Perhaps they simply took out the sim card and inserted into another phone, giving them access to contacts (that could have been saved into the chip instead of the original phone)?
2.5+ years. I only spent like a year and it was horrible enough. We will get through this. A place that values us and also pays a dignified amount instead of chump changes.
Yes… I guess you are right. However, they were immature college kids when that talk happened and have since matured somewhat. I hope it doesn’t happen again. Thank you for the advice.
I’m sorry about being vague about myself. I’m worried of being identified online.
It’s not about having the option, I love having alternatives. It’s about 90s ways being the only choice when they could have better options. E.g. You need to send a form. It’s already a pdf file, send it by email, right? No, it has to be physical mail… or fax if they have a number. Oh, and you have to stamp on it. No pdf. Multiply that by time constraints and local bureaucracy mixed in.
In a similar situation as you (entire society revolves around whatsapp). I came to this conclusion:
Others won’t share my view on personal privacy at all will happily give out any metadata or data. No matter what secure channel we use, the destination (people) will always leak.
Because of (1), consider all communication with others as public, no matter the inferred intimacy, no matter the platform or its security.
Consider (2) as true even if they somehow used Signal or any secure platform, because of (1). (E.g. “Hey, did you hear about $familyMember? Yes, the weird kiddo who forced me to use some strange blue shit for chat. He got positive on blood exam for $badCondition. Go check on him”)
As for whatsapp itself, i use Android and isolate it in a separate profile, also frozen until opened. I also used a burner phone number for account registration, not my actual number.
People are more receptive of whatsapp accounts with “alternate” numbers when you explain you “got hacked in the past” or any plausible reason.
For some reason Koreans across all ages write C instead of B by mistake. It became a national joke at this point and some do it ironically on purpose. I used to teach Korean. Imagine my face every time.
There are more but I’m on my phone. Will do more later.