this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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Asklemmy
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What's the issue with WhatsApp? I thought it was great for privacy.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta.
It’s still E2EE, as far as I know. Meta could always remove that feature but until they do, I’d consider it a safe and private messaging platform.
None of the messaging metadata is encrypted. They use that metadata to build profiles of people who aren't Facebook or Instagram users that interact with Facebook and Instagram users. If you care about profiling for the sake of avoiding social engineering attacks, it's one of your worst choices. If all you care about is protecting the contents of your messages, yeah, it's pretty okay
No disagreement there. I could have clarified, my comment was in regard to message content only. I didn't realize that about metadata and certainly am not defending Meta. I'd prefer Signal over anything else but as others have mentioned, getting friends and family to adopt is painful.
Lol no it's not. Meta can and WILL decrypt it. They have decrypted messages for police requests numerous times, and not necessarily under court order, just police asking. I support decryption under court order, but these weren't court ordered. Thinking anything owned by Meta is secure is ridiculous.
Then this is false advertising and a class-action lawsuit that should have already happened.
This Arstechnica article seems to confirm that they can't decrypt without user intervention and that they have only ever supplied metadata to law enforcement. I'm no fan of Meta but do you have sources that they have in fact decrypted actual message content at the request of law enforcement?
It's e2e from your device to server however once on the server Meta can access everything. Same as Apples e2e
or have a backdoor already or add one
It's owned by Facebook and isn't open source. There's no verifiable way to say for sure that Facebook doesn't have a master key to read everything you send on it. Compare to say, Signal, which is open source and can be verified to be secure.
It's still part of the Meta platform so not completely independent.
What information does WhatsApp share with the Meta Companies?
https://faq.whatsapp.com/1303762270462331
It’s owned by Facebook
the only thjng good is the messages and calls are alledgely encrypted, literally every other detail they know. live location? entire contact list? how frequently you text someone? etc etc