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Comment by nmeofthestate | Hacker News Reader

Reminder: millions of people send SMS's and don't care one bit about encryption, and they only use WhatsApp because it's free to send messages, and pictures are supported.

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Sure. That’s even more a reason why Google should be proactive.

Apple defaults to secure if iOS users are texting each other. Google has always done the opposite. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Google is the one who’s business model depends on sucking up as much content as possible.

Whatsapp came out in 2009. Encryption was added 7 years later in 2016.

Why would anyone who cares about encryption have been using it for the almost decade up till now?

Millions? Literally almost every user of WhatsApp. Those who care about encryption are a miniscule minority.

Just because people don't care about privacy, doesn't mean they dont deserve or in fact need it. But in fact most people care, or assume they have privacy. why does Google not show a red icon to users that these messages are not protected for instance. something browsers do? A company like Google should care about their user's privacy, but well thats the entire point of the article.

This is the sad part I think. SMS being shit is why people actually had obtained some privacy. If the RCS is good, then it is back to square one.

So, why not make it better? Or, why not educate users the messages are in clear text via UI indication that the message is not protected? That would help with users understanding what's going on and allowing them to protect themselves.

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