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He's being misleading about iMessage not having encrypted backups. Yes, iCloud backups are not end-to-end encrypted. But iCloud backups don't even contain iMessages.

iMessage is its own thing, and all iMessages are end-to-end encrypted. Even when you have iMessages in iCloud turned on.

I never enabled iMessages in iCloud. About one year ago Apple probably had some issues and iMessages suddenly appeared as enabled in iCloud on my personal account, and very old SMS and iMessages started syncing on my devices.

I will never trust any of this companies! Apple support didn't respond me regarding this "issue".


Signal is the only way to go for privacy I guess.
 
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WhatsApp is built on top of the open source Signal messaging platform lol
It uses part of the Signal messaging protocol. It does not stop WhatsApp from mining data for Ads.

From an article on Wired: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/signal-vs-whatsapp

WhatsApp co-developer Brian Acton, who left Facebook in 2017 and went on to co-found the Signal Foundation with Marlinspike, has harshly criticised Facebook’s approach to privacy and revealed that Facebook coached him “to explain that it would be really difficult to merge or blend data between [WhatsApp and Facebook]” when giving information to EU regulators in 2014.

Facebook’s desire to insert adverts and commercial messaging into WhatsApp and potentially compromise its security prompted Acton to leave Facebook early, sacrificing some $850 million in stock in the process. Acton’s fellow WhatsApp dev, Jan Koum, also walked out on Facebook following reported disputes with the company over its efforts to weaken encryption.
 
I think it's hilarious that Zuck had zero mention about the FACEBOOK messenger app and it's privacy.
 
Meta doesn't have the kind of leverage that Apple has. Apple is a hardware company and it uses software to sell hardware. Meta is a software/services/advertising company so it has to make money on the software it gives away for free.
 
Obviously 'WhatsApp' is more secure if u select end to end encryption.
iCloud hold your key to all your personal stuff and if the law request it and courts say yes, Apple will oblige. Except to the end to end whatsAPP CHATS. WAKEY WAKEY
 
He’s not wrong . iMessage still relies on sms whereas WhatsApp is end to end encrypted
iMessage only uses SMS for non iMessage users. WhatsApp users will have to resort to sms or iMessage to communicate with people smart enough to avoid WhatsApp. It just won’t be automated
 
I never enabled iMessages in iCloud. About one year ago Apple probably had some issues and iMessages suddenly appeared as enabled in iCloud on my personal account, and very old SMS and iMessages started syncing on my devices.

I will never trust any of this companies! Apple support didn't respond me regarding this "issue".


Signal is the only way to go for privacy I guess.
Sometimes settings get changed with updates. I’m not sure what kind of response you wanted from Apple? They have no way of telling what happened on your phone. I enable iMessages in the cloud because I want the convenience.

I think the general consensus is signal is best if you have something really important to send and you don’t want anyone to intercept it. If the Chinese government intercepts the conversation with my brother talking about how I bought a new bike hopefully they’ll send me some cool accessories to go with it 😂
 
WhatsApp is far more private and secure than iMessage, with end-to-end encryption that works across both iPhones and Android, including group chats. With WhatsApp you can also set all new chats to disappear with the tap of a button. And last year we introduced end-to-end encrypted backups too. All of which iMessage still doesn't have.
Soooo we're just lying now? Or wording things in such a way that you can say, "Oh, well, I meant that it doesn't support those features cross-platform." Okay, well then that isn't iMessage. iMessage itself has all of those features except disappearing messages (which frankly could be easily abused). So again: lying.

His company is in a tailspin and he's getting increasingly desperate.
 
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It is end to end encrypted, however this is a big however, Apple has the encryption keys. This means they have access to your messages and can grant access to anyone else. iCloud while being private from advertisements is not secure in the sense that only you have access to the data.
Thanks, I forgot about this...

And I'm a techie more or less - normal people with a life have no clue what's going on regarding privacy, encryption, keys, etc.
 
Nope. Meta does not have access to whatsapp encryption keys.

Theoretically iMessage uses the secure enclave for private key which Apple says is designed so that they cannot know it.
I don't know what WhatsApp uses for private key. Can we say for certain that they do not have access? I know they implement the Signal protocol, but implement is a key word there.

Both companies control public key distribution to users. Theoretically they could manipulate that so that it can be eavesdropped on.

There are other systems like PGP or Threema where you (can) personally control the key distribution so that you can know who you are talking to and that only that one device can read it.

I don't trust 'disappearing' messages either. I don't think we can know how they've implemented it and if it's truly gone, and once it's on someone else's device the information is out there, there's no way to guarantee it's gone even if it is properly disappeared, people can copy it.
 
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Mark should focus on his Metaverse and leave ranting to actual users.

He sure is the last person to discuss about personal data security.
 
Sometimes settings get changed with updates. I’m not sure what kind of response you wanted from Apple? They have no way of telling what happened on your phone. I enable iMessages in the cloud because I want the convenience.

I think the general consensus is signal is best if you have something really important to send and you don’t want anyone to intercept it. If the Chinese government intercepts the conversation with my brother talking about how I bought a new bike hopefully they’ll send me some cool accessories to go with it 😂


Nothing happened on my phone, no updates... it's not even relevant!


Something definitely happened on their end, because I never enabled iCloud messages and I check it quite often not to be enabled.


So how come it got enabled and started syncing SMS and iMessages over two years old?

Why do they have this messages and iMessages stored?

This is something very serious, it's irrelevant that your messages are about eating donuts.
 
you know there is a toggle option for messages right I'm guessing you do not
This is a common misconception that people quote me on when I bring this up. The toggle switch you are referring to is iMessage in the Cloud, which keeps your messages synced up across all devices. It is not the same as disabling your Messages from being backed up during iCloud Backup, which is not possible.
 
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Nothing happened on my phone, no updates... it's not even relevant!


Something definitely happened on their end, because I never enabled iCloud messages and I check it quite often not to be enabled.


So how come it got enabled and started syncing SMS and iMessages over two years old?

Why do they have this messages and iMessages stored?

This is something very serious, it's irrelevant that your messages are about eating donuts.
Text Messages and iMessage are stored in encrypted backups in the cloud. If you are syncing to your desktop and you uncheck "encrypt backups" then anyone who has access to your backup could (in theory) grab the message history from the backup.

I never sync my devices to desktop anymore.

So as long as you are relying on iCloud backups then your messages are as secure as they are with WhatsApp, except that you won't have a sociopath like Zuckerberg with the keys to the vault. lol
 
One more factor to consider is the MacOS desktop messages app. You want to ensure you have your computer secured with a login password and ideally have File Vault encryption enabled so that the entire disk is encrypted and requires your password to decrypt.

Outside of leaving your desktop or laptop open, logged in and ready for someone to jump on, even messages synced there should be safe from prying eyes.

(Hacks, viruses and other OS exploits excluded of course.)
 
I am far less concerned with someone hacking my phone or messages and stealing my data than I am with Facebook just taking my data and selling it to third parties.
 
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I would almost trust Google over anything coming from Facebook.
That's taking it a bit far, google literally lets people read your emails, not some AI or message scanning, literally actual physical people at other companies.

 
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