Google can now read your WhatsApp messages • Hacker News Board

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#291

Post by matthewmc3 » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 1:06 AM UTC

Someone wrote: post #230

kccqzy wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The line is blurry. Google is positioning Gemini not just as an app, but as a OS level feature. The OS can by definition reach into any third-app app to do anything it wants. I'll give some more examples of OS-level features in case it's not clear: copy/paste is an OS-level feature and it is designed to extract arbitrary text or content from third party apps (copy) and insert them into third party apps (paste); scree…

> The line is blurry. Google is positioning Gemini not just as an app, but as a OS level feature The line is blurry, but Microsoft was positioning Internet Explorer as an OS level feature, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor... : “Microsoft argued that the merging of Windows and IE was the result of innovation and competition, that the two were now the same product and inextricably linke…

So if Google is to learn from others’ past mistakes, it ought to be able to leverage Gemini as long as the user can easily and fully swap out Gemini for an alternative. That was the problem regulators had with IE and the App Store.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#292

Post by theandrewbailey » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 1:37 AM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #152

devn0ll wrote: post #141

I just switched to /e/os. Soooo no the fuck they can't! God. That feels good. Everyone should try this.

Or GrapheneOS, the best way to thank Google for making Pixel :). (Until they have their own phone.)

It felt weird to buy a Google Pixel, only to delete Google from it.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#293

Post by PaulHoule » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 1:37 AM UTC

antod wrote: post #282

GiorgioG wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My favorite example of this is the thoroughly craven New York Times which puts content behind a paywall and loads it with awful ads aimed at people who’ve proven they are made of money. It's almost as if you don't remember the good old days when the NY Times sold you a physical newspaper...that was (and still is) stuffed with ads.

There are two main reasons people hate modern ads. One is the annoyance/distraction, the other is all the myriad privacy issues. Printed newspaper ads were only the former (and an easily skippable version compared to tv), while this topic is mainly about the latter.

The personalization economy is pernicious because you have no idea what other people are being exposed to.

On the computer attached to my stereo YouTube offers recommendations for music videos from the likes of the Super Furry Animals [1], Kanye West [2], Brothers Johnson and such. Nice stuff, with solid support that I like it, never challenging, unlike the recommendations from my Plex server.

On another computer YouTube shows me videos about stereo equipment, sometimes video game music [3], and also of the genre "Why X sucks" where X could be private equity, "the economy", a movie studio, a video game studio, a fast food restaurant, a clothing brand, etc. I wonder why public sentiment about the economy is so bad despite inflation and unemployment numbers that aren't so bad and think, "How many people are watching these videos?"

Other people get nothing but blackpill incel hell.

Ben Bagdikian wrote a book The Information Machines in 1970 about how personalized news would be possible by 1980 that was quite prophetic and was influential to me when I found it almost 20 years ago. Only recently did I find The Effete Conspiracy, his next book, where he reveals how angry and bitter he was that the work that the media industry sponsored him to do for the RAND corporation was roundly rejected by media owners uninterested in investing in the future and introduced the true but unpopular model that newspapers have a left-wing bias because reporters are left-wing and a right-wing bias because the owners are right-wing.

[1] I get accused of being a furry but I'm not, really

[2] pre-Nazi

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk0A5uFoG3c

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#294

Post by hnburnsy » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 1:55 AM UTC

Matthias247 wrote: post #154

How does it work technically? Does Whatsapp expose these messages via an API? If yes, then it seems like this is not only on Google. If no: Are they reading data from raw UI widgets? Are they intercepting input controls? Are they intercepting network traffic? That seems unlikely, given its probably end to end encrypted and the decryption happens within the scope of the Whatsapp process.

Maybe it uses Accessibility...

>When granted, an app with accessibility permission can:

  Read screen content (including text and buttons in other apps)
  Detect user interactions (like taps, swipes, or gestures)
  Navigate between apps and the system UI
  Monitor app launches and foreground/background changes
  Access and control other apps indirectly
  Perform gestures or clicks on behalf of the use

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#295

Post by hnburnsy » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 2:00 AM UTC

inerte wrote: post #19

bsaul wrote: post #4

how does this work ? Aren't the whatsapp data encrypted locally ?

Screen reader?

Android Accessibility Service

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/accessibility/...

>Devices running Android 8.0 (API level 26) and higher include several text-processing features that make it easier for accessibility services to identify and operate on specific units of text that appear on screen.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#296

Post by octo888 » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 5:10 AM UTC

taeric wrote: post #259

I confess I got a pretty good laugh out of seeing this on the same day I saw billboards bragging that "not even WhatsApp can read your messages." Oops.

Probably not a coincidence. Though maybe more to do with their own AI feature and wanting to make people feel OK sharing more data with WhatsApp

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#297

Post by ilpianista » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 5:11 AM UTC

amlib wrote: post #287

ilpianista wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using this method since 2020 or even before. I've never ever enabled the backup on GDrive.

Is your phone rooted?

No, it isn't.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#298

Post by morsch » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 5:42 AM UTC

callmeal wrote: post #268

morsch wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this hasn't been true for a couple of years now https://faq.whatsapp.com/490592613091019

Encrypted backups are "off" by default and need to be explicity turned on.

I haven't installed Whatsapp from scratch in a long time, aren't backups off by default, overall?

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#299

Post by bonoboTP » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 5:51 AM UTC

RiverCrochet wrote: post #286

bonoboTP wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that when you see all that stuff you can't afford on the neighbor/coworker or your friend's place, you can be envious, so their spending was worth it. Same with all those car and watch ads in magazines. It's not like regular people are constantly looking to buy a new car. But the brand must be etched into brains. Your neighbor must be reasonably convinced that people around him are on the same page regarding the p…

This might hold water in 1980 when neighbors talked to each other and coworkers often worked in the same building and didn't wear Bluetooth earbuds, but I don't know so much about now.

Many people still interact and do things together in friend or acquaintance groups, even if not literal neighbors or coworkers.

Re: Google can now read your WhatsApp messages

#300

Post by brinerustle » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 6:04 AM UTC

jadamson wrote: post #121

beagle3 wrote: post #67

WhatsApp backup on your Google account contains all your message history, and is unencrypted. If you use google cloud backup for your phone, Google can read your WhatsApp messages, and has been able to do so for more than 5 years now.

There's an option to enable end-to-end encryption on your backups. https://faq.whatsapp.com/490592613091019

It is safe to say, optional services get little adoption. Look at email, of the tens of billions of email addresses, there are orders of magnitude lower numbers of pgp or gpg keys. Similar experience with telegram encrypted chats. So having the option of e2ee in a communication platform, is not having it in practice.