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> What am I missing here? OK, say you're a bank. The SEC states you need to keep archives of every discussion your traders have with anyone at any time (I'm si
by namdnay 1y ago
> What am I missing here?
OK, say you're a bank. The SEC states you need to keep archives of every discussion your traders have with anyone at any time (I'm simplifying things but you get the point). You keep getting massive fines because traders were whatsapping about deals
So now you've got several options - you can use MS Teams, which of course offers archival, compliance monitoring etc. But that means trusting MSFT, and making sure your traders only use Teams and nothing else. You can use a dedicated application for the financial industry, like Symphony or ICE Chat or Bloomberg, but they're clunkier than B2C apps.
And then the Smarsh (owners of Telemessage) salesman calls you, and says "your users can keep using the apps they love - WhatsApp, Signal - but we make it compliant". And everyone loves it (as long as no-one in your Security or Legal teams are looking too hard at the implications of distributing a cracked version of WhatsApp through your MDM...)
Edit: here's the install document for their cracked WhatsApp binary https://smarsh.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#30000001FgxH/a/Pb000000r00H/0aFJJ3tCViox8quTxN05CvEu53Cz22.IvHqz4o4EoIc https://smarsh.my.salesforce.com/sfc/p/#30000001FgxH/a/Pb000...
- protocolture 1y agoSeems like it doesnt resolve the trust issue it just shifts it to a smaller firm with more to lose.
- namdnay 1y agoIt definitely doesn't resolve the trust issue! I would trust MSFT a million times more than these cowboys. What it does give you is peace with your traders (who can be real divas..) - they can keep using "WhatsApp" and "Signal" and you can monitor everything
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- amarcheschi 1y agook, this absolutely reminds me of using indian whatsapp mods years ago. stickers, more features, local and portable backups... wouldn't try that as a member of the government though
- homebrewer 1y agoIs it a coincidence that it reads almost exactly like SMERSH? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMERSH https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMERSH
- tomhowls 1y ago[dead]
- lupusreal 1y agoProbably not. It's trendy to give edgy names to companies. See: Palintir.
- 77pt77 1y agoYou mean Palantir
- PicassoCTs 1y agoAnd the name is not very edgy and a pretty exact mission description - it describes exactly what it grows from. Seeing stones aka cellphone data of everyone, collected, analyzed and turned into predictions for kings.
- lupusreal 1y agoNot even pretending to not be evil is what makes it edgy.
- PicassoCTs 1y agoTo be honest, the good guys - turned out to be pretty embarrassing too. The whole "everyone thinks like us" delusion bought with the surplus of a good times window distributed all around and its still willing to return to this delusional state of affairs. The obvious plot-holes they reveal when it comes to we do not discuss nature (the bugs in the human mind are all fixable with education) and we do not discuss nurture (all cultures are equal, and equally capable - disregard the evidence before your eyes). You don't get to juggle and drop so many balls and do not massively loose confidence! The rule of (finger in ears) "La-La-La" is over - the problem is- the right is a reactionary mess, that has no solutions, analysis and tools to exploit these weaknesses.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> say you're a bank. The SEC states you need to keep archives of every discussion your traders have with anyone at any time These records are encrypted in storage.
- Etheryte 1y agoThat is more than overly optimistic given how slow the pace of any technical innovation in finance is. The recent and not so recent issues with Citi are a good example of that.
- jjani 1y agoHuh? If the goal is compliance, you wouldn't use something that's worse for compliance - which is why the Legal and Security wouldn't like it. If it helped with compliance, they'd love it! So the reason can't be compliance.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- 9cb14c1ec0 1y agoOh wow! There are other ways to archive whatsapp messages that don't involve modified WhatsApp apks. Meta lawyers do not take kindly to modified WhatsApp apks.
- codethief 1y ago> There are other ways to archive whatsapp messages that don't involve modified WhatsApp apks. What other ways are there that don't involve WhatsApp's Google Drive backup feature or scraping the web interface?
- 9cb14c1ec0 1y agoI had scraping the web interface in mind.
- namdnay 1y agoThe clean way to do it (which is how Telemessage’s competitors do it) is to use WhatsApp business APIs with dedicated phone numbers.
- stackskipton 1y agoMost traders I dealt with want to do it on personal cell phone so they can keep contacts as they move around. Most of them are like salespeople, they know exactly how much money they bring in and successful ones refuse to do anything that will impede THEIR method of working. SEC Fines, Regulations? Those are for less successful people. EDIT: There was another post calling them divas, alot of them act that way.
- namdnay 1y agoyes, that's why TeleMessage managed to sell such a hacky solution - there was a clear desire for that product
- pcthrowaway 1y agoI mean if they're going to use their personal devices for this then a cracked Whatsapp wouldn't help the business anyway. For devices the company controls they can of course use the API the above poster mentioned though