The WhatsApp backtrack over changed terms was a game-changer. Instead of giving everyone in the world a voice, it will silence us.” Instead of bringing us closer together, it will keep us apart. Instead of sharing our ideas, it will shut them down. But if we choose to erode our privacy and security, it will do the opposite. “The power of technology is that it lets us connect at extraordinary speed and scale and democratizes information better than anything ever invented. “Surrendering our privacy would paralyze us,” Cathcart warns. The opinion piece suggests governments, foreign and domestic, but Facebook itself is a more likely foe. But the opinion piece also provides multiple examples-medical, financial, etc., where users don’t want their content open to interception from shadowy big brother characters. The irony in WhatsApp insisting end-to-end encryption is needed, while Messenger users go without, is stark enough on its own. WhatsApp’s boss even penned an opinion piece giving all the reasons such security was “essential” albeit under threat from lawmakers and regulators. WhatsApp used its default and-to-end encryption as its primary (some might say only) defense against the accusation that Facebook was encroaching on the privacy of its users. ![]() The contrast between Facebook Messenger and its WhatsApp stablemate has been fascinating this year-and, in reality, sends a very clear message to those 1.3 billion Messenger users that it’s now time to jump ship. If MI5’s boss sounding a warning was the first piece of new news aimed at Facebook’s Menlo Park HQ, then the second was the quite extraordinary backtrack the company was forced into over WhatsApp’s controversial change of terms. Let’s see how fast Facebook works out compensatory tech to deal with Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency, by way of comparison. We’ve known for some weeks now that Facebook has delayed its Messenger security upgrade until next year, “at the earliest,” and while this has been painted as a technical issue given the sprawling nature of the platform, the clever money is on it being more complex than that. Suddenly hundreds of millions (now two billion) users were able to use a secure mainstream platform, leaving lawmakers in the “dark.” If WhatsApp can’t see your content, neither can a law enforcement agency-even with a warrant. When WhatsApp pushed the big red button in 2016, end-to-end encrypting all messages for all users, there wasn’t the focus on encryption that there is now.
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