News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation. Parent comment

Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by lawnchair_larry on Monday December 17, 2018 @08:13PM (#18703786)
Sounds similar to what Moxie experienced: https://moxie.org/blog/saudi-surveillance/
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by eitland on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @05:34AM (#18705639)
This quote is interesting in a historic context (WhatsApp uses Moxie's encryption now.):

> More to the point, if you’re in Saudi Arabia (or really anywhere), it might be prudent to think about avoiding insecure communication tools like WhatsApp and Viber

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by chippy on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @06:19AM (#18705770)
Does this mean WhatsApp is okay to use now?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by eitland on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @08:21AM (#18706216)
Depending on your threat model, yes. As far as I understand they cannot read the content of your messages, however:

- by default they'll upload backups of your messages to Google cloud.

- (more importantly for me) I really don't trust Facebook to:

1.) not abuse metadata

2.) not mess up security somehow

3.) stand up against whatever oppressive regimes we might see in the future

In addition I don't want to make the Facebook ecosystem any stronger if I can avoid it.

A nice bonus is that I strengthen the network effect of other ecosystems when I use them by default.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by 76 on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @07:23AM (#18705971)
No. Facebook bought them.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After I... by doctorstupid on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @09:56AM (#18706770)
No, in response to things like WhatsApp the Australian government just passed a bill enabling it to force companies to create backdoors to encrypted communications.
[ Parent | on HN ]