I've been watching a bunch of discussion this week about the privacy policy update we’re in the process of making @WhatsApp and wanted to share some thoughts.
Thread 👇
I want to share how committed everyone @WhatsApp is to providing private communication for two billion people around the world. At our core, that’s the ability to message or call loved ones freely protected by end-to-end encryption and that’s not changing.
With end-to-end encryption, we cannot see your private chats or calls and neither can Facebook. We’re committed to this technology and committed to defending it globally. You can read more here: whatsapp.com/security/
We’ve updated our policy to be transparent and to better describe optional people-to-business features. We wrote about it in October -- this includes commerce on WhatsApp and the ability for people to message a business. Pls see: blog.whatsapp.com/shopping-payme…
It's important for us to be clear this update describes business communication and does not change WhatsApp’s data sharing practices with Facebook. It does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world.
Not everyone may realize how common it is to WhatsApp message businesses in many countries. In fact, about 175 million people message a business account each day on WhatsApp and more want to do so.
Also businesses want tools to quickly and effectively respond to those messages. It’s too hard today and features like Shops and Pay can help people buy things they want from businesses on WhatsApp.
We’re in a competition on privacy with others and that’s very good for the world. People should have choices in how they communicate and feel confident that no one else can see their chats. There are people who disagree with this, including some governments.
We’re proud of the service we offer, and we’ll continue to develop technology and practices to provide private, secure communications for as many people as we can.
That’s why we are so committed to end-to-end encryption, and why we keep improving the privacy of WhatsApp, such as with our launch of disappearing messages in November. Our innovation on privacy will continue.
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This is a really important article from @DarrenLoucaides@WIRED about Telegram. If you think Telegram is secure, you should read this article and understand the truth - especially before you use it for anything private.
Telegram is not end-to-end encrypted by default and offers no e2ee for groups. From the article: “Telegram has the capacity to share nearly any confidential information a government requests”
Their e2ee protocols lack independent verification: “most disturbingly, some activists have found their “secret chats”—Telegram’s purportedly ironclad, end-to-end encrypted feature—behaving strangely, in ways that suggest an unwelcome third party might be eavesdropping.”
Communities on @WhatsApp is starting to roll out globally! With Communities admins can connect related groups for their organizations, neighborhoods, and workplaces. To get started tap on the brand new Communities tab. Check it out:
We’re also adding more great features: polls, 32 person video calls, and groups with up to 1024 people. Like reactions, larger file sharing, and admin delete - we think these features will be particularly helpful for Communities but are available in any group!
We’ve made significant upgrades to the chat experience while maintaining end-to-end encryption. This is a huge improvement over other apps and services that force organizations to share a copy of their private messages.
Three great new privacy features for @WhatsApp users coming soon:
You'll be able to leave group chats without having to tell everyone. Only the admins will be notified. Almost like leaving a party quietly and only informing the host 😀.
Being online may not always mean being available 💬, so you'll now be able to control who can and can't see when you are online.
Reminder to @WhatsApp users that downloading a fake or modified version of WhatsApp is never a good idea. These apps sound harmless but they may work around WhatsApp privacy and security guarantees. A thread:
Recently our security team discovered hidden malware within apps – offered outside of Google Play - from a developer called “HeyMods” that included "Hey WhatsApp" and others.
These apps promised new features but were just a scam to steal personal information stored on people’s phones. We’ve shared what we found with Google and worked with them to combat the malicious apps.
Today we’re very excited to share our vision for a feature we’re calling WhatsApp Communities. This is new functionality we’re building to support the many organizations that use WhatsApp to communicate in a private and secure way.
We’ve heard from many workplaces, non-profits, and local organizations that have been using WhatsApp for their private communication, and there’s a lot we can improve to make WhatsApp work better for groups like these.
Communities will make it possible for admins to organize groups under one umbrella, send announcements, and decide which groups can be part of their community to help make group conversations work for their organization.
This paper is definitely worth reading. It's from some of the leading minds on computer security and it goes into great detail on why client side scanning (CSS) -- which @WhatsApp opposes -- would be very dangerous for us all.
They explain in clear terms the many problems with client side scanning proposals, concluding the security risks they would create for everyone would make "us all less safe and less secure."
"CSS has been promoted as a magical technological fix for the conflict between the privacy of people’s data and communications and the desire by intelligence and law enforcement agencies for more comprehensive investigative tools...