WhatsApp, the world’s largest messenger with 2 billion users who send 100 billion messages every day, has popularized secure messaging. But if you’re one of the hundreds of millions who use WhatsApp on an iPhone, you have an unwanted surprise when you see the amazing new Apple iMessage update.
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WhatsApp used to be all about security. “Privacy and security are in our DNA,” he says, and it requires credit for delivering the privacy of encrypted messages to the masses. But data security is complex – take a look at the spider patterns on an investigator’s desk and you’ll understand: sometimes it doesn’t matter what we say, but when, where and who.
“Metadata – data about your data,” says Cyjax CISO Ian Thornton-Trump, “is almost as strong as real “Who do you know, who do you send messages to, when and how often. Who do I know and message. What other activity can be tracked in your user ID. This metadata is what drives the information retrieval machine. And that’s why there was such nervousness around his plans for WhatsApp, because it stimulates the generation of money in all those users and integrates it with its other platforms.
Concerns about collecting WhatsApp metadata are not new. Take a look at its privacy policy and you will see the extent of the data collected. “We use all the information we have to help us operate, provide, improve, understand, personalize, support and market our services,” he said, adding that “we share the information to help us we operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support and market our services. “
And then there’s the Facebook factor. “As part of the Facebook family of companies,” says the privacy policy, “WhatsApp receives information from this family of companies and shares information with them. We may use the information we receive from them and they may use the information we share with them to help operate, provide, improve, understand, personalize, assist and market our services and offerings. “
And, although end-to-end encrypted content can’t be accessed, “your WhatsApp messages won’t be shared on Facebook for others to see,” he confirms, there is metadata. “Facebook may use information from us to improve your experiences with their services, such as product suggestions (for example, friends or connections or interesting content) and the display of relevant offers and ads.”
Cue Apple and its campaign to reduce Facebook’s insatiable appetite for its users’ data. Many of these were debated last summer. As my colleague Kate O’Flaherty explained at the time, this is a real “game changer” for user privacy – reducing the tracking IDs and mapping of the location on which advertisers are based. Tracking and cross-referencing browsing and social media activity is one thing, but what you do within the limits of the applications is different – there you are a captive audience. And the reason why there is now a messaging war for users is that these are the most sticky apps around.
If I can connect you to various applications through your personal identifiers, your phone number, or your device ID, for example, then I can link your metadata to anything else I know. According to WhatsApp, its metadata “includes information about your activity… device-specific information… such as hardware model, operating system information, browser information, IP address, mobile network information, including phone number and device identifiers … We receive information provided by other new people, which may include information about you. For example, when other users you know use our services, they may provide you with the phone number from their mobile phonebook and they can send you a message, send messages to the groups you belong to, or call you. “
You understand. Apple’s amazing response to this metadata collection stream was its privacy tags, now live in the App Store. “On the product page of each app,” Apple explains, “users can find out about some of the types of data an app can collect and whether that data is related to or used to track them.” These labels were launched last month and caused outrage among Apple and application developers whose data collection practices were now heavily exposed. Facebook led the accusation, running ads across the page to argue against Apple’s move.
The problem with WhatsApp is that when you claim that security and privacy are in your DNA, you open up to a higher level of control. Suddenly, these concerns about collecting WhatsApp metadata have become more real. We could now easily see that WhatsApp collects contacts from your phone, business data where you use Facebook services, identifiers on your device, your IP address that gives you your location, unless you use a VPN, and usage logs. It’s all about you.
WhatsApp issued a statement in response to Apple’s privacy tags. “We need to collect some information to provide a reliable global communications service,” he said. “In principle, we minimize the categories of data we collect … we take steps to restrict access to that information.” For example, although you can give us access to your contacts to help us deliver the messages you send, we don’t share contact lists with anyone, including Facebook for your own use. “
WhatsApp was particularly excited by what it saw as an inconsistency on the part of Apple, telling Axios that “labels should be consistent across primary and third-party applications, as well as reflect the strong steps that applications can take to protect people’s private information – while giving people information reading information is a good start, we think it’s important for people to be able to compare these “nutrition for privacy” tags in the apps they download with pre-installed apps like iMessage . “
In a pretty strict example of paying attention to what you want, Apple has updated its website and the same level of privacy information for iMessage is now live, presenting an amazing contrast between iMessage and WhatsApp.
Apple ‘Application Privacy’ tags
Apple App Store
And while all WhatsApp metadata is classified as “data about you,” the only iMessage metadata about a user’s identity is their email address, phone number, device ID, and search history. According to Apple, “data related to you” means that “data is collected in a way that is related to your identity, such as your account, device, or details – to declare that data is collected but not connected to you, a developer must use privacy protections, such as the removal of any direct identifiers. “
In simple terms, all the additional data collected by iMessage to monitor its platform and use cannot be linked to people, while with WhatsApp everything is linked back.
What you think about WhatsApp data collection will depend on your personal view of data privacy. Anything could be, however, think about the changes coming on WhatsApp, especially in terms of business messaging and shopping, as well as closer integration with Messenger and Instagram – although it will probably be delayed by antitrust action against Facebook which just broke out in the US
It seems that WhatsApp is worried that users will not make an effort to check the privacy label for iMessage, as it is pre-installed. I think their concern should be that users Vol do exactly that. And while iMessage is better, it’s nowhere near Signal, the class leader, which has only one metadata element – its own phone number – and even “isn’t related to your identity.” As for Facebook Messenger – I have repeatedly advised users to switch to an alternative.
Apple ‘Application Privacy’ tags
Apple App Store
Thanks to Apple for these privacy tags, it is a major step forward against the abuse of permissions, where applications take our data for no good reason. And if you are an Android user, then the situation is much worse. Permission abuse is more prevalent in the Android ecosystem, despite the fact that Android 11 has started to do something about it.
WhatsApp security is perfectly sufficient for almost all users. But metadata is a gray area, and as we do more and more on these messaging platforms, its value will increase. This is your data and you have the right to ask why it is collected and processed. If you feel that your data should not be collected without good reason, then you now have the tools to compare alternatives.