this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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Privacy

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Meta payment message (iusearchlinux.fyi)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by promitheas@iusearchlinux.fyi to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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So I got the message from instagram about either paying or using it free (at the cost personalised ads) just now.

1000010454

Doesn't this go against the GDPR? Either way, is there a FOSS alternative for instagram like piped is to youtube? It seems like a good opportunity to stop using the official app, even though it would be better to not use instagram at all (sadly not an option for me right now).

Any suggestions, and if so, are there any that provide functionality for: stories, posts, dms? Those are the 3 things I use instagram for.

Many thanks!

Edit: For messaging I do use beeper, though some media like carousels and posts sent to my dms cant be shown in there, so for those cases I open the official app.

Edit 2: many people have suggested pixelfed. Ive heard of it, and want to use it, but unfortunately the only reason Im still sticking with instagram is because I have very dear friends who would never change to anything non-mainstream. Theyre important enough that im willing to not delete it just yet, but I dont want to agree to either pay or pay with my data.

What im looking for is more like a piped for youtube, thing. So a frintend that has instagram content/features, but isnt the main app and avoids the problems I listed above

Edit 3: I ended up installing the site as a PWA on my phone as thats the only device I use it on, and uninstalled the official app. Thanks to everyone for all your input!

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[–] BroBot9000@lemmy.world 139 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Just STOP using their service.

This situation isn’t getting any better. After this they will regularly up the price and take out features that you are used to and charged you extra.

They are still gathering and selling your information. Meaning you might not get ads on instagram but your digital fingerprint is still being used literally on every other website that FB works with.

Corporate social media is a toxic parasite that’s only going to enshittify more and more while people are willing frogs boiling themselves slowly.

Join mastodon, pixelfed and peertube. That’s the future of consumer rights and clawing away from billionaire ownership.

[–] Sneptaur@pawb.social 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s just more enshittification

[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It absolutely is not. You are using enshitification incorrectly. This is the core business model of facebook since the very beginning. They don't give a shit about people spending $13/mo. They absolutely do not want people to choose that option. This is literally about about a legal loophole they think they have found to get around GDPR and have people "opt-in" to the same kind of data collection their business is based on.

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[–] promitheas@iusearchlinux.fyi 6 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Im already on mastodon and i use piped, but sadly I cant leave insta yet because i have very dear friends on there who i chat with, and they'd never switch to something else (... And meta knows this btw)

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Your first mistake was making real friends >:C

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[–] BroBot9000@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

I had to do the same thing. If they are dear friends then they shouldn’t have a problem getting a free app to chat with you. Otherwise sms is always an option.

Someone has to be the catalyst for change. Otherwise the corporate grip is only going to get stronger and soon enough all corporate social media will be subscription only.

[–] Killercat103@infosec.pub 12 points 1 year ago

Well someones gotta go first. Nah, I'm kidding and I get it. I tried it myself with Snapchat and Discord and it was a very slow and tedious process. But I got it done. Migrated to SMS for the people that refused to adopt a new platform and since SMS is ...quite bad it does get easier to convince once you're there. Feel somewhat guilty for bothering people but I sure don't miss the old platforms. Good riddance.

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[–] doctorn@r.nf 92 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Should have posted that chain-text to my Facebook wall years ago so my profile would be blue and safe...

Please forgive me,... I failed you all... 😭

[–] RickyRigatoni@lemmy.ml 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I swear these specific copypastas are started by grad school sociology students for their thesis research or something.

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[–] otter@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

Lmao completely forgot about that

[–] leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 64 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"Your info won't be used for ads"

But we'll still be tracking everything you do and selling that on to everyone who wants it.

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

deleted

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[–] SimonSaysStuff@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have fond memories of the Internet 20-25 years ago.

How did it turn into this much of a mess? Social Media, SEO, adverts, data mining, profiling, privacy nightmares... what a shit show.

[–] Majestic@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago

The venture capital dollars started running out. Returns started being demanded. Companies that made slightly improved and/or more accessible versions of more open products extinguished those products using venture capital dollars then started rolling out the enshittification, demands for money, intrusive ads, spying, dark patterns, sabotaging, paid tiers.

Back in those days the internet was a curiosity. A hobby. A fun thing to share, something a company might hope to break even on or earn minor profits with, these days big profits are demanded, centralization. Addiction to high resolution and size video and image content which is expensive to host and serve. The network effect drained smaller sites and resources, concentrating people in larger venues that had the investment dollars to support them at the cost of their privacy. Combine with search engine optimization and it became harder to even find smaller places. Add in digitally uneducated kids who thought fb and such were most of the internet and never bother to venture beneath the top 6 google results and older people and this is what you have.

Take something like Omegle. I don't want to defend what it was for most of its existence as the bad outweighed the good IMO (like 4chan) but something like that if made today would require linking your facebook or google account and serve you video ads every 5 minutes on top of banner ads. But back then it was just something some random guy could make for fun and not think "hmm I need real identities to monetize these people to ad networks to pay for this and turn a big profit selling the data they input".

