - are also their achilles heel. I have no ability to connect with WhatsApp users by using a different service (as everything is proprietary). 2. Too Big to Fail I was invited to a dinner in Westminster once and asked one of the other guests to explain how day-to-date policy advising worked in government. The answer suprised me: "I use WhatsApp as the official channel with ministers, parliamentarians, journalists and other policy wonks; and for keeping track on leaks and 'public' gossip, I use Twitter". When I enquired as to how deep this reliance on two privately owned communications platforms went, I was equally shocked. "What do you mean when you ask what we would do if the systems failed?", she said, "it's impossible for WhatsApp to break - it's just too big!". Impossible. Hmmm. Just like it would have been impossible to contemplate the disappearance of Lehman Brothers before 2008... 3. Screentime is Designed to be Addictive Denial is a powerful coping mechanism to delay the need to face the truth. It's the same whether the addiction in question is Street Methadone or Screentime. As I previously wrote about the secret metric that runs the tech industry it's 'total time spent using' i.e. the number of users multiplied by the amount of time they are on the platform. It was much easier to keep a check on screentime before the pandemic. Walk down any city street, sit on any bus or train, or look for any person going about their day and count how many of them are mindlessly scrolling down a bottomless information feed or otherwise having their day interrupted with a notification to get them to re-enter the rabbit hole again. Seeing other people have their precious time invaded by notifications was one of the best ways to keep a check on one's own. So, if you're in denial that WhatsApp is addictive - just count up your time on the app, and know that just like Gary Kasparov and Lee Sedol - you're playing a game against an elite, well funded team who are working together to keep you returning to every app and to maximise the time you spend using it. It's no surprise that game isn't possible to win - it's been designed to. 4. Security is a Sideshow Quite often the best defence that WhatsApp users give as to why they prefer WhatsApp to other messaging platforms (such as my favourite, SMS) is that there is end-to-end encryption of the messages. My answer to this boils down to two things: First, when was the last time that a hacker or scammer intercepted your SMS messages? Last time I checked, SMS was still the prefered choice by Banks, Insurance Companies, and other organisations looking to do 2FA security. If SMS had deeply rooted security problems (to be sure, it's not perfect - SMS was never designed with cyber risks in mind) then it simply wouldn't be relied on for such use-cases. But, unless you are a secret-agent, billionaire, or government minister - how likely is it that your SMS is going to be intercepted anyway? Second (and most often peddled as the killer reason by those in the tech industry), end-to-end encryption ensures that the messages you send cannot be read by anyone other than the intended recipient, and even the company that owns the platform (in WhatsApp's case, that's Facebook which can't intercept the message). The implication of this answer is that somehow (and unlike email platforms) there is some virtue to the platform refusing to read the contents of our communications. What they aren't telling you though is that they don't need to. All the valuable data isn't in what you send, but who you are connected with, how often you are in touch with them, and where you are when you are. It's like Mark Zuckerberg is your postman and he's looking at the franking mark on all the envelopes he's delivering. Sometimes that's all you need to know what is going on. 5. Obsolescence Culture I'm a little obsessed with obsolescence. For me, this all started when my iPhone 4 started to slow down and became impossible to update with the latest apps. Now WhatsApp is one of them. Purchased 10 years ago, my iPhone is a mint example of its kind, but aside from still being able to send and receive SMS, make and receive calls - there is very little utility to it as most new apps won't work, and most old ones have switched off their support for users of old versions like me. There is a trend in the tech industry to insist that we all update our devices to the latest version wherever possible. They tell us that this is for our own good, and that it's to protect us from cyber attack. It's kind of true, but it's also utter horsec**p at the same time. The real reason that we are told to update our software is to keep us buying new devices. In the old days we simply used technology until it failed or was beyond economical repair, but we are now too good at making things for failure to be the power-house of the industrial economy. Instead we have to resort to some magic by deliberately slowing down tech so it becomes unusable and then explaining that we simply can't get the latest version to actually run on the old device, and the latest version has a critical software patch, and therefore for our own safety we need to upgrade. The bundling of security patches and features should be a crime. Security patches are a consequence of software being badly written in the first place, and even when absolutely necessary ought to be in an entirely different update path to that of features. Also, most modern devices (and mobile phones in particular) are designed in such a way that they can be upgraded but never returned to their original state. Recently I came across an old 486 PC that had been boxed up and stored in the attic for the best part of the last 25 years. For some reason I had tried to install a copy of Windows 95 on it before giving up and finally upgrading. Windows 95 was barely usable (the machine in question was a 486sx25 with 4Mb RAM in case anyone is wondering), but thankfully I had set up a dual-boot, and could get into Windows 3.1 easily and even run Word, Excel, and a host of other apps that I regularly use the great-grandchildren of today. The moral of the story? There is plenty of perfectly good old tech still lying around and, but for our obsession with upgrades and being suckers for obsolescence would still be perfectly servicable today. If I can send an email from a 486 PC, then I should be able to WhatsApp from an iPhone 4 - the fact I can't is proof that the tech industry isn't yet serious about sustainability, and for that reason alone - we'd do the planet a big favour with a return to SMS.  |
| How to Send Encrypted Email With 5 Popular Mail Services - MUO - MakeUseOf Posted: 27 Apr 2021 12:00 AM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]How to Send Encrypted Email With 5 Popular Mail Services MUO - MakeUseOf  |
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