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Some users have noticed settings that let Meta analyze and retain phone photos

(www.zdnet.com)
530 points mdhb | 2 comments | 29 Aug 25 12:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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brk ◴[29 Aug 25 12:24 UTC] No.45063156[source]▶
I've removed all Meta apps other than Whatsapp (and I don't love that). I haven't had the Facebook app on my phone in well over a decade. Had Instagram for a while, I was casually active on it, but Meta just keeps convincing me not to be trusted.

Facebook mobile is a suboptimal experience, which is fine, it just reminds me to use it less.

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skylurk ◴[29 Aug 25 12:32 UTC] No.45063242[source]▶
On iOS, whatsapp is weirdly pushy about getting unlimited access to your photo album.

They also go out of their way to make it hard to save a photo without granting full access. Creepy.

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1. ozgrakkurt ◴[29 Aug 25 14:15 UTC] No.45064431[source]▶
My solution to this is to go

Photos -> share photo -> whatsapp

Instead of starting from whatsapp

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2. morsch ◴[29 Aug 25 16:12 UTC] No.45065957[source]▶
I just tried removing the access photos permission entirely from Whatsapp on my Android phone. Then, sharing a photo from within the Photos app pops up the permission dialog in Whatsapp. You need to give it at least the "Limited" permission, otherwise it won't process the shared photo.

Having given it that permission, I can share photos from within Whatsapp as well, without going to the Photos app. I'm not sure if the file picker that pops up is a Whatsapp component (meaning the "Limited" permission is essentially unlimited) or if it's a system component. I mean the latter would make sense, but I'm too cynical to believe it works that well.