Shocking facts about WhatsApp privacy.. they can read your messages

The famous WhatsApp application faced harsh criticism after imposing a new “privacy policy” on its users last January. The controversy returns to the same topic after a new report revealed that application administrators are able to read our messages.

A report by “ProPublica” warned of the actual presence of so-called “admins” within the “WhatsApp” team, who may hand over some data (meta data) to law enforcement authorities, indicating that the company shared the data of a number of users for a long time.

The aforementioned report also considered that this could create a lot of confusion about what the “Facebook” operator of the application means when it says “end-to-end encryption”, which by definition means that only the recipient and sender have digital codes that allow For the message to be read, according to the “Gizmodo” website.

A moderator to review content

He also added that at least XNUMX moderators hired by Accenture, which contracts with Facebook moderators, review user-reported content flagged by its machine learning system.

They monitor spam, misinformation, hate speech, potential terrorist threats, child sexual abuse material and extortion, among other things.

Depending on the content, admins can block the account, put the user “on watch,” or leave them alone (which is different from Facebook or Instagram, which also allow moderators to remove individual posts).

last 5 messages

In contrast, the report noted that while many may agree that violent images and child sexual abuse material should be monitored and reported, the app’s AI software sends moderators a huge number of harmless posts as well, and once the reported content reaches them, they can See the last five messages in the sent thread.

It is reported that the WhatsApp application had disclosed in its terms of service that when a particular account is reported, it “receives the latest messages” from the reported group or user as well as “information about your recent interactions with the reported user.”

However, this does not indicate whether such information that administrators can see includes phone numbers, profile pictures, associated Facebook and Instagram accounts, a user's Internet Protocol (IP) address, or mobile phone ID.

The report also clarified that WhatsApp does not disclose the fact that it may collect user identification data regardless of their privacy settings.

other details

In addition, the application did not provide much explanation about the mechanism it uses to receive decrypted messages, except that the person who clicks on the “Report” button automatically creates a new message between him and WhatsApp. This seems to indicate that WhatsApp is using some kind of copy-and-paste function, but the details are still unclear.

It is noteworthy that “Facebook” had announced, according to what was reported by “Gizmodo” website, that “WhatsApp” can read messages because it is a copy of the direct messaging between the company and the reporter.

He also added that users who report content make a conscious choice to share information with Facebook in their own opinion, so Facebook's collection of such material does not conflict with end-to-end encryption. Thus, WhatsApp can see your messages without your consent.

This comes despite the fact that Facebook had raised its privacy flag on WhatsApp, stressing that it could not spy on it.

Mark Zuckerberg also emphasized unequivocally, during a 2018 Senate hearing, that his company cannot see any of the content on WhatsApp, because it is fully encrypted.

But when any user opens the app today, he reads a text about the terms of service and privacy policy, with the following text: “We cannot read or listen to your personal conversations, because they are encrypted between the two parties.”

However, this notice appears in some cases, a dead letter!