@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ 
+---
+template:
+url: auth-web
+title: The increasingly authoritarian web
+subtitle: No surprise here, but let's explore this anyway
+date: 2021-01-06
+---
+
+I realize the title can be somewhat misleading; no, I'm not talking
+about increase in far-right ideology -- but rather, the increasiong
+control that megacorps and/or groups that support certain popular
+political ideas.
+

@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@ 
----
-template:
-url: fediblock
-title: Fediblock considered harmful
-subtitle: 
-date: 2020-12-05
----

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ 
+---
+template:
+url: whatsapp
+title: What's next after WhatsApp?
+subtitle: Let's not act surprised here, this was bound to happen
+date: 2021-01-08
+---
+
+Ever since Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19bn, it was blatantly
+obvious that they wanted in on the massive userbase, and consequently,
+the data they could collect. The acquisition wasn't all too bad at
+first, I'll admit -- they added in full E2EE via the Signal Protocol,
+their privacy policy wasn't _all too bad_, at least for a Facebook
+product. While I obviously didn't enjoy using it -- being the only
+non-free app on my phone -- I could still put up with it, considering
+how ubiquitous it is here in India.
+
+That will no longer be the case, however. With the new [privacy
+policy](https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy) introduced by
+WhatsApp, the below data will be collected and shared with Facebook and
+its associated companies (quoting from the privacy policy):
+
+> - Account Information. Your phone number, profile name and photo, online
+>   status and status message, last seen status, and receipts may be
+>   available to anyone who uses our Services, although you can configure
+>   your Services settings to manage certain information available to
+>   other users.
+> - Your Contacts and Others. Users with whom you communicate may store or
+>   reshare your information (including your phone number or messages) with
+>   others on and off our Services. You can use your Services settings and
+>   the block feature in our Services to manage the users of our Services
+>   with whom you communicate and certain information you share.
+
+And if you don't consent to these -- i.e., you don't click on "Agree" on
+the pop-up about the new terms, you can no longer use WhatsApp.
+Naturally, I didn't.
+
+Now, it's fairly common knowledge that the entirety of India revolves
+around WhatsApp. _Everything_ happens over WhatsApp. Invoices, shopping,
+general logistics and operations, and in my case -- university
+communications. I'd even declare WhatsApp as "critical infrastructure",
+like power and water; without which the country cannot function. That's
+a scary thought in itself -- imagine an entire nation relying on
+Facebook for something so pivotal. 
+
+So what are my options? I can either switch to a new messaging app, or
+ditch instant messaging altogether.  Let's explore these.
+
+There are some neat potential alternatives to WhatsApp, the most popular
+one being Signal. While I think Signal is technically sound, I'm
+skeptical about using it primarily due to its centralized nature, hosted
+in the US. Moxie is openly against federation/decentralization.[^1]
+
+[^1]: https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/
+
+And then there's [Session](https://getsession.org), a fork of Signal
+that aims to be completely decentralized. It uses [onion
+routing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_routing), similar to Tor.
+It _does_ involve some blockshit, but the actual messaging is all done
+over onion routing (they call it "onion requests"). From about 5 minutes
+of usage, I can tell that the app's UI is very nicely done.  It does
+suffer from severe UX issues though -- you can't add someone from your
+address book, rather, you have to paste their Session ID (a long
+alphanumeric) to initiate a conversation. In its current state, Session
+is more "tech for tech people" than "tech for the average user".
+
+And then there's the issue of actually getting people to use an
+alternate messaging app. I know that 99% percent of the people I talk to
+on WhatsApp don't care about the new privacy policy. I also know that
+they're _not_ going to switch for just one guy (me). Further, the
+network effects are enormous. Assuming they did switch, they'd then
+have to convince all _their_ contacts to do so as well -- which isn't
+happening.
+
+Which brings me to the second option: ditching IM completely. This
+option is starting to sound a lot better than having to talk to people
+about why Facebook is bad, and why privacy matters and why they should
+quit WhatsApp -- for what will be the hundredth time. I don't see any
+immediate downsides to it. Sure, I'll miss out on some socializing but
+who am I kidding, it's all mostly smalltalk anyway.
+
+Perhaps that's what I'll end up doing -- use WhatsApp until it works,
+and uninstall it after. Matters of immediate attention can be conveyed
+over a phone call. Otherwise, an SMS/email should do.

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ }
 
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@@ -182,15 +182,15 @@ width: 10% !important;
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+
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