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SMS isn't the only alternative. People who are worried about encryption also won't use SMS. Signal doesn't make that bad trade-off, for example. There are viab
by tomatsu 10y ago
SMS isn't the only alternative. People who are worried about encryption also won't use SMS.
Signal doesn't make that bad trade-off, for example. There are viable alternatives.
- idlewords 10y agoRead the letter in full (I'm not being flippant, I mean it sincerely), as it addresses this exact issue. There's empirical evidence that people switch off to SMS. In places like Egypt, people share phones, swap SIM cards routinely, and Signal's nondelivery behavior is a non-starter. Zeynep does research on this and has written a lot about it; it's fascinating (and depressing) reading. The point is that these are not hypothetical scare scenarios. We have the data and that's why it's so urgent to chastise this kind of reckless coverage.
- tptacek 10y agoYou don't understand the concern. People who are worried about encryption by and large weren't using WhatsApp to begin with. The problem is people who aren't worried about encryption, but should be, and were being silently and effectively helped by WhatsApp's Signal Protocol feature. The only message those people are getting is "WHATSAPP BAD, SWITCH". And switch they are, but not to Signal (none of their friends on are on Signal). Nope, they're adopting insecure alternatives, where they can actually talk to their peers.
- putlake 10y agoIf people aren't worried about encryption why are they switching?
- tptacek 10y agoBecause people are telling them that WhatsApp is backdoored and that they should switch. They don't know anything about cryptography, but they're not idiots: they know what "bad" means.
- RodericDay 10y agoWhat are they switching into?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]