WhatsApp became the dominant messaging platform in Europe before Facebook bought them. Most people are locked in to it because change is hard and they don’t care that much about privacy.
The privacy concerns are not that Meta will read your messages (because they can’t, as you mention), but the metadata they can read such as your details and who you contact.
“So, Facebook can track who sends WhatsApp messages, when, to whom, from which location (if a user allows), etc - but not the content itself,” Rykov says “This creates a privacy concern for people who want full anonymity. These people should consider using more privacy-enhancing apps like Signal, Threema, Wire instead.”
the metadata they can read such as your details and who you contact.
Every provider of communication services can. Singling out WhatsApp in that regard makes no sense. Apple happily hands over metadata and iCloud backups to the FBI.
Signal is a non-profit, not a traditional for-profit business, so not sure what you mean by “corporate customers.”
That’s a very common thing that non-profits and for-profits operate under one umbrella. For example Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit as well but own a for-profit subsidiary Mozilla Corporation.
WhatsApp became the dominant messaging platform in Europe before Facebook bought them. Most people are locked in to it because change is hard and they don’t care that much about privacy.
WhatsApp uses Signal’s encryption and according to https://signal.org/blog/there-is-no-whatsapp-backdoor/ has no backdoor.
The privacy concerns are not that Meta will read your messages (because they can’t, as you mention), but the metadata they can read such as your details and who you contact.
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/a-cheat-sheet-for-whatsapp-privacy/
Every provider of communication services can. Singling out WhatsApp in that regard makes no sense. Apple happily hands over metadata and iCloud backups to the FBI.
Signal does not, since they use Sealed Sender.
So Signal’s corporate customers (like Meta with WhatsApp) do the same then?
Can you clarify what you mean? Signal is a non-profit, not a traditional for-profit business, so not sure what you mean by “corporate customers.”
That’s a very common thing that non-profits and for-profits operate under one umbrella. For example Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit as well but own a for-profit subsidiary Mozilla Corporation.
Through its CLA Signal sublicense all contributions: https://signal.org/cla/
Signal works with Meta, Google, and Microsoft (and probably others) to integrate the Signal libraries and protocols under propritary licenses:
Everything was announced and is documented on Signal’s own website.