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by jtbayly 1367 days ago
> Just because that the messages might be sent end-to-end encrypted from Sue to Joe does not mean Meta cannot read them.

No, that's precisely what End-to-End encryption means.

8 comments

It means that for strictly one receiver end-to-end encryption. When it's touted as a feature without explicitly stating that "all messages are sent only e2e encrypted and only to your receiver" we can't assume only the receiver is getting the message, it might be E2E encrypted for all traffic, between people using their own keys and nothing stops Meta from sending a different encrypted payload to their own servers with a key they have access to.

Facebook loves to use newspeak, wouldn't surprise me if they applied newspeak to what "end-to-end encryption" means.

So it's end-to-end encrypted, but your data is sent to some "ends" you didn't think it would be sent to? Well, if that's not a good reason to end your usage of WhatsApp, then I don't know what is...
Meta own the proprietary code running at either end of the encrypted pipe. Of course they can.
They can decrypt if someone enables backups, so I see no reason they could not read them indeed.

Signal might be the only app unable to read, but even that, I would not trust.

How would you propose Signal -- or any app for that matter that provides end to end encryption -- encrypt the messages in the first place if they don't have access to the plaintext at some point?
End-to-End means that it can't be read in the middle. It does not not mean it can't be read by proprietary clients on either end.
Until there are cybernetic implants, the "ends" are the app running on your phones, which they control.

The quandary of what one allows to run on those implants sounds like a chilling sci-fi novel (chilling not because "but FAANG could read your thoughts!" but because people would absolutely still get them installed).

End-to-End is about the networking, not the end points.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-to-end_encryption#Endpoint...

That is the technical definition.
So you're nit-picking over the phrasing of the sentence, but should instead focus on the spirit/meaning behind it.

It's illustrated in their example below that they if you say you're having a baby, meta can send some type of distilled ad-keywords to its servers (eg `[mother, baby]` if it knows the user is a woman based on their name/profile, but probably more sophisticated than that). The message you sent is still technically end-to-end encrypted, though,

Google can in theory read what is on your screen (assuming you use Android) regardless what app with what encryption you use.
Oh, come on. It's called "end to end" but it isn't. Meta has to read them to provide the service. This is not a new revelation.