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[–] Lemmchen@feddit.de 42 points 1 year ago (4 children)

13€? Are they insane? If I were to use the platform I'd be willing to pay 3€ at most. 13€ is just ridiculous.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's on purpose. They know most people won't pay, so now it's carte blanche to their data. And if somebody's desperate enough, they'll pay 13€ and meta will make more money on the user than with ads.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 year ago

They will collect and sell your data either way. They just won't force ads down your throat if you pay them. This is what billionaires have done to our beloved internet.

[–] thepaperpilot@beehaw.org 19 points 1 year ago

The call to action button is the free plan, with subscribe having a secondary button style. That alone makes it clear they want to show you ads more than they want you to subscribe.

[–] ursakhiin@beehaw.org 13 points 1 year ago

They don't want you to choose the paid option. They make more in the ads and info.

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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 35 points 1 year ago (5 children)

€12.99/mo. sounds wildly overpriced to me in comparison to 1) cost to serve and 2) ad revenue. I’m not an ad revenue expert, but I have a hard time believing they make anywhere near €13/user/mo. from advertisers.

[–] ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess the information they gather is worth enough that overpricing the subscription makes them more likely to retain free users.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

The wording and the dark pattern on this screen should be violating the rules already. They very clearly want people to stay on the free plan, and likely aren't even going to stop tracking users?

Maybe they just want to show how it "failed" and make a case that people don't care

[–] magnetosphere@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

My god I just glanced quickly and thought it was 2.99. Asking 12.99 is an absolute joke.

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[–] yoz@aussie.zone 33 points 1 year ago

FOSS alternative is PixelFed

[–] nfsu2@feddit.cl 29 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Pixelfed it is then

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[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ive heard of it, and want to use it, but unfortunately the only reason Im still sticking with instagram is because I have very dear friends who would never change to anything non-mainstream.

This is called the network effect, it's a social problem and no amount of technology will solve this. So your choices are either to stop using apps where you are the product, and obviously convince your friends to stop that as well, or grin and bear it. Maybe think about what you did 20 years ago and do that instead.

[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

I've given an ultimatum to friends and family, switch to fediverse or our interactions will be reduced to in person encounters.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 year ago

I chose option C, don't use Instagram. But thanks, I guess!

[–] plz1@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

The fact that the ad revenue button is more emphasized and easier to press (closer to screen edge) says a lot about the value of you being their product vs. you simply paying them for access.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

You need to make a choice, Mr Anderson...

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[–] Crul@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

Proxigram:
https://codeberg.org/ThePenguinDev/Proxigram/wiki/Instances

[–] shiveyarbles@beehaw.org 12 points 1 year ago

Option 3: uninstall

[–] Treczoks@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

The sane choice would be to leave.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

foss alternative to Instagram

Pixelfed?

Edit: doesn't like Signal stories cover this usecase. I don't really "get" shit like IG tbh

[–] wesley@yall.theatl.social 9 points 1 year ago

I setup my own pixelfed instance to share pictures of my kids and family. I own and control all the data on my server and no one gets to monetize pictures of my children.

Not many of my family members are on there but I still prefer it to Instagram

[–] Bryan@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

I heard in a podcast that this is primarily to address the requirement to not target ads for under 18 and will be free to them. They probably have to offer it as a paid service for anyone 18+ and priced it so that no one actually does.

Without a doubt, everyone is still being tracked.

[–] MudMan@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Anecdotally, the last time I checked my dormant Facebook feed it was deserted. I wonder how many people hit that message and just decide they can just nope out and not lose much of value.

I mean, that's what I did the first time it popped up. I only ever logged into that in case somebody was trying to reach me for work stuff, and that never actually happens, so...

As for whether this is GDPR compliant, it seems that FB was convinced it would get them past the newer post-GDPR regulations and the EU has strongly signalled that it really won't, so it's gonna be fun to watch from the sidelines.

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[–] ghostdoggtv@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Just wait 5 months, they'll add a bullshit feature like custom fonts and raise the price 83%

[–] penquin@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll just stop using it if they tell me this. You can sign up for pixelfed. It's a part of the fediverse, too. You can transfer all of your Instagram photos to it very easily. They even have instructions on how to do it. I moved all of my 650 photos in about 20 minutes. Just in case.

[–] promitheas@iusearchlinux.fyi 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I dont have many photos, but thats not the issue. Its that all my friends are on it, and until I leave after my bachelors and need to have contact with them often im stuck with it. After i leave to a different country once i get my degree itll be easier, but for the next year or so im stuck with instagram because i dknt want to lose contact with them. As most people, they would never leave the mainstream thing behind, so no chance of converting them as well

[–] penquin@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ok then, run it in a browser, instead of the actual app, to give them less of your data. I have it installed on my phone as a webapp on Firefox with ublock origin and TrackerControl app

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[–] fluffery@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Pixelfed for true alternative PWA works Instander exists

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