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A comment on WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers. Parent comment

Re:WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers by dleslie on Monday October 25, 2021 @03:59PM (#28992387)
Ensuring user privacy _from you_ can be an effective defensive measure for small companies who cannot afford to mount a meaningful legal defense.

"Here's all the data we have, officers. We don't have the keys. Good luck."

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Re:WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers by Griffinsauce on Monday October 25, 2021 @04:44PM (#28992884)
Again, how does this connect with why Whatsapp won as an app?

Consumers didn't follow this logic. At all. They went for the convenient and free option.

I'm so confused by this thread. It's like you guys are pasting the output of an ML model with only the input "secure" at me.

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Re:WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers by AussieWog93 on Monday October 25, 2021 @06:15PM (#28993834)
>I'm so confused by this thread. It's like you guys are pasting the output of an ML model with only the input "secure" at me.

You talked about encryption on HN. What do you expect? Might as well have brought up gun control at a Republican rally.

(Not that you were anything but 100% right. The general public didn't care about encryption at all until the Snowden leaks.)

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Re:WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers by HeyLaughingBoy on Monday October 25, 2021 @06:40PM (#28994066)
They still don't!
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Re:WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers by AussieWog93 on Monday October 25, 2021 @06:51PM (#28994171)
I think that depends on how you define "general public". My mum doesn't, but my (far more digitally savvy) teenage cousin does.

Back in 2009, though, this was a very different story. Even tech-savvy people didn't care.

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Re:WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers by dleslie on Monday October 25, 2021 @07:22PM (#28994464)
Well, FWIW, the first people I knew using WhatsApp were my friends who were drug dealers or chinese nationals, and both lauded the encryption features.
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Re:WhatsApp scaled to 1B users with only 50 engineers by aabbcc1241 on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @12:31PM (#29002463)
having the messages encrypted end to end also free WhatsApp from being asked to do censorship or moderating
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