5 ms·

I've been clicking the X everytime i get the popup for a few days now. I haven't really thought much about it or actually read it yet. I honestly fucking hate W

I've been clicking the X everytime i get the popup for a few days now. I haven't really thought much about it or actually read it yet. I honestly fucking hate WhatsApp and wish I could convince the few people i talk to on there to use something else, even SMS. I've tried, yet they always message me through WhatsApp. They're not people i can really ignore either. Anyway, i guess this is mostly a rant. But fuck WhatsApp, they actually manage to somehow be worse than Facebook messenger. At least messenger let's you appear offline.

29083011397778 5y ago
While you're still stuck "using" Whatsapp, I've had great success using the Matrix bridge [0] on the homeserver I run [1]. Your contacts still message you, but you don't have to give Whatsapp your contacts list, other apps installed, or location via ip/wifi network. It won't work for calling (as it's not supported on Whatsapp Web), but images and groups (which I use) both work perfectly. [0] https://matrix.org/bridges/#whatsapp https://matrix.org/bridges/#whatsapp [1] https://matrix.org/faq/#self-hosting https://matrix.org/faq/#self-hosting
- danmur 5y ago
  I use that too, works really well. Bit fiddly to set up but it's surprisingly resilient, and at least the WhatsApp app is stuck in it's own VM with nothing else on it.
- est31 5y ago
  Doesn't that use the whatsapp web api? Which requires you to have Whatsapp installed on your phone as it routes all communication to the phone where it is decrypted?
  - philtar 5y ago
    Yes (or an Android VM before anyone tries to get pedantic)
  - 29083011397778 5y ago
    It requires a VM (as noted below) or an old phone you no longer use. I wasn't actively using my Nexus 5 anymore anyways, and this is a better use for it :p And yeah, it's be forwarded and re-sent through the phone/VM. But this is the best trade-off I've found for dealing with people that refuse to leave WhatsApp. I look accommodating and don't just cut out someone I presumably need to care about, but also limit how much data FB gets. And while I haven't tested this, I'm now curious how always having WhatsApp Web active affects my "Last Seen" time...
1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
Facebook employees need to feed their starving families. No one would pay for Whatsapp (yeah, right^1). You will love the more targeted advertising. 1. https://www.cnet.com/news/whatsapp-to-charge-iphone-users-annual-subscription/ https://www.cnet.com/news/whatsapp-to-charge-iphone-users-an...
- saos 5y ago
  Do they still charge on Android? My old man seems to be paying to use WhatsApp for some reason... I was confused when he said this to me.
  - beagle3 5y ago
    They hardly ever did, and the last time they did was something like 7 years ago. He is probably being scammed.
- skinnymuch 5y ago
  I never saw that 2013 thing. My friends and I all had access until 2100 or something. Considering that implementation never really happened, it doesn’t mean much.
mjevans 5y ago
Make sure they know how to contact you in other ways. Tell them to write it down once a day for like 2 weeks until they confirm it works by using it. Then never launch the app again.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
Yeah. Everyone in my country uses WhatsApp. There's nothing I can do about it so I've made peace with it. At least it has end-to-end encryption. It's even proven its effectiveness against my government's justice system.
- fragileone 5y ago
  Facebook own the keys so it's not real "E2EE".
  - tome 5y ago
    Could you explain further? My understanding was that every WhatsApp user had their own private key.
  - strogonoff 5y ago
    For what it’s worth, OWS (whose co-founder created WhatsApp and which is now known as Signal Foundation) implemented Signal protocol for WhatsApp’s E2EE. WhatsApp’s technical paper[0] (last updated October 2020) describing the implementation indicates that only public keys, not private keys are stored on the server. Unless there’s been an incident I’m not aware of, all I’m seeing is you claiming that WhatsApp/OWS engineers are lying with the only substantiation being questionable ethical practices of the parent company. [0] https://scontent.whatsapp.net/v/t39.8562-34/122249142_469857720642275_2152527586907531259_n.pdf/WA_Security_WhitePaper.pdf?ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=2fbf2a&_nc_ohc=-6fjS-vdUYIAX-lpXbN&_nc_ht=scontent.whatsapp.net&oh=4191502da53769fda27035990f1dc729&oe=60BD3519 https://scontent.whatsapp.net/v/t39.8562-34/122249142_469857...
    - beagle3 5y ago
      That's likely true about the protocol, as far as I can tell. But that's never been true about data-at-rest on your device; which wouldn't have been much a of a problem, except ... They used to have encrypted backups, but at some point in time, the Android backup (and AFAIK the iOS backup as well) dropped encryption. And since 99% or so of users back-up to the cloud, it means that Google and Apple have the unencrypted history for essentially everyone (remember, every message has two sides - they only need one side from each message)
rapnie 5y ago
> wish I could convince the few people i talk to on there to use something else You can use Watomatic to give these people an auto-reply each time they send you a message, and tell them about the better alternative you prefer to communicate with. https://github.com/adeekshith/watomatic https://github.com/adeekshith/watomatic
ls-lah_33 5y ago
It's apparently possible [1] to use an android emulator like anbox [2] to run whatsapp in a sandbox. I'd like to know if anyone here has experience with this approach as as a long term solution? https://anbox.io/ https://anbox.io/ https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/188040/whats-safest-way-to-run-whatsapp https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/188040/whats-sa...

