If you, like me, live in the EU, Facebook is now entirely clamping down and forcing free users to make their personal data available for monetization.

Attempting to access any Facebook domain and perhaps also other meta products will redirect you to the following prompt with a choice between either accepting the monetization of your user data, or coughing up a region-dependent monthly subscription fee: base (for me ~10€) + an additional fee (~7€) for each additional facebook or instagram account you have.

Now, the hidden third option. At an initial glance, it seems like there is no other option but to click one of the buttons - however, certain links still work, and grant access to important pieces of functionality through your web browser.

If anyone has information to add regarding Facebook or Instagram, please do share it. I’ve only (begrudgingly) used the former up until now, but I know many others use Instagram and don’t feel like giving a single cent (nor their personal info) to Meta.

  1. https://www.facebook.com/dyi - perhaps most important of all, now is a good time to make a request to download your Facebook data. Don’t forget to switch to data for “all time” and “high quality” if you intend to permanently delete your account.

  2. https://www.facebook.com/your_information - here you can find and manage your information, but crucially also access Facebook messenger.

  3. The messenger app: Still hasn’t prompted me with anything, though I expect that will change in the not too far future.

Currently my plan is to use messenger to inform any important friends that I intend to leave FB, and where they’ll be able to reach me in the future.

  • @hubobes@sh.itjust.works
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    81 year ago

    Isn’t this just an additional paid option and the ad option is what everyone already had and everyone outside the EU still has?

    • IcebladeOP
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      21 year ago

      No. Where I live it has previously been possible to opt-out of personalized advertisements in favor of generic ones. That has now been removed.

      • @hubobes@sh.itjust.works
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        31 year ago

        That option is still there for me (in addition to the new option to pay) in the Instagram app, in the settings there is an ad settings option which sends you to the website where you can configure that.

        The circled setting, the other one is the one at the top of the list

  • Steve
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    81 year ago

    I recently discovered Pixelfed and Friendica on the Fediverse. They are the equivalent to Instagram and Facebook, respectively. Perhaps now would be a good time to migrate over to those platforms?

      • @spiderman@ani.social
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        21 year ago

        will mainstream public make a move though? it will be great if my friends make a move to pixelfed but they just won’t.

    • @helenslunch@feddit.nl
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      11 year ago

      Except they’re both kinda trash and no one you actually know IRL is on there. Just a bunch of strangers.

      • Steve
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        21 year ago

        That’s true, and as with any networking platform, whether that be a social media site or a messaging app, who you know and how many of them are on the platform is a strong determining factor in whether you join that platform or not. For now, I just have an account set up on both of those sites, just in case, but I’m not holding my breath for any of my close friends to join anytime soon.

    • don
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      21 year ago

      Any time sooner than later is a fantastic time to have nothing at all to do with facebook.

  • @Mango@lemmy.world
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    181 year ago

    I always choose ‘fuck whoever is giving me an ultimatum’. That’s the control freak. That’s the source of problems.

    • @Bazoogle@lemmy.world
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      31 year ago

      lol, that’s just not true. If I give my alcoholic friend the ultimatum of “you need to get sober or we can’t be friends” I am not a control freak or the source of problems. Also, every online service gives you an ultimatum. It’s called the Terms of Service. Either you agree, or you don’t use it. Yes, even here. Guess you can’t use anything, or go anywhere. Don’t get me wrong, Meta is the scum of the earth that we as people desperately need to get rid of, but you’re really picking the wrong fight with the “ultimatum”.

  • @logicbomb@lemmy.world
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    2121 year ago

    You need to make a choice to continue using Facebook

    This reminds me of the movie War Games, when WOPR says, “The only winning strategy is not to play.” The only correct choice to make here is to delete your Facebook account.

    • @rtxn@lemmy.world
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      271 year ago

      The evil of the lizard is too great to resist. The only way to win is to deny it battle.

    • IcebladeOP
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      1 year ago

      Indeed, I’d like to, and hopefully will be able to. Unfortunately it is basically the universal method of communication at my campus - unless you use instagram… or snapchat… :(

      Hopefully it’ll be possible to get others to make the move, but I’m not really that important in social contexts, nor are most privacy-focused folks.

    • @TheFriar@lemm.ee
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      81 year ago

      How anyone still has a FB account I’ll never understand—or, I should say, anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the insane, “well I have nothing to hide!”/“anyone reading my information will be SO BOOORED LOLOLOL!” mindset and that actually gives 1/10000th of a shit about privacy.

      • @BellaDonna@mujico.org
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        31 year ago

        I literally had a job that distributed our schedule via a Facebook group exclusively and required an account for requesting changes or interaction about the schedule.

      • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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        31 year ago

        You can easily counter that sentiment by asking them if they also leave their door open when they use a public toilet. Since they got “nothing to hide”.

      • @ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world
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        101 year ago

        For me it is still holding on, barely, as a messaging app. I have a few friends and groups that just refuse to message on other things and that’s keeping me around. I’m tired of evangelizing better options.

      • lemmyvore
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        61 year ago

        It pops up every once in a while for things like old classmates getting together. If I weren’t on it I wouldn’t know about it.

        It’s also useful for local events like neighborhood festivals that don’t get posted on any other media.

      • @Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        181 year ago

        Most of my sports and social activities are organized through various Facebook groups, and I’d lead a rather boring life without it.

