Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: A journaling service that runs over WhatsApp

todayhasbeen.com

101–104 of 104 posts

Re: Show HN: A journaling service that runs over WhatsApp

#101
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meta has access to the backups that are stored on each individual’s Google Drive/iCloud? Why the surprise? Meta has access to the folder it manages in the user's Google Drive. That's obvious, otherwise they wouldn't be able to write to it.

The app uses the (i)phone OS’s cloud storage APIs to write to the backup folder, meta’s servers don’t have access to any credentials. For Android I currently can’t check, but it’s obvious from their FAQs that they have the app upload to Google‘s servers even if they don’t use the OS APIs there: https://faq.whatsapp.com/481135090640375/?cms_platform=andro... They have indirect control over the user’s backup folder via…

> but it’s obvious from their FAQs

Haha. That's a great proof! Not the closed source, not the proprietary protocol they use to talk with their server, but their FAQ.

> They have indirect control over the user’s backup folder via the app, but meta would need to distribute a malicious update to everyone

Please give us the results of your research when you reverse-engineered Meta's apk to prove your point as this is what you think others should do. Otherwise it is just big talk.

"oh but if that was the case you would get rich reporting it!". More low IQ reasoning. You will get sued to death, I know people that did so and now have to waste time and money with the legal system.

Re: Show HN: A journaling service that runs over WhatsApp

#102
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due to the way WhatsApp does (person to person, not group) chat encryption, the number of messages scales linearly with the number of devices of either party to the conversation. They probably want to put a cap on how much data/CPU the sending device has to expend per message.

Hmmm. Couldn’t they just use their group protocol for private chats, too?

I'm not too sure, but I suspect that due to how they do group vs. individual message encryption, this might decrease forward secrecy somewhat.

Re: Show HN: A journaling service that runs over WhatsApp

#103
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app uses the (i)phone OS’s cloud storage APIs to write to the backup folder, meta’s servers don’t have access to any credentials. For Android I currently can’t check, but it’s obvious from their FAQs that they have the app upload to Google‘s servers even if they don’t use the OS APIs there: https://faq.whatsapp.com/481135090640375/?cms_platform=andro... They have indirect control over the user’s backup folder via…

> but it’s obvious from their FAQs Haha. That's a great proof! Not the closed source, not the proprietary protocol they use to talk with their server, but their FAQ. > They have indirect control over the user’s backup folder via the app, but meta would need to distribute a malicious update to everyone Please give us the results of your research when you reverse-engineered Meta's apk to prove your point as this is wha…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: A journaling service that runs over WhatsApp

#104
post #36

> amazing private collection of your life stories I guess it's technically not "public" but then again it's shipping your most private thoughts to WhatsApp and an unknown person and "privacy" isn't mentioned on the landing page once. Personally I can recommend DayOne which is built by a trusted entity Automattic (Wordpress etc.) and they do have a big focus on privacy: https://dayoneapp.com/privacy-pledge/

If you come into a clash with Matt, he might start broadcasting out your entries through Wordpress news widget hah (Half joking)
Post reply on HN