Elon is always obsessed with WeChat’s model. (For those who don’t know about WeChat, it is basically the name of the ‘Everything app’.)

Everything in one single point is pretty convenient but has led to a bunch of risks…

Leave a risk that you know in the comment.

  • Leafy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Elon is right to understand that the data of a successful everything app (which can only happen by monopoly) will give him vast power in tech. However, after failing to implement one aspect of it in an established market and after removing most talent from Twitter, how will anyone keep falling for his techno-Ponzi scheme?

    • Wothe@lemmy.worldOP
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      Look how many people joined Threads? I guess still falling for his techno-Pozi scheme, plus there is no need for people to download an new app.

      • the_Coffin_Seller@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        While I don’t disagree, keep in mind that every instagram user already has a threads profile, even without access. As far as I know I do have a threads account but I’m from europe and last time I checked I cannot access threads.

  • crowsby@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Yeah, uhh we had that in the 1990s and it sucked:

    Why do one thing poorly when you can do a whole bunch of different things even worse.

  • Holyginz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Lol, dude can’t even run something like Twitter successfully, let alone an “everything” app. Not a chance in hell I would use it.

    • Wothe@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I was wondering if he would hire someone from China who previously runs “everything” app like Wechat. People should definatly look for alternatives

  • 001100 010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Wechat is so creepy. I mean you could just get caught in some misunderstanding of being labeled as a dissident and get cut off from basically all communications.

    And even if you are just an innocent civilian, all it takes is one bad hack and now criminals have the data of 1 Billion people.

    • markr@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well perhaps it is creepy but in China it is massively convenient. Nobody uses cash or credit cards except foreigners. Everyone connects socially through it. Yes the authoritarian government is collecting data, how that is creepier than our distributed techno-authoritarian data collection is an ideological mystification.

  • WhoRoger@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Convenience and marketing will always win at the end. We’re heading that way anyway. People use Apple Pay and Google pay and don’t think for a second what it means. Other forms of ID are going that way too. People want ecosystems without having to lift a finger. Just let big brother take care of everything.

    What, you want to talk privately? Use cash? What do you have to hide?

    • 0x4E4F@lemmy.rollenspiel.monster
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      1 year ago

      Sure, I use them, but I have a good reason why I started using them. I lost my plastic 3 times in one year. I have a small kid, he’s glued to me, whether it be the market or the playground, doesn’t matter, he’s always with me. He distracts me all the time (aways asking questions), so I just forget to take my plastic sometimes 🤷.

      So, even though I was against it, I decided to use Google Pay (now Wallet). I rarely forget my phone (only when I leave home, so it’s at home), plus it’s big and bulky, you notice it missing sooner than a piece of plastic.

      If there are any FOSS alternatives, I’d gladly use them, but as far as I know, there are none 🤷.

        • 0x4E4F@lemmy.rollenspiel.monster
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          1 year ago

          Hm, this seems like a good option, the phone wallet I mean. Is this like a special case of some sort? Cuz I have an armor case for my phone and I’d like to keep it that way, cuz I also drop my phone… a lot 😒.

          • WhoRoger@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I wouldn’t say I’m clumsy

            I also drop my phone… a lot 😒

            😅

            You can buy fairly bulky leather cases with place for your entire wallet, with a flip screen cover, and that will probably protect the phone even better than an armor case. Or something else… If there’s one product there’s no shortage of, it’s phone cases. Especially if you have a popular model.

            • 0x4E4F@lemmy.rollenspiel.monster
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              1 year ago

              Aw, man, thanks, this might be exactly what I was looking for ☺️ 👍. Don’t mind if the case breaks either, I can always fix it or just order a new one.

      • WhoRoger@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s my point tho. I get it that technology can be complicated and not everyone can, wants or needs to learn everything relevant about it.

        But the way it works out at the end, is that someone figures out to solve some truly trivial problem, and in the process siphons all your data and choices away.

        Oh no, I can’t figure out the 3 buttons on a music player. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate listen to all your conversations on an off chance that you want to play a piece of music.

        Oh no, I need to raise my hand to turn on the lights. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate control everything in your house via an online service they control and can shut down on a whim.

        Oh no, I’m clumsy and keep losing an essential thing. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate go through all your purchases and identity at all times.

        Oh no, my phone has like, 6 buttons. That’s too much for lil ol’ me! Solution: Have two multibillion conglomerates dictate you how to use your tech, which at the end becomes just as complicated yet dumber and 6x as expensive than what we had 15 years ago.

        I dunno, at what point is the solution not worth that tiny inconvenience?

        You can like, put your payment card in your phone’s case. Heck you can even put bank notes in there.

        • bigdog_00@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          But there are private and open source alternatives to these things. Home Assistant is the way to go for home automation, same with Apple’s HomeKit (all local communication via your network only)

          • WhoRoger@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            There are alternatives for almost everything, but most people just want to buy a new shiny thing with the biggest brand name, and click click click agree to everything.

        • 0x4E4F@lemmy.rollenspiel.monster
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          Oh no, I need to raise my hand to turn on the lights. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate control everything in your house via an online service they control and can shut down on a whim.

