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If a user loses their phone, I think they have a lot more to worry about than a few missed WhatsApp messages anyway. I don't think this is a "common sense" comp
by mtgx 10y ago
If a user loses their phone, I think they have a lot more to worry about than a few missed WhatsApp messages anyway. I don't think this is a "common sense" compromise that WhatsApp made here, especially in the context of them promising end-to-end encryption.
It's kind of like that other nonsense tech companies are doing these days, by supporting U2F auth, but then requiring you also set-up SMS auth in parallel, so that "if you lose your U2F key you can go back in with the SMS"
Yeah, except that completely eliminates the point of using a U2F key in the first place, since your security would be no better than when you're just using SMS auth.
Or we can go back to "security questions", which I think most agree now are just not worth it, despite the fact that they can help users "recover their passwords".
If end-to-end encrypted messages can be intercepted through this, then WhatsApp shouldn't be offering this feature. The downside is much greater than the upside.
- arjie 10y agoIf I lose my phone, I expect my new phone to have proper continuity on the messages. I'd rather have that than any encryption, to be honest. I don't care if the government spies on me. I do care if something someone sent me gets lost.
- jdjb 10y agoThen don't use a messenger that promises end-to-end encryption. Client side encryption is all about ensuring only clients that hold private keys can read messages delivered to them.
- arjie 10y agoMore like, you can stop using this messenger because, guess what? It does what I want and not what you want. You move.
- wowaname 10y agoYou should at least have a backup of your private key so you can import it on your new phone rather than having the sender re-encrypt to whatever key your new phone decides to generate.