        That’s why.

  • Phanatik
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    11 year ago

    If only I still had a Facebook account that required me to use this awful website.

  • @diffusive@lemmy.world
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    261 year ago

    The real question, in EU, is not Facebook (or even Instagram). It’s WhatsApp. Business talk with WhatsApp, family talk with WhatsApp, meet a person in a bar? Yep WhatsApp or you are the weirdo

    As soon I got the banners, I uninstalled the app and switched to friendly. Not sure if I have such luxury with WhatsApp…. Maybe time to explore matrix? 🤷

    • @thanks_shakey_snake@lemmy.ca
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      21 year ago

      Matrix is pretty good! I use Element. It’s pretty much as usable as anything else I’ve used for similar purposes: Discord, Slack, Messenger, etc.

      Hard part is obviously getting people to switch over. But it’s ready for normies!

    • IcebladeOP
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      71 year ago

      WA is also owned by Meta, and was only being used by my privacy-oriented friends. We swapped it for Signal pretty much instantly when the news came, but getting others to move over has been a slow fight.

      • @diffusive@lemmy.world
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        51 year ago

        Yeah… the result is that now I have WhatsApp, signal, telegram. 99% of my contacts are on WhatsApp, maybe 20% are on telegram (and a number of group chat are there) and 1% take it or leave it has signal (and no group chat).

        In practice the only one I can get rid of is signal (that is also the one I would like better 🙄🙄)

    • catarina
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      101 year ago

      I would love to ditch WhatsApp, but then I wouldn’t be in touch with my family half as much, and it would be a lot more difficult to get anything done.
      I am in Spain where people simply assume you have WA, and the majority of small business use it extensively.

      • @miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Remind those businesses that if they don’t have explicit consent from the people saved in their contacts, they are violating article 44 of the GDPR.

        Same if their websites use Google Analytics without asking for consent first.

      • @sergih@feddit.de
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        01 year ago

        What can facebook really gather from whatsapp? Asfaik messages are encrypted, and other than that I’m not really giving info to whatsapp, like my estado and date of birth but that’s pretty much it.

        Like I get it from facebook, you are constantly looking things up that can tell what u like, hobbies, or political affiliation, but whatsapp?

        • lemmyvore
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          1 year ago

          They’re “encrypted” meaning they claim so and nobody was able to prove otherwise.

          Even assuming they really are encrypted end-to-end, the app can still spy on you directly on your phone. It has access to all your conversation history and everything you type. 😊

          Now, I’m not saying they’re sending that verbatim to Facebook but it’s enough to get the gist of a conversation. Like, that you were talking about hair products. That’s enough to be able to sell some ads to you and your conversation partner.

          • @Bazoogle@lemmy.world
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            41 year ago

            WhatsApp is truly end-to-end encrypted using the signal protocol. The same protocol Signal uses (believe it or not). Meta truly cannot read your messages. But they CAN see who you are messaging, how often you message them, when you are messaging them, where you are when you message them, and plenty more. They can collect metadata. Metadata is the data they actually care about. Honestly, it doesn’t matter as much if you’re asking your friend if they want to hang or sending nudes. The metadata is what they want, and it’s exactly what they’re collecting.

            • @Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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              11 year ago

              Just because it is end to end encryption, doesn’t mean one of those ends can’t send those messages to Facebook (also end-to-end encrypted).

              • @Bazoogle@lemmy.world
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                11 year ago

                Assuming they didn’t pervert the signal protocol, then they really really cannot access your messages, even if they wanted to. The encryption key would only be stored on the local device. Though, it would honestly benefit them to actually do this. They then cannot provide user data to law enforcement no matter how many warrants there are, they cannot be susceptible to rogue employees stealing the information, and the list goes on. And like I said, they really don’t need to know what your messages say. They get all the information they want from the metadata.

          • @sergih@feddit.de
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            11 year ago

            hmmm got it, might be intrtrsting to do an experiment where u look up your facebook feed, see what products u get ads for, yhrn talk with a friend over on whatsapp about a certain product or typr of product u want to buy, and then check if u start getting ads for said product

  • @0x0@programming.dev
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    241 year ago

    I’m surprised the EU hasn’t pounced on them for GRPR infringement, maybe there’s a loophole Meta’s exploiting. Being total assholes ain’t a crime.

      • gian
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        1 year ago

        Maybe, but there are whispers that EU is not happy with this since it seems to violate the GDPR.

    • @brsrklf@jlai.lu
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      91 year ago

      I don’t know about the rest of EU, but in France for some reason it was decided that this type of choice, i.e. “pay a subscription or accept all trackers”, was in the spirit of GDPR.

      I think it’s bullshit, but hey, it helped me choose whose services I will never use any more (really, most of those were already shit before they tried to pull that one, no big surprise here).

  • @lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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    101 year ago

    The boasts of having already left Facebook and the calls for others to abandon it are predictable and tedious. Everyone already knows Lemmy is full of people who wouldn’t touch Facebook with a 10 foot pole. Y’all are not contributing anything by crowing about it; you’re just making noise.

    • @sergih@feddit.de
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      31 year ago

      It is good to know what’s going on out there, I haven’t touched facebook in years and I didn’t know there was now the possibility to oay for it and you’d get a screen like this.

      This info can alwaya be valuable and I’m thankful this guy posted it