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They always cared about E2E. It was added really early to Whatsapp due to the mobile first client. Messenger always had trouble because users are expected to op

by baby 4y ago

They always cared about E2E. It was added really early to Whatsapp due to the mobile first client. Messenger always had trouble because users are expected to open the app from different browsers. The value? They don't need to secure their databases against external AND internal attacks (believe it or not, fb has protections in place so that employees don't randomly access user data), they can more easily be compliant with the never-ending stream of regulations like GDPR, and... they can more easily do interop with WhatsApp (which doesn't have plaintext messaging).

dylan604 4y ago
>It was added really early to Whatsapp so early it was pre-FB purchase?
- fsociety 4y ago
  No and you are likely talking to a WhatsApp dev. They added E2EE in 2016, plans announced in 2014. Backups weren’t encrypted until recently.
  - baby 4y ago
    I not a whatsapp dev o.o
chimeracoder 4y ago
> They always cared about E2E. It was added really early to Whatsapp due to the mobile first client. Define "always". The very early releases of WhatsApp used plaintext. Encryption was added in 2013, and E2E (using the Signal protocol) was added in 2016.
- saurik 4y ago
  WhatsApp wasn't originally a product from Facebook. They bought it in 2014 and the article I found about them fully launching end-to-end encryption in 2016 says that it was in rollout for the prior year on various platforms, which would imply they had already been working on it before that; I've always understood it to be a thing that Facebook took seriously pretty quickly after getting WhatsApp. https://threatpost.com/whatsapp-adds-end-to-end-encryption-to-one-billion-users/117213/ https://threatpost.com/whatsapp-adds-end-to-end-encryption-t... > “Over the past year, we’ve been progressively rolling out Signal Protocol support for all WhatsApp communication across all WhatsApp clients. This includes chats, group chats, attachments, voice notes, and voice calls across Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, Nokia S40, Nokia S60, Blackberry, and BB10,” wrote Open Whisper Systems founder, Moxie Marlinspike.

by baby 4y ago

dylan604 4y ago

>It was added really early to Whatsapp so early it was pre-FB purchase?

fsociety 4y ago
No and you are likely talking to a WhatsApp dev. They added E2EE in 2016, plans announced in 2014. Backups weren’t encrypted until recently.
- baby 4y ago
  I not a whatsapp dev o.o

chimeracoder 4y ago

> They always cared about E2E. It was added really early to Whatsapp due to the mobile first client. Define "always". The very early releases of WhatsApp used plaintext. Encryption was added in 2013, and E2E (using the Signal protocol) was added in 2016.

saurik 4y ago
WhatsApp wasn't originally a product from Facebook. They bought it in 2014 and the article I found about them fully launching end-to-end encryption in 2016 says that it was in rollout for the prior year on various platforms, which would imply they had already been working on it before that; I've always understood it to be a thing that Facebook took seriously pretty quickly after getting WhatsApp. https://threatpost.com/whatsapp-adds-end-to-end-encryption-to-one-billion-users/117213/ https://threatpost.com/whatsapp-adds-end-to-end-encryption-t... > “Over the past year, we’ve been progressively rolling out Signal Protocol support for all WhatsApp communication across all WhatsApp clients. This includes chats, group chats, attachments, voice notes, and voice calls across Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, Nokia S40, Nokia S60, Blackberry, and BB10,” wrote Open Whisper Systems founder, Moxie Marlinspike.