Duh?
We Chat, They Watch
41–50 of 555 posts
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
wrt iMessage, yes, it’s E2EE and the keys are not stored in iCloud if you disable iMessage backup. Granted Apple still owns the keyset gets so, eh, depends on how paranoid you wanna get.
it is critical to note that you also need to disable backing up your iPhone in iCloud to defeat having your key stored in iCloud: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207428
It is also critical to note that everyone you communicate with needs to do this too, or Apple can still read your messages to them.
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted so the service providers themselves can't read the message content, yes, definitely. Although, technically the security guarantees are nil unless you verify safety numbers which I can guarantee almost nobody actually does.
We one downfall of iMessage is that because they facilitate key exchange, Apple can add their own key to your profile and read all your messages. Though, my limited understanding of iMessage is that if you were to sniff the network traffic you could detect this.
There's another downfall of iMessage. If you have iCloud backup enabled, your iMessage encryption keys are saved to iCloud, allowing Apple to decrypt your messages. And even if you disable iCloud backup, Apple can still read your messages if the person you're talking to has iCloud backup enabled.
This is not a secret, it's documented behavior. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303 And it's not theoretical, because Apple does decrypt iMessage communications in response to law enforcement requests: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#44How would this be news?
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
You also have to trust the source code, or trust a recent audit, then also make sure the build you have kept it's integrity and matches the audit build.
There are degrees of security between "I personally built it from source using a compiler I personally built from source" and "Xi Jinping is CC'ed a plaintext copy of every message". The allegation here is that WeChat is basically the latter. No one makes any remotely similar claim about iMessage or WhatsApp.
If you have never read "Reflections on Trusting Trust" by Ken Thompson, I wholeheartedly recommend it. It's a short read (3 pages), but absolutely worht your time.
https://www.archive.ece.cmu.edu/~ganger/712.fall02/papers/p7...
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted so the service providers themselves can't read the message content, yes, definitely. Although, technically the security guarantees are nil unless you verify safety numbers which I can guarantee almost nobody actually does.
WhatsApp message content is secure, but metadata does get turned over in subpoenas.
> but metadata does get turned over in subpoenas.
A subpoena is another form of security, at least as far as a free society is concerned.
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#47> Facebook spies on the content that all users send each other, including Chinese (and Canadians and Europeans and Indiana and Australians and Russians...) Sure, the article discusses other sketchy stuff that wechat is doing, but FB and Twitter and Reddit et. al. are all doing similar stuff too.
Does Facebook run a team of secret police that can put a bag over your head and have you disappeared?
given that Apple has a secret police[0] group that was exposed during a previous iPhone leak, I don't know if the presupposition that Facebook has something similar is that outrageous.
[0]: https://gizmodo.com/apple-gestapo-how-apple-hunts-down-leaks...
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#48Are there articles in China talking about how Google and Facebook spy on the content that all users send each other, including Chinese?
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about "Mark Zuckerberg is CC'ed a plaintext copy of every message"
Better Zuckerberg than Xi. Zuckerberg has no power to have a bag put over anyone's head and have them carried away to the river.
Not yet anyway - remember his “listening” campaign and seeming murmurs of entering politics. He’s still young, unlike Winnie the Pooh...
Re: We Chat, They Watch
#50This is old news though, to most people using WeChat. For example, the same people documented similar findings last year: https://citizenlab.ca/2019/07/cant-picture-this-2-an-analysi... and three years ago: https://citizenlab.ca/2017/04/we-cant-chat-709-crackdown-dis...