@prologic@twtxt.net Not true, they use the Signal protocol (well, admittedly you have to take their word for that, since the app is closed source…). But FB does indeed have access to the metadata – who you’re talking to and when – which is why I do my best to avoid it. (Signal have access to the same metadata if you use Signal, but I trust them better with it… I’d still rather nobody had it, which is why I prefer Matrix.)
@caesar@twtxt.net You are right about WhatsApp using the same Signal protocol. However it is questionable at best as to whether it is implemented strictly as per the stated specification.
On the subject of Metadata however, this is not quite right. Signal itself (https://signal.org) does not store or collect any Metadata about you or who you interact with whatsoever. They go out of their way quite a lot to also e2e encrypt this data too. You can read about it on their blog posts.
Bottomline is; try really hard not to trust WhatsAppa (from Facebook) 😂
When I used to work there (Facebook Inc.) they had only recently purchased WhatsApp. At the time it was basically a “pick it all up” and “place over here”. WhatsApp had their own locked offices on campus, and their own DataCenter space.
They spent the next few years integrating with the rest of the Facebook ecosystem, now they are just a part of the Facebook infrastructure, data, graph database and family of apps.
You read into what what you will 😅
@caesar@twtxt.net I’ve never used WhatsApps, so I can’t really comment on any specifics, only what I knew (at one point) and observe (from Meta’s behaviour). I try to encourage all my friends, colleagues and acquaintances to never use WhatsApps and get off it and use Signal instead.
One of the difficulties is quite simple this; If a piece of software that millions, hell even billions rely on is closed source, how can you really trust it? Unlike Signal that has been audited (both the spec and the app’s source code), trusting a messaging app/service of any kind from a company whose business it is to know everything about you and sell that information to advertisers, is, a “fools errand”.
Contrast this to Apple’s iMessages, a company that is NOT in the business
of collecting information about you or selling it to advertisers. You can
largely trust iMessages the app and service to a greater degree, I say greater
because it’s not open source so you have to trust Apple’s word here that the
contents of the messages are in fact e2e encrypted and not sent or stored in
the clear.
Anyway… </rant> – Trust is hard™
Don’t trust “FREE” services from a company whose business model is Advertising.