Right. WhatsApp/iMessage etc end-to-end encryption is meaningless because a single firm can turn it off invisibly any time they like. In fact we only have their

Right. WhatsApp/iMessage etc end-to-end encryption is meaningless because a single firm can turn it off invisibly any time they like. In fact we only have their assurance that it even exists at all, given the difficulty of reverse engineering their protocols and checking everyone has the same clients. I've felt very uncomfortable about the way Valley firms jumped on board the end-to-end bandwagon. The intentions are good and ones I wholeheartedly support, but the claims made for it are just not true. The WhatsApp paper is at least slightly less deceptive than it once was, and I guess that's progress of sorts, but the damage is done already. One day Facebook will discover some sort of burning reason why a WhatsApp user has to be decrypted, it will come out that this has been done, and trust will be irrevocably burned.