WhatsApp???

[CarbShark]

Update. I just opened mine and on launch it asked me to import my contacts. I said no. (I only use it when I’m traveling or my family is and hadn’t used it since replacing my phone.).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[daniel1948]

Reporters use WhatsApp and deep-sea divers use helium. Neither has anything to do with me whatsoever. I posted here because I knew nothing about the app. Now I know what it is and more or less how it works.

Time for the thread to die.

But thanks to everyone who provided information.

[Friendly Angel]

Before it dies, my experience.  I only use WA to text friends in other countries where regular texting would be expensive or confusing or not work... it seems to be much more popular in Europe.

And of all the apps I use that require buy-in for personal info; this one seems minimally intrusive.  If your objective is maximum privacy then of course you will refuse. 

[CarbShark]

Before it dies, my experience.  I only use WA to text friends in other countries where regular texting would be expensive or confusing or not work... it seems to be much more popular in Europe.

And of all the apps I use that require buy-in for personal info; this one seems minimally intrusive.  If your objective is maximum privacy then of course you will refuse.

I agree with all of that but the last. If your objective is maximum privacy, then I would recommend this app.

(FYI, it's not up to the OP or anyone not a monitor to decide when a thread lives or dies. Especially on a topic like this, where others may have an interest. It's not all about what the OP)

[daniel1948]

I'm not concerned about privacy in my messages. I really don't care if someone "listens in" to a text telling me that tomorrow's boat is going to be half an hour late. But the fewer apps searching my phone for personal information and harvