Many anti-racism protesters are currently said to switch from WhatsApp to other messengers. An IT expert now explains the reasons.
- WhatsApp * is working on new features - for example against fake news in the corona crisis * .
- An IT expert still sees a problem - for example, for Black Lives Matter * demonstrators.
- A feature of Facebook's own messenger * could become important in 2020, he writes.
Mount View / California - Whatsapp is currently testing or expanding many useful functions : video chats with more and more participants, opening the messenger on several devices at the same time or a more targeted search in the chat archive . Not to mention the storage of the messages in the cloud - of course in encrypted form.
WhatsApp: New feature against fake news
"There is even a new feature that can be used to forward received images to the Internet to help combat fake news ," says cyber security expert Zak Doffmann in a recent article for the US business magazine Forbes .
WhatsApp: Demonstrators should switch to other messengers
He still has a big worry. It is also "the strongest reason why demonstrators in the US and around the world are currently advised to switch from WhatsApp to another messenger, " he writes: metadata . In terms of security, they are the "Achilles heel" of WhatsApp, he thinks.
New by me @Forbes: #WhatsApp continues to add feature after feature - but the issue of metadata is about to bite. https://t.co/ueb8N2hEX1
- Zak Doffman (@UKZak) June 13, 2020WhatsApp, metadata and protests: "Will hit the headlines"
What is metadata? Not the content of the chats or the exchanged file attachments. Rather, less specific information such as who you write to and how often. "This data can be saved and, in theory, given to the authorities," warns Doffmann. Metadata is a “powerful tool for identifying behavior patterns or networks ”.
The end-to-end encryption that uses WhatsApp, Doffmann doubts not to: ". Since there is no back door" Other Messenger but would save the metadata does not even. WhatsApp said that it would "check law enforcement requests, validate the metadata and deal with it in accordance with applicable law and regulations". Why the Forbes author is certain: "Metadata will still make the headlines this year ."
WhatsApp and Black Lives Matter: "Latte now hangs higher"
He gives two reasons for this. First, the demonstrators ' confidence that their metadata will not be shared with WhatsApp owner Facebook is waning, Doffmann observes. If it was more a question of possible commercial exploitation beforehand , "now raise the bar".
It was only in May that WhatsApp rejected allegations of forwarding its users' metadata to Facebook, for example to enable targeted advertising on Facebook. The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection, Ulrich Kelber , had warned the federal authorities at the time about using WhatsApp.
Metadata on WhatsApp and Facebook: "The focus was on even before the protests"
Second, Doffmann is critical of Facebook's efforts to combat child abuse online . For example, Facebook - initially in its "Messenger" app - wants to use metadata to try to identify adults who contact minors . "Facebook says to work with encryption with this method," he writes. "That leaves many questions unanswered - such as how much is known about the communicators on both sides."
For him, the initiative is currently the "greatest threat to unimpaired end-to-end encryption". He doesn't necessarily see the blame on social networks. Legislators are considering holding the platforms for criminal content on their portals to account - which is why they should be able to recognize them. But this then collides with the principle of data protection : "The encryption of messages was already in focus before the protests - and now even more so".
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* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
List of rubric lists: © dpa / Matthias Balk
