As far as I know, they didn’t want to rush it out in the EU because they didn’t know if they’d fall foul of rules or not and they couldn’t wait weeks or months just to find out. Not because they can’t. Though, ironically, I think federation would cause the biggest problems. (How do you support the right to be forgotten when it’s not technically possible?)
I mean, yeah, but this is also true compared to writing your thoughts down in a paper journal or a self-hosted WordPress blog. Comparing it to Mastodon is only meaningful if you’re specifically evangelizing for Mastodon. You’re preaching to the choir here.
Your source touches on this, but a more meaningful comparison would be the social networks that are already being used by the same demographic. Is Threads use of data excessive or unusual compared the existing apps from Meta or its direct peers? How does it compare to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, Snapchat, etc.? How does it compare to ubiquitous Google apps like YouTube, Gmail, Chrome, etc?
Yeah, excessive tracking is Not Good, but it’s nowhere near unique to Threads.
The cybersecurity startup the parent article is built around, Protexxa, have their own Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. as does its founder and CEO.
So what’s the point of the article? Why Threads? Why now?
They’ve restored my posts and comments twice now, both times after I used Power Delete Suite to edit and delete them. First time, they restored everything. Second time, they restored a couple of my more recent posts and the comments on those threads.
It’s not caching or any 1000 item limits. My account is 16 years old but I didn’t have that many comments.
That was my point. It isn’t that Mastodon is the alternative to Threads, it’s just an alternative. The are plenty of systems of sharing short status updates with people that won’t involve as many privacy threats.
Instagram also collects health info, which it has no intrinsic need for. This is important to note because, fundamentally, Threads is Instagram. That’s why it collects the same data.