Earlier quoted context omitted.
No keyboard app. We use the regular Android Keyboard provided by Google.
But doesn’t Gboard send your typing data to Google?
surely that just completely subverts e2e encryption??
Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
41–50 of 473 posts
Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#42What types of phones are and your wife using? My personal theory is that a lot of these situations are actually the phone itself (or a third party keyboard app, apps copying clipboard content, etc) doing the “spying” and not WhatsApp somehow bypassing the E2E encryption.
Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#43Most users activate WhatsApp's suggested "backup" feature which uploads all chats and those are most likely not E2E encrypted. And of course Meta could just directly read and upload stuff from the app, they probably buried a vague clause for that somewhere in their agreement.
Those backups are sent to Google and Apple, not to Meta.
Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#44Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
We are seeing the same thing. More so, my wife sent me a picture of my daughter working on a puzzle. Less than 24 hours later, her Instagram was showing ads for a store that was selling the same type of puzzle as the one my daughter was playing with. So it's not just terms but images too.
Was the picture taken with whatsapp, or with the camera app? Do you have google photos installed? I GP classifies images, maybe also for advertisement?
She used the WhatsApp camera app. We have Google photos too, but we have it configured so that WhatsApp images don't get uploaded.
Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#46The message might be indeed end-to-end encrypted but the local WhatsApp installation could extract keywords as you type from the message and send them to Meta.
Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
But doesn’t Gboard send your typing data to Google?
But this is Instagram and WhatsApp. Are they sharing data about our conversations openly?
An interesting experiment would be the same thing you are doing but isolated in a note taking app to discard the google keyboard you’re using. Also, it would be interesting if you can use e.g.: proxyman (available directly on iOS), or some proxy on your PC to intercept your network traffic and then try to reproduce while blocking/allowing some domains. Especially, blocking all google domains, then facebook domains, etc. If you have a Pi-hole set-up doing that at dns level may be easier.
I’ve never been able to reproduce these experiments. But keep in mind that I’m european and my WhatsApp app is slightly different - it is a version from WhatsApp Ireland (instead of WhatsApp Inc) which shares less data with third parties, the privacy policy is also slightly different for the european union.
Edit. Another idea: try to reproduce while disabling predictive text on your keyboard.
Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#48Whatsapp FAQ: WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is used when you chat with another person using WhatsApp Messenger. End-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you're communicating with can read or listen to what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. This is because with end-to-end encryption, your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to un…
> only you and the person you're communicating with can read or listen to what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp
I guess the key lies in "what is sent" in the above statement. The casual reader might reasonably interpret as "no-one except the intended recipient can see _what I type_". But it doesn't say that. It only covers what gets _sent_. It doesn't say anything about what happens to the content outside specifically _sending_ it to the other party(ies).
Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another option would be that META created a small model that could be run client-side and picked the right selection of ads to show elsewhere without even exfiltrating keywords.
Well, my wife sent me a picture of my daughter working on a puzzle. Less than 24 hours later, her Instagram was showing ads for a store that was selling the same type of puzzle as the one my daughter was playing with. So it's not just terms but images too.
That doesn’t even make sense. Why go through the trouble of retargeting based on images? If you took a photo of something you likely already own it.
Re: Ask HN: Ads triggered by WhatsApp “end to end encrypted” messages?
#50Could it just be confirmation bias? Or could it be that the correlation is the other way around: You see something online, decide to pick that as your topic with your partner (unconciously) and the ads show up because of the initial location you have seen the topic.
The best way to solve this would be to pick three topics ahead of time. If you're worried about the phone's microphone, do so by pen and paper. Then randomly select one of those three topics to discuss on WhatsApp. Finally, keep an objective eye out for ads about all three topics. Ideally, log every single ad you see.
Better to have a computer pick random topics.