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WhatsApp Says It Would Leave UK If Government Tried to Weaken Encryption
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They're blocked in China because they take the same stance there.
Look, it’s very simple: what you want is impossible to do without compromising everyone’s security in ways that have massive negative consequences. That’s it, that’s the ballgame.
Your solution is vastly worse than the problem and the only reason you think otherwise is you apparently dont understand, no matter how many folks in this thread have tried to explain it, how what you’re proposing is a huge problem. There are hard and fast technical reasons why you can’t square the circle on what you want.
That’s why people are resorting to analogies, you’re not getting it without them (and apparently not with them either).
Sigh, how do you think encryption works? Let’s see if I can do a good example.
Should the post office, DHL, fedex, UPS be forced to open up all your letters and packages you send or receive?
Unpack everything and repackage it after it’s controlled?
Any letter/package you send that is protected by a lock or key etc must be i lockable by the delivery services so they can control you don’t send or receive anything illegal?
How do you prevent bad actors, the company or people to exploit this to steal sensitive inform such as credit cards sent through mail, checks, expensive gifts?
Or you’re a journalist who sends sensitive information about an investigation of a government agency or politician?
Medical records sent through the mail or by DHL will be opened and investigated and by unknown persons. Etc etc.
All this because some people sends mean or unsolicited letters that kids might read because parents don’t care about their kids?
We had that in Poland between 1945 and 1990. Mail, phone calls, house surveillance.
It was called communism 😏
Communism by itself really had nothing to do with it.
Government over-reach happens in plenty of non-communist countries too. Iraq, Iran, China .... USA. Any ideology can be used by a state to justify it.
Cathcart comes across as somewhat of a naive idiot, comparing Iran to the UK? so ignorant… he makes it sound as if the UK Prime Minister is sitting in his bed reading chat transcripts all night long..
Having said that, I don’t understand why any user thinks an app that must scan all your contacts before it can start to work is ”private”… mind boggling.
Having said that, I don’t understand why any user thinks an app that must scan all your contacts before it can start to work is ”private”… mind boggling.
The PM? No. The algorithms and surveillance folks who manage them? Absolutely.
A communications app is kinda useless without people to communicate with… you dont have to let it scan your contacts you know, though all it’s doing is using that as a way of populating who’s available to talk to that you know
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SMS is insecure crap, iMessage outside the US isnt available to most folks since globally iPhones arent dominant the way they are in the US and more people have split platforms in their family (if Apple had opened iMessage like they originally announces maybe that would have been different, but that’s water under the bridge), and, even leaving security aside, whatsapp is a much better messaging than than *instagram* lol.
Email isnt a replacement for messaging either. You’re really reaching here to try and find a reason to diss whatsapp use…
Because it's a common platform that people can use no matter what OS their phone uses. iMessage would be great if everyone was on iPhones but if you have a group where just one person has an Android then it just falls down a bit. Plus iMessage groups are just handled in a much more clunky way than on Whatsapp.
SMS - same issue really, plus here in the UK you get charged to send photos over SMS.
Email - just no lol.
Seems Whatsapp is deeply entrenched in the UK now, to the point where the BBC now encourages viewers to use it to get in contact.
I understand your concern, however, do you not see the slippery slope in this? If we draw a line on when government or tech companies should be monitoring our conversations that line will continue to grow. It is incredibly unfortunate that illegal activity is occurring on the app, but consenting to monitoring is essentially opening Pandora's box. It's the same argument people make when it comes to banning books or blocking certain types of speech. Once you allow any of this to happen it will just continue and the line will get fuzzier until before you know it you're basically living in a communist society.
Apple has a lot more products than meta or a single messaging app. The UK and US have attempted to force Apple to give them a back door to iMessage for several years now. With cases being fought in several states over this time. So, yes Apple did set the stage for this resistance. They haven’t had to threaten, but have quietly not supported some services in different countries because it didn’t make sense.
Are you saying the UK is better off enacting laws that the US Constitution would make illegal, such as double jeopardy? detnetion without cause? Search without cause? Curtailment of freedom of assembly and speech? I love the UK - the country has much going for it - but the lack of a written Constitution or Bill of Rights makes any move that onvades privacy or constrains freedom, like banning E2E, deeply worrying. Authoritarianism is a slippery slope. The more power is concentrated the more corrupt it becomes.
WhatsApp also has access to your camera roll and contacts, which are not encrypted (to the app), right?
It has assessed to your contact list when asked for it. As 100% of everything. You can always deny it.
And it has access to your pictures when you open it up, not at all times or you can deny it. This isn’t android
I know some people who actually do this on a daily basis. Seriously… one sentence per email. 😱
I'm sure this is a bit of grand standing, rebuilt part of their reputation, give people the false sense of security, and then come to an agreement to comply. They aren't the first, and won't be the last. In the meantime many people been fooled that it is now the secure platform and meta has no access to your data ever.
Actually the capability for all of the above exists today and has been applied for decades
No, these people do not see much difference in the UI of an email app or message app. It is a compulsive urge to get a comment out. Usually I leave those messages in the inbox for 12 to 24 hours and the collect them all in one reply. And it isn't even an age thing too - one was barely 40.