End to end encryption is useless if developers (Facebook) usurp your content

Edit: debunked by @bowline. However, the broader issue remains and is addressed in further posts.

There’s no need to break end-to-end encryption if your content is captured by apps before encryption or after decryption, then piped to the company’s servers.
I wonder if this tactic will be revealed in the end user license agreement.

I don’t read Forbes ‘contributor’ articles - basically just opinion posts from anyone, like a business-oriented HuffPost.

Aside from the histrionics in the article’s title, there’s not a lot new about Facebook. Back in 2016 WhatsApp updated its Privacy Policy to include limited data sharing with Facebook, and it was pointed out a year ago in Zuckerberg’s appearance at a congressional hearing that he used some artfully constructed language that carefully avoided saying that Facebook flat-out couldn’t access messages, merely that there was encryption and they didn’t (“we can offer that with full encryption, and therefore, we’re not looking — we don’t see the content.”)

Seems the Forbes Contributor Network post wildly extrapolated from a video at a Facebook dev conference (Clickbait? On Forbes? :wink:), and the author got reamed on HackerNews for it (including a response from a WhatsApp VP).

A blog post today by security researcher/cryptographer Bruce Schneier’s blog outlines the story:

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/08/more_on_backdoo.html

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Facebook’s record on privacy speaks for itself.

In the meantime:

In my opinion, backdoors are inevitable - it’s just a matter of figuring out how to conceal them.

As the links above show, WhatsApp denies the story you posted.

That said, I don’t use any Facebook products. Their history, regardless, is irrelevant to the claims made in the Forbes blog post.