For open source messengers, you can check whether they actually encrypt your messages and whether the server has access to your encryption keys but what about WhatsApp? Since it’s not open source, you can’t be sure that the encryption keys aren’t sent to the server, right? Has there been a case where a government was able to access WhatsApp chats without reading them from the phone itself?

  • Dienervent@kbin.social
    43·
    1 year ago

    This is just completely wrong. If you read past the misleading headline here:

    https://nypost.com/2021/09/07/facebook-reads-and-shares-whatsapp-private-messages-report/

    You’ll see that Facebook cannot, in fact, give logs to law enforcement. If you choose to report a message you’ve received and send it to Facebook, then obviously then they can read it.

    Also, your claim in another comment that Facebook does not have private keys to decrypt your encrypted messages is just fantasy.

    • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      166·
      1 year ago

      According to the declassified internal FBI document I just linked, they do have access to the content of messages from what’s app, without any formal legal request.

      The NY post is a poor source and completely unreliable.