          Yeah, this is just stupid, I agree. I mean, I wouldn’t ever use smart devices in my home. Not just because corps gathering data, but because I truly believe this just makes you lazy… well, at least me. And there is nothing worse than being lazy. Everyone is, from time to time, so am I, but getting out of that circle sooner rather than later is what matters, and smart devices just make the process a lot harder IMO.

          Oh no, I’m clumsy and keep losing an essential thing. Solution: have a multibillion conglomerate go through all your purchases and identity at all times.

          I wouldn’t say I’m clumsy, I’ve never forgotten my plastic before I had a kid. There are just a lot more obligations and as I said, he thinks the world of me, he’s litelarly glued to me, and the constant questions are distracting, especially when juggling with 3, 4 other things, keeping an eye on him on top, and… well, it just happens 🤷.

          I dunno, at what point is the solution not worth that tiny inconvenience?

          It’s not tiny if I have to wait 3 days for the bank to issue me a new plastic, and you rarely have cash in you. I mean, who deals with cash nowadays anyway.

          You can like, put your payment card in your phone’s case. Heck you can even put bank notes in there.

          That is an option that another user mentioned and yes, this hasn’t occured to me before, so thank you as well for the suggestion 👍. Will look into finding a case that maybe has room for a card or two in the phone 😉.

          • WhoRoger@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            So happy end then. But you see my point, sometimes the solution to not give in to the hungry corporations can even be really simple. But the advertisements can drown out everything.

            • 0x4E4F@lemmy.rollenspiel.monster
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              1 year ago

              I actually don’t give in that easy. I could have used Google Pay a lot earlier, like years ago. But I didn’t. I even dealt with cash only for the longest time, until some stores just stopped accepting cash 🤷.

    • mikeyBoy14@lemmy.world
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      On the other hand, Google/Apple Pay are both pretty great products that replace a horrendous legacy payments system. Recall that for like 40 years the most innovative consumer payment system looked like this. And it was essentially a duopoly as well (Visa/Mastercard).

      At the end of the day, cash is still a thing as well.

      • WhoRoger@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Well, some countries indeed still commonly use payment systems from 50 years ago. That’s pretty bizarre. I remember hearing about PayPal 20 years ago, how revolutionary it is, and I didn’t quite get what the big deal is. That’s because all around Europe we had secure online payments (secure against theft and such, not against the bank snooping) since the late 90’s, and chipped cards even earlier.

        But anyway yea… In person, cash is king. Let’s keep it alive. Some countries are planning to phase out cash, and that really is only because we’re letting it happen due to our lazyness.

    • SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I can’t talk about google, but I do recall at launch that increased provacy was a widely touted feature of apple pay. If you’re using a credit card, all of your purchases are tracked, and your credit card provider is able to mine and sell all of that data.

      In addition, the merchant can do the same if you use a credit card. With apple pay, your phone anonymizes the number by only sending the merchant an authorization. In addition, apple does not store your transaction info.

      If I recall correctly, one of the reasons walmart originally failed to implement apple pay at their terminals was their loss of the ability to track customer purchases. They tried implementing some janky thing with qr codes.

      • WhoRoger@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Increased privacy in language of these corporations means “the only people who can access all of your data is us, our 50000 partner companies and every their partner company, and half of the governments on this planet that are currently touted as friendly. But nobody else, trust us bro”.

        I know banks are shit, but well I have 4 bank cards from 4 banks from 4 countries, and for now, that shit isn’t pooled yet.

        Plus I can still use cash, and even leave my phone at home if I wanna buy… Something… Without it being tracked.

        The problem of merchants tracking or stealing your card data is mainly in certain countries using banking systems that are 30 years out of date.

        Besides, people keep flocking to using all the store chains’ apps and reward cards and whatnot, using their real names and data, so enhanced privacy in that regard is moot if people don’t care in the first place.

        I also don’t recall any talks about giving banks nonstop access to all our IDs and car keys and other stuff that’s slowly creeping into phones, or rather into the hands of the handful big brother entities.

        But the payment systems are just one thing that came to mind, it’s not the only problem with these ideas.

    • Chariotwheel@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Great track record of ensuring freedom of speech from Musk. If I have to pick my poison on who restricts my freedom of speech, it’s not this one.

  • kryllic@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    He’s a decade late on that. I don’t see people wanting one app having that much of their information being constantly collected in the background. Then again, millions of people agreed to Threads’ data harvesting so…

    • Wothe@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Most of the are celebrities, they make money from giving up their privacy right.

      • ohlaph@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I imagine most celebrities have primary accounts and people who manage them or at a minimum two phones for that reason so they are only giving up what they want

  • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If an application has tracking and censorship software that is tied to a country’s government, then chances are I’m not gonna use that app, especially if China’s government is involved. This is why I hate WeChat.

    Besides, an “everything app” basically just defeats the purpose of having an app icon collection on your home screen. I like how colorful it looks, and I don’t want that to be taken away.

    We’re just getting further and further into dystopia at this point.

    • MyFairJulia@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Why even have an OS for the everything app? What if we made the app itself into an OS?

