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WhatsApp says they are encrypted. Some reading tells me there is a loophole if a message is flagged - it's then sent for moderation and no longer encrypted. A h
by standardUser 4y ago
WhatsApp says they are encrypted. Some reading tells me there is a loophole if a message is flagged - it's then sent for moderation and no longer encrypted. A hell of a loophole. But loopholes aside, WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted and, without being flagged, messages are not vulnerable to real-time searches by law enforcement.
If I'm wrong (very possible!) please explain exactly what I have wrong here.
As for Signal, I have an account and use it with a few people. But until the day comes when my other several hundred contacts switch to Signal, I don't have much of an option.
- kornhole 4y agoThe content of the message is E2EE except when it is not with the loophole you mentioned. The major difference between Whatsapp and Signal is the metadata collection. Meta can record each message sender, receiver, time, size of message, length, device ID in some cases, location and more. This is valuable information for the authorities. Signal encrypts metadata and knows the first time a number connected to the service and last time they connected and have consistently only been able to provide that when given a warrant.
- pixel_tracing 4y agoI mean you can be end to end encrypted but still have master keys server side
- fsociety 4y agoThis is correct. Message content is encrypted, and only readable from either an unencrypted backup on iCloud or if one of the message recipients reports your message (their client then sends the message to Meta unencrypted). Message metadata is available to Meta. All I can say is.. if your threat model has to account for metadata like this than you have a whole lot more to account for than just WhatsApp or Signal.