Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

[SvennoJ]

WhatsApp expresses concern after Iran urges people to delete app

The statement comes after Iranian state television urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel.

The app, which is owned by Meta, said it was “concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most”. “We do not track your precise location, we don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,” it said.

“We do not provide bulk information to any government,” it added.

WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning a service provider in the middle can’t read a message.

Sure...

https://atomicmail.io/blog/is-whatsapp-safe-the-truth-about-your-privacy#:~:text=In%20early%202025%2C%20a%20high,code%20execution%20on%20their%20system.

• Metadata isn’t encrypted. This includes who you talk to, when, and for how long. Imagine someone not seeing the content of your letter, but knowing exactly whom you sent it to, how often, and at what time.
• Cloud backups are vulnerable. If your chats are backed up to Google Drive or iCloud, they may no longer be protected by E2EE – unless you explicitly enable encrypted backups (more about this in the section below).
• Device compromise. If malware infects your phone, even the strongest encryption won’t protect you. Hackers can capture screenshots, log keystrokes, or intercept messages before they’re encrypted.

So, while WhatsApp has strong encryption in theory, real-world usage often leaves some holes big enough for privacy nightmares to slip through.

https://www.astrill.com/blog/is-whatsapp-safe/

Is WhatsApp safe?

WhatsApp’s safety and security have been subjects of ongoing debate. While the platform employs end-to-end encryption for messages, ensuring only intended recipients can read them, concerns persist about data collection and sharing practices.

Potential Vulnerabilities

Despite robust security measures, WhatsApp isn’t impervious to threats:

1. Metadata collection
2. Group chat vulnerabilities
3. Social engineering attacks

WhatsApp can track your social networks, Meta has shown its bias many times in multiple genocides and Israel has the spyware tools to infiltrate your phone and surely can track WhatsApp.  

Meta and WhatsApp are also on the BDS movement list, should be avoided regardless.

https://www.bdsmovement.net/Global-Day-Action-Against-Spyware

A US court  has ruled against the Israeli NSO Group for illegally spying on WhatsApp users, forcing NSO Group to pay a sum of 612 million dollars in damages - unfortunately not to the wronged users but to Meta. 

WhatsApp is not the victim here, question is how many people has Lavender AI targeted tracking WhatsApp...