A less affectionate approach to technology

It’s almost impossible to escape WhatsApp and very difficult to get rid of Instagram. For many, it’s also undesirable. Friends, relatives, loved ones, and the entire presence of many businesses are only available on one or the other (or both).

In 2022, when I wrote about a “more affectionate approach” to technology (pt_BR), I had recently returned to using these and other commercial platforms. I lowered my defenses in an attempt to be more present, to participate more.

The problem with companies like Meta is that every concession on our part is exploited to the fullest.

That was the feeling I had when reading, in TechCrunch, about a new Facebook app “feature” that accesses photos on your phone — all of them, including those that haven’t been posted or sent to Meta’s servers — to offer AI-generated “creative ideas.”

The message informs that images and videos won’t be used to target advertising, but that by granting access, the person agrees to Meta’s AI terms, which grant Meta the right to “retain and use” any personal information to personalize AI results and analyze faces present in images.

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A few days earlier, I can’t remember why, I realized that WhatsApp had full and continuous access to my contact list. This alarmed me a bit, because I treat my contact list as a kind of directory of people I know, with birthdays, home addresses, and even some notes about people I’ve just met, for future reference.

I cut off WhatsApp’s access to my contacts and now everyone appears as phone numbers, without names. Another regression is that it became harder to start a conversation from within the app. It’s a small price to pay.

Does it make a difference? Little, because most people (everyone?) continue sharing their contact lists, an ocean of data that Meta crosses, processes, and exploits. It’s quite likely that it can recreate my now-private contact list just by cross-referencing others’ data and the crumbs of mine that fall through the cracks.

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The abuses are technical, too. For some reason, Meta’s apps devour battery. Since at least 2015 (pt_BR). Ten years later, reports of such problems continue to appear. (Instagram and Threads, both in May 2025.)

WhatsApp drains my phone’s battery. To the point I took the drastic step of cutting off any and all access the app has to system resources. No background updates, no notifications. (And no access to photos and, now, contacts either.)

It’s as if I had a “spy app” and had to shield myself from it, since I don’t have the option to remove it.

Actually, it’s not “as if.” There’s enough evidence to support the theory that WhatsApp (and other Meta apps) are hostile.

In early June, researchers disclosed an Android flaw, exploited by Meta and Yandex, that allowed associating web browsing activity on the device with your identity. It wasn’t an accident because the “leak” was intentional. It couldn’t be otherwise. The scheme is complex. ArsTechnica has a good article about it.

Meta’s response when questioned by the press?

We are in discussions with Google to address a potential miscommunication regarding the application of their policies. Upon becoming aware of the concerns, we decided to pause the feature while we work with Google to resolve the issue.

The “issue” only exists because Meta deliberately exploited an Android system flaw to collect people’s browsing/behavior data without their consent or even knowledge.

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Meta isn’t the only one. It’s perhaps mentioned more due to its size and influence. Google, equally large, just announced that it’s going to have Gemini “use” some Android apps, including WhatsApp.

The vague, confusing language doesn’t specify how to deny this service. There’s no need to debate its usefulness when the company makes an obvious effort to muddy the conversation, to make an eventual refusal difficult. If such an option even exists.

Another example? The difficulty in preventing Meta’s AI from being invoked in WhatsApp conversations.

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I know that, in the end, few people care about this and that no one will stop using WhatsApp or Instagram in protest. Neither will I. On this individual level, if we can’t give up these apps, what’s left is to restrict these apps’ access to data as much as possible.

And always remember that alternatives exist and that it costs nothing to have them available and, whenever possible, to favor them over Meta’s, Google’s, and other big tech spyware.