      Also: Does an everything app contain itself?

      • angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        I’d argue that Windows from Win98 - XP was trying to be an “everything app”

        This was highly unethical and didn’t work

          • angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com
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            1 year ago

            Honestly I was probably exaggerating a little.

            But I was going to talk about stuff like the heavy integration of Internet Explorer into those versions of Windows and the bundling of apps like Outlook Express and Windows Messenger. They were accused by the US government of illegally maintaining a monopoly on PC software through this, and some software that is bundled in most countries still isn’t in the European Union or South Korea.

            Still, I do think MS wanted to cause vendor lock in which is a similar issue to why an “everything app” gaining popularity would be an issue.

  • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I don’t trust Musk with anything, let alone everything.

    As soon as a company offers ‘ease of use’ for anything, it’ll try to get everything it can get their hands on and use it to their own advantage.

  • watson387@sopuli.xyz
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    Shit, I deleted my Twitter account when Musk bought the company. I’m definitely not going to create another one to use X.

  • squiblet@kbin.social
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    It seems like what he wants to add is mainly real-world identity and payments. The US already has an ‘everything app’ that has that and social media, shopping, classifieds and payments - facebook.

      • squiblet@kbin.social
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        So is Twitter. Adding payments and a bunch of other random shit to make it into facebook isn’t going to help.

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            Facebook is awful, of course. I haven’t signed into my account since 2019 and now I can’t without sending them my driver’s license, which clearly will never happen. Just because I stopped using FB and IG doesn’t mean everyone did, however.

  • SamsonSeinfelder@feddit.de
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    Why would you put yourself into an obvious dead end street? People already have problems leaving whatsapp for better messengers. People have a hard time quitting their amazon-addiction, even though there are many alternatives out there. Imagine you put all your eggs in one basket (messenger, shopping, payment, etc.) and lock down everything in one app. This might work for autocratic regimes, that push this idea of an app, as it makes it easier to control everything, but in the western world we like to be individualistic people who like to choose for themself, stand our or diverge from traditions.

    Currently in the west, there are multiple shops you can go to. If you happen to have a bad experience (product not at all like the picture, quality, etc.) you can give the app and the shop a bad review and never come back and try one of the others apps. If you have a bad experience inside a Everything App, where also is your communication with friends and the payment… how do you punish the app? No go to the shopping Tab anymore? Review a bad Tab on the appstore? If you leave all the tasks (shopping, communication, payment, etc.) separated in different Apps, you as a user keep more control. You can switch payments without affecting your communication. Imagine getting banned from paypal, whatsapp and amazon at the same time, because the TOS of this everything app. If you are not living in a autocratic state, you can choose (and should choose) and vote with your experience on what service is good and what service needs to go. If you live in an autocratic state, you might possibly can not choose from too much options, as your autocratic regime is trying to push this single apps, that they can control, into every sphere of your life. And if you do use something else, the autocratic state will find ways to make this a reason to have a closer look at you. Don’t stand out. Do not diverge from the rest of the citizens. Or else you get the treatment. - I see how Elmo wants this tool on his belt.

    The Everything App stand diametrical against the individualistic person belief and an open market. If it were such a great thing, people would have done it successfully in the last 15 years of App development in the West. But there is none of these Apps. Because it is not fitting in a democratic state where services are federated across the market and not vertically implemented in a single app. Its why we have homescreens where multiple apps can coexist next to each other. Is the best homescreen, a single page, with a single app, where when you go inside, then only the variety of possibilities opens up (calendar, calculator, messenger, shopping, etc.) or is this variety of possibilities not already happening exactly there: On the homescreen, in seperated apps.

    He can try. But he will fail. Like he failed twitter.

    • Wothe@lemmy.worldOP
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      I am not 100% sure I will ditch Twitter or X whatever, cuz I know Elon is try to be the data master, and spying on us all the time, I might keep it for fun, but never handing out a single piece of my information (use fake ones), but I won’t use it for private chat for sure, I only trust decentralized/e2ee structure for private chat. Like WireMin or Session.

      • safesyrup@feddit.ch
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        1 year ago

        What do you mean i will never hand out information? You already did and still do while using twitter. Somewhere there is your name linked to the device you are using to browse twitter meaning you dont have to say your name for them to know it‘s you

        • Chariotwheel@kbin.social
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          Also, websites can and do look for all kinds of patterns to identify you. Cookies are so old news that Google is actively working on ditching them. Way more sophisticated methods by now to identify you without a direct tracker.

          • safesyrup@feddit.ch
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            1 year ago

            You cannot fake your screen resolution, ip address, usage and typing behaviour. Believe me, you are beeing tracked and used for data.

            • Wothe@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 year ago

              What if I use decentralized app? All there services are unrelated to the ios system or others, would that be safe? Cuz I am currently using one, and all the service might need users data, they stay away from it, or askusers permission first.

              • safesyrup@feddit.ch
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                1 year ago

                what do you mean by a decentralized app? are you thinking of mastodon? all i’m saying is that if you use twitter, there will be data collected about you no matter what.