The WhatsApp/FaceBook deal was a surprise for me, I simply wasn't hip enough to even *know* about WhatsApp.
Well, it turns out its a replacement for SMS. We folks in the US don't use SMS which originated in the cellular system early on as a way to get all of the third world able to message *very* cheaply, thus have a reason to *buy* a cell phone. That's not the case here, SMS is an expensive monthly or $.25 each. USA. Sigh. So for what its worth, WhatsApp sneakily changed the SMS madness (virtually free for cellular carriers due to using 180 free bytes in the control channel but heck why not rip off customers) by making "messages" free. Interesting. So the entire world can now give the finger to slimy cellular providers, but at the cost of joining yet another "service" with all your personal information. Oh well, who cares. Even more clever, FB figured out that this would greatly enhance its service. Be nice to see how they plan to integrate it into FB, but still, at around 16Billion$. Basically they look at this as capturing the world wide cellular network. Apparently WhatsApp and FB have very different ideas on privacy. I bet the worst one wins. Naturally anything this big is going to be the cyberslime magnet, gold medal target. Cant wait for the first billion user leak. And no, passwords won't help. Not sure even about 2-factor. -- Owen
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
