Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

chinathrow

I can't find any official statements by WA/FB that WhatsApp uses ETE.

Do you have further sources aside from [1]?

[1] http://www.wired.com/2014/11/whatsapp-encrypted-messaging/

View on HN

Why would they use ETE? Isn't the whole point of WA/FB to sell user-created data to third parties?

Edit:

Given the down vote(s), I guess I'm missing something obvious.

What I'm getting at is this: If our activities were completely encrypted and we appeared anonymous to WA/FB they couldn't hope to make money.

Would anyone smarter than me care to explain why this isn't the case?

It's a good question. But I think the contents of their users' communications are less important for their revenues than the metadata.

Is there a description of this somewhere? (Such as in public filings.)

Is the advertising so coarse as to ignore the content of what people say? Are they only propagating information about purchasing and browsing history through the metadata offered by the social network information in order to drive advertising?

All the questions should suggest that I'm genuinely curious and looking to understand, so if you read this and get riled up, instead of downvoting please take twenty seconds to guide me to the truth...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com