Secure messaging
WhatsApp is used by more than two billion users. Together with Facebook Messenger, the two messaging apps by Meta Platforms dominate the market worldwide.
In 2016, WhatsApp implemented the Signal Protocol to encrypt the communication on its app.
According to the overview document, all personal communication and some business communication are end-to-end (i.e. from the sender to the intended recipient) encrypted.
Even when the communication is end-to-end encrypted, WhatsApp automatically collects information about your activities, for example, when, with whom, and for how long you use the app. It also collects information about your device and network, for example, its make and model, battery level, signal strength, mobile network, phone number, Internet Service Provider (ISP), language, time zone, and Internet Protocol (IP) address. WhatsApp doesn't just collect information about you from you. It collects information about you that other people have stored in their own address books or contacts app.
If you use the same device to access different accounts with Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Threads, Boomerang, or any Meta Company Product, you are uniquely identified and linked across all Meta Company Products. If you use the same account across different devices, you are also uniquely identified and linked across all your devices.
The A.V. Club
The implications of all the data that Meta Platforms collects are far-reaching and difficult to fully understand. The Gizmodo article demonstrates this reach and difficulty. The vast amounts of data collected by Meta Platforms make it difficult, if not impossible, to keep any part of your life private from the company, even when you go to extreme lengths to do so.
More recently, in 2023, Facebook Messenger implemented the Signal Protocol to encrypt the communication on its app and the Labyrinth Protocol to store the encrypted communication on Facebook's servers. Of course, the same concern that applies to WhatsApp applies to Facebook Messenger.
Facebook Messenger also stores the encrypted communication on Facebook's servers. This means that you can restore the communication history from the servers if you reset your device or get a new device. But this also means that if your encryption key is compromised, it can be used to decrypt and compromise all of your communication history stored on Facebook's servers.
If you need to send or receive messages securely and privately, you will need to use Signal.
Signal is a messaging app by the Signal Foundation, the developer of the Signal Protocol. It's not just the communication on the app that is end-to-end encrypted. It encrypts everything that can be end-to-end encrypted and stores as little data as possible. The little data that it stores and therefore can be compelled to provide or get stolen is limited to the date of account creation and date of last use.
You can confidently download and use Signal, knowing that it is secure and private.
