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Most people do think WhatsApp is a privacy focused app. Not everyone reads Hacker News and knows the basics of this sector. They are mostly bamboozled by the E2

Most people do think WhatsApp is a privacy focused app. Not everyone reads Hacker News and knows the basics of this sector. They are mostly bamboozled by the E2E encryption argument and fail to see the rest.

chrisseaton 7y ago
> You're wrong - most people do think WhatsApp is a privacy focused app. How do you know this to be true? > I feel like you just read the first tweet in a seven part thread and came to a weird conclusion based on an argument that was never made that way. Why are you being so snarky to anyone who disagrees with you in this thread?
- JakeDavis 7y ago
  I give regular public talks on this matter and ask entire audiences these questions. Most people do think WhatsApp is sort of vaguely more secure than say SMS or Skype and are surprised to learn that it's more complex than E2E encryption. Most people also aren't aware of Edward Snowden beyond just a name in a newspaper. I'm not being snarky, just direct (kind of typing these fast to talk to as many folks who are interested as possible) , sorry if it came across badly to you, that wasn't the intention
  - jamespo 7y ago
    What kind of talks are these? I'd be surprised if the audience represented the general Whatsapp userbase.
    - DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
      that is argument is a strawman. The general WhatsApp user-base will never watch a tech talk on _any subject_ for the same reason somebody with a driving license will usually not watch videos about how a combustion engine works. OP is well respected in the infosec community and the fact that he gets attacked and downvoted here tells more about the HN community's ignorance about something that should actually be muscle-memory for anyone who works in Tech. Many commenters here seem to just shovel JSON from A to B in their day jobs, so no surprise that this thread feels more like something you see on Reddit.
      - dang 7y ago
        Come on, please don't defend one person by slurring others. That just makes this place even worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
varenc 7y ago
really? I think that most people using WhatsApp have no clue that it’s E2E encrypted. And that’s amazing! You even say this yourself in a post you linked to above: > “WhatsApp’s main appeal to the masses is not its secure, end-to-end encryption, but its general simplicity. “ > “99% of WhatsApp’s users more than likely have no idea how E2E encryption works and they don’t even particularly care about it.” https://risky.biz/e2e-not-pointless-but/ https://risky.biz/e2e-not-pointless-but/ (I generally liked that post! Which is why this jumped out at me)

chrisseaton 7y ago

> You're wrong - most people do think WhatsApp is a privacy focused app. How do you know this to be true? > I feel like you just read the first tweet in a seven part thread and came to a weird conclusion based on an argument that was never made that way. Why are you being so snarky to anyone who disagrees with you in this thread?

JakeDavis 7y ago
I give regular public talks on this matter and ask entire audiences these questions. Most people do think WhatsApp is sort of vaguely more secure than say SMS or Skype and are surprised to learn that it's more complex than E2E encryption. Most people also aren't aware of Edward Snowden beyond just a name in a newspaper. I'm not being snarky, just direct (kind of typing these fast to talk to as many folks who are interested as possible) , sorry if it came across badly to you, that wasn't the intention
- jamespo 7y ago
  What kind of talks are these? I'd be surprised if the audience represented the general Whatsapp userbase.
  - DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
    that is argument is a strawman. The general WhatsApp user-base will never watch a tech talk on _any subject_ for the same reason somebody with a driving license will usually not watch videos about how a combustion engine works. OP is well respected in the infosec community and the fact that he gets attacked and downvoted here tells more about the HN community's ignorance about something that should actually be muscle-memory for anyone who works in Tech. Many commenters here seem to just shovel JSON from A to B in their day jobs, so no surprise that this thread feels more like something you see on Reddit.
    - dang 7y ago
      Come on, please don't defend one person by slurring others. That just makes this place even worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

varenc 7y ago

really? I think that most people using WhatsApp have no clue that it’s E2E encrypted. And that’s amazing! You even say this yourself in a post you linked to above: > “WhatsApp’s main appeal to the masses is not its secure, end-to-end encryption, but its general simplicity. “ > “99% of WhatsApp’s users more than likely have no idea how E2E encryption works and they don’t even particularly care about it.” https://risky.biz/e2e-not-pointless-but/ https://risky.biz/e2e-not-pointless-but/ (I generally liked that post! Which is why this jumped out at me)