WhatsApp boss says no to AI filters policing encrypted chat

> 'What's being proposed is that we ... read everyone's messages. I don't think people want that'

Just as people need a frequent reminder that "in the Cloud" really means "on someone else's computers", I think we also need to be reminded that "by AI" can just mean "by people, with extra steps".

The real issue is client-side.

The WhatsApp client is proprietary software, meaning you can't easily inspect it to see if it's doing as claimed, and you can't opt out if Facebook decide to update it to do something you don't want, say, by removing its end-to-end encryption.

With a FOSS chat solution, and especially a federated one, you no longer need to place such trust in any provider.

Every time the point is raised that this just opens the door for mass surveillance of all private communications we just get vague assurances of "no it won't" like this from the article:

>whilst the privacy considerations that this type of technology raises must not be disregarded, we have presented arguments that suggest that it should be possible to deploy in configurations that mitigate many of the more serious privacy concerns

Which if you parse the language you realize he's saying no such technology exists, or is proven to work, but it might be possible to only violate most of your privacy as long as the government doesn't deem it to be 'serious'.