29083011397778 5y ago

While you're still stuck "using" Whatsapp, I've had great success using the Matrix bridge [0] on the homeserver I run [1]. Your contacts still message you, but you don't have to give Whatsapp your contacts list, other apps installed, or location via ip/wifi network. It won't work for calling (as it's not supported on Whatsapp Web), but images and groups (which I use) both work perfectly. [0] https://matrix.org/bridges/#whatsapp https://matrix.org/bridges/#whatsapp [1] https://matrix.org/faq/#self-hosting https://matrix.org/faq/#self-hosting

danmur 5y ago
I use that too, works really well. Bit fiddly to set up but it's surprisingly resilient, and at least the WhatsApp app is stuck in it's own VM with nothing else on it.
est31 5y ago
Doesn't that use the whatsapp web api? Which requires you to have Whatsapp installed on your phone as it routes all communication to the phone where it is decrypted?
- philtar 5y ago
  Yes (or an Android VM before anyone tries to get pedantic)
- 29083011397778 5y ago
  It requires a VM (as noted below) or an old phone you no longer use. I wasn't actively using my Nexus 5 anymore anyways, and this is a better use for it :p And yeah, it's be forwarded and re-sent through the phone/VM. But this is the best trade-off I've found for dealing with people that refuse to leave WhatsApp. I look accommodating and don't just cut out someone I presumably need to care about, but also limit how much data FB gets. And while I haven't tested this, I'm now curious how always having WhatsApp Web active affects my "Last Seen" time...

1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago

Facebook employees need to feed their starving families. No one would pay for Whatsapp (yeah, right^1). You will love the more targeted advertising. 1. https://www.cnet.com/news/whatsapp-to-charge-iphone-users-annual-subscription/ https://www.cnet.com/news/whatsapp-to-charge-iphone-users-an...

saos 5y ago
Do they still charge on Android? My old man seems to be paying to use WhatsApp for some reason... I was confused when he said this to me.
- beagle3 5y ago
  They hardly ever did, and the last time they did was something like 7 years ago. He is probably being scammed.
skinnymuch 5y ago
I never saw that 2013 thing. My friends and I all had access until 2100 or something. Considering that implementation never really happened, it doesn’t mean much.

mjevans 5y ago

Make sure they know how to contact you in other ways. Tell them to write it down once a day for like 2 weeks until they confirm it works by using it. Then never launch the app again.

matheusmoreira 5y ago

Yeah. Everyone in my country uses WhatsApp. There's nothing I can do about it so I've made peace with it. At least it has end-to-end encryption. It's even proven its effectiveness against my government's justice system.

fragileone 5y ago
Facebook own the keys so it's not real "E2EE".
- tome 5y ago
  Could you explain further? My understanding was that every WhatsApp user had their own private key.
- strogonoff 5y ago
  For what it’s worth, OWS (whose co-founder created WhatsApp and which is now known as Signal Foundation) implemented Signal protocol for WhatsApp’s E2EE. WhatsApp’s technical paper[0] (last updated October 2020) describing the implementation indicates that only public keys, not private keys are stored on the server. Unless there’s been an incident I’m not aware of, all I’m seeing is you claiming that WhatsApp/OWS engineers are lying with the only substantiation being questionable ethical practices of the parent company. [0] https://scontent.whatsapp.net/v/t39.8562-34/122249142_469857720642275_2152527586907531259_n.pdf/WA_Security_WhitePaper.pdf?ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=2fbf2a&_nc_ohc=-6fjS-vdUYIAX-lpXbN&_nc_ht=scontent.whatsapp.net&oh=4191502da53769fda27035990f1dc729&oe=60BD3519 https://scontent.whatsapp.net/v/t39.8562-34/122249142_469857...
  - beagle3 5y ago
    That's likely true about the protocol, as far as I can tell. But that's never been true about data-at-rest on your device; which wouldn't have been much a of a problem, except ... They used to have encrypted backups, but at some point in time, the Android backup (and AFAIK the iOS backup as well) dropped encryption. And since 99% or so of users back-up to the cloud, it means that Google and Apple have the unencrypted history for essentially everyone (remember, every message has two sides - they only need one side from each message)

rapnie 5y ago

> wish I could convince the few people i talk to on there to use something else You can use Watomatic to give these people an auto-reply each time they send you a message, and tell them about the better alternative you prefer to communicate with. https://github.com/adeekshith/watomatic https://github.com/adeekshith/watomatic

ls-lah_33 5y ago

It's apparently possible [1] to use an android emulator like anbox [2] to run whatsapp in a sandbox. I'd like to know if anyone here has experience with this approach as as a long term solution? https://anbox.io/ https://anbox.io/ https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/188040/whats-safest-way-to-run-whatsapp https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/188040/whats-sa...