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Original Story by The Guardian: "WhatsApp vulnerability allows snooping on encrypted messages" | Link
Exclusive: Privacy campaigners criticise WhatsApp vulnerability as a ‘huge threat to freedom of speech’ and warn it could be exploited by government agencies.
"Research shows that the company can read messages due to the way WhatsApp has implemented its end-to-end encryption protocol.
Facebook claims that no one can intercept WhatsApp messages, not even the company and its staff, ensuring privacy for its billion-plus users. But new research shows that the company could in fact read messages due to the way WhatsApp has implemented its end-to-end encryption protocol."
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Update by Open Whisper Systems: "There is no WhatsApp 'backdoor'" | Link
Today, the Guardian published a story falsely claiming that WhatsApp's end to end encryption contains a "backdoor."
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Silver lining: We believe that WhatsApp remains a great choice for users concerned with the privacy of their message content.
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Original Story by The Guardian: "WhatsApp vulnerability allows snooping on encrypted messages" | Link
Exclusive: Privacy campaigners criticise WhatsApp vulnerability as a ‘huge threat to freedom of speech’ and warn it could be exploited by government agencies.
"Research shows that the company can read messages due to the way WhatsApp has implemented its end-to-end encryption protocol.
A security vulnerability that can be used to allow Facebook and others to intercept and read encrypted messages has been found within its WhatsApp messaging service.
Facebook claims that no one can intercept WhatsApp messages, not even the company and its staff, ensuring privacy for its billion-plus users. But new research shows that the company could in fact read messages due to the way WhatsApp has implemented its end-to-end encryption protocol."
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Update by Open Whisper Systems: "There is no WhatsApp 'backdoor'" | Link
Today, the Guardian published a story falsely claiming that WhatsApp's end to end encryption contains a "backdoor."
"WhatsApp's encryption uses Signal Protocol, as detailed in their technical whitepaper."
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"The way this story has been reported has been disappointing. There are many quotes in the article, but it seems that the Guardian put very little effort into verifying the original technical claims they've made. Even though we are the creators of the encryption protocol supposedly "backdoored" by WhatsApp, we were not asked for comment.
Instead, most of the quotes in the story are from policy and advocacy organizations who seem to have been asked "WhatsApp put a backdoor in their encryption, do you think that's bad?"
We believe that it is important to honestly and accurately evaluate the choices that organizations like WhatsApp or Facebook make. There are many things to criticize Facebook for; running a product that deployed end-to-end encryption by default for over a billion people is not one of them.
It is great that the Guardian thinks privacy is something their readers should be concerned about. However, running a story like this without taking the time to carefully evaluate claims of a "backdoor" will ultimately only hurt their readers."
Instead, most of the quotes in the story are from policy and advocacy organizations who seem to have been asked "WhatsApp put a backdoor in their encryption, do you think that's bad?"
We believe that it is important to honestly and accurately evaluate the choices that organizations like WhatsApp or Facebook make. There are many things to criticize Facebook for; running a product that deployed end-to-end encryption by default for over a billion people is not one of them.
It is great that the Guardian thinks privacy is something their readers should be concerned about. However, running a story like this without taking the time to carefully evaluate claims of a "backdoor" will ultimately only hurt their readers."
Silver lining: We believe that WhatsApp remains a great choice for users concerned with the privacy of their message content.
