This article addresses the use of Meta services (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, and Oculus Rift) and the associated privacy concerns. I am posting this across all my social media and YouTube channels because, despite my numerous videos advocating for discontinuing the use of these services, friends and family remain unconcerned.
For example, when I inform loved ones, including my wife, parents, and in-laws, that they cannot take photos or videos of my children while using these services on their phones, they often look at me as if I am overreacting about my and my children’s data privacy.
To illustrate why this is a concern, consider this analogy: Imagine you print physical photos and want to share them. A company requires scanning every picture, noting every person’s face, and selling all that personal data, including the data of children and family. This would be creepy, yet this is essentially what happens with Meta services.
It is even worse than that. If you keep a physically printed photo album, such as a wedding album, private in your closet (with no intention to share it with anyone), the equivalent of what is happening is that this same company unlocks your door, takes the album, scans all the pictures, and sells the data without your permission.
I have discussed this subject in detail in previous videos, particularly the issue of private photo scanning. Users on Facebook and Instagram are often prompted with misleading pop-ups about “AI-enhanced features.” While the language suggests an improved sharing experience, the fine print reveals that Meta AI is scanning photos that you do not upload to their platforms—all your private pictures are being scanned and the data sold. Although this is an opt-in feature, many people accept it due to confusing wording. Furthermore, there have been numerous reports globally of people who successfully opt-out only to find the feature automatically turned back on in their settings.
No aspect of your life is private on these platforms. I am now informing all friends and family that they may not take pictures of my young children using their cellphones, as the kids are too young to consent to the resulting data exposure.
The extent of Meta’s misconduct is staggering. I dedicated a twenty-seven-minute video to detailing eight years of Meta repeatedly breaking privacy laws, facing successful lawsuits, and being exposed by journalists and legal firms. This is all verified information. The company’s actions are grotesque, including instances where they bribed children and teenagers to install a Meta VPN, allowing them to scan literally everything the child did on their phone—every tap, every website visited, and every app used.
Furthermore, US law firms discovered that Meta was purchasing personal health information directly from American hospitals. Hospitals are selling private patient data to Meta. Adding to this, a successful lawsuit was brought against the menstrual cycle tracking app, Flow, for selling user data to Meta.
This company’s behaviour is so reprehensible that Meta executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, were successfully sued for $8 billion by their own shareholders. This is insane—shareholders normally push for success and profit, but Meta’s practices of selling user data were so out of control that the shareholders sued the leadership.
I acknowledge that I am not perfect; I had a minor addiction to Instagram Reels. While I didn’t doom-scroll for hours, I reached a point where, if I had to microwave food for just a minute, I would instinctively grab my phone to watch Reels. After doing my research and uninstalling the services, I noticed this habit. The next time when I’d reach for my phone during a simple task like microwaving, I’d realize the app wasn’t there. For people who doom-scroll for hours daily, their data is absolutely being sold; the algorithm feeds them the exact content to keep them engaged.
The constant need to share experiences, such as a meal at a restaurant or pictures from a honeymoon or a wedding outfit, is an addiction problem. No one asked for this information to be broadcast publicly. Posting for everyone you know or publicly on the internet is about a simple dopamine hit—a temporary good feeling that fuels the addiction. Just stop.
As a YouTube content creator, I should be utilizing social media, yet those close to me know I despise it. This is evident in the quality of my social media accounts, which is why I am abandoning them. This will likely be my final post on Instagram and Meta services in general. I may not delete the accounts to prevent handle squatting, because my social media handles are in many of my YouTube videos, but this marks the end of my posting activity.
I have desperately tried to convince friends and family to switch from WhatsApp to Signal, a secure and private messenger that does not track your data. The founder of WhatsApp, who sold the app to Meta for billions, actually quit Meta due to his disgust with their data-selling practices and subsequently funded Signal to champion privacy. These stories underscore the insanity of the situation, and I have covered them extensively in my videos.
When leaving various chats on WhatsApp, I sent a brief explanation: I’m leaving WhatsApp because it’s not secure. End-to-end encryption only secures some WhatsApp data, and you should leave too. The responses I received fell into a few categories. Some people replied, “I have nothing to lose. I don’t care if they sell my data.” They fail to realise that when they interact with a contact named “Mom,” Meta knows your mother’s name and number and sells that data. Even if you don’t care about your own data, Meta services are designed to map and sell your entire relationship network.
Others responded, “I support you and know Meta is evil, but it’s just so hard to leave these services.” This is simply an excuse. They want to acknowledge the problem without changing their behaviour. Most people, however, gave no response at all.
Despite messaging everyone I know on WhatsApp about the privacy risk and the easy, free alternative (Signal), the number of friends or family members who switched to Signal and dropped WhatsApp is zero. Not one person has stopped using WhatsApp; they are addicted to a simple chat service.
Changing chat applications is effortless. People have constantly transitioned between services like MIRC, AOL Chat, MSN Messenger, Blackberry Messenger, iMessenger, RCS Chat and many more throughout history. The current resistance is about the dopamine hit of constant sharing and validation. I urge you to stop being the product sold by evil, law-breaking companies like Meta, and that includes Google.
I currently use Graphene OS, a privacy-focused operating system, because I recognize that mainstream tech companies are not trustworthy, including Apple. Every time Tim Cook speaks about privacy, it is a lie.
In my twenty-seven-minute video on Meta, I detailed how Apple repeatedly purchased people’s private chat data directly from Facebook. Even after they were caught, Apple continued the practice for months. Apple, like Google, Meta, Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify, does not care about your privacy. All these companies routinely buy and sell data from each other, violating your privacy in the process.
Some claim we are heading toward a dystopian future where we own nothing, but that future is already here. You no longer own your media: you stream movies and shows on Netflix and Amazon, and music via services like iTunes, YouTube, or Spotify. You don’t even own the storage of your data, as files uploaded to Google Drive or OneDrive are being scanned by AI services. These companies can access and sell that data whenever they want. In some cases they permanently delete the data for no reason.
Crucially, you do not own your privacy.
I made this post and video (above) to be vulnerable with my friends, family, and strangers on my channel, hoping that one of you will finally wake up and ditch these services, as I did. It is a genuine relief. I now have more time to read comics on my phone (without data tracking), I’m studying for a cyber security certification, and I am far more productive. I am no longer desperate to know what is happening in everyone’s life twenty-four-seven.
I truly hope you have learned something and make a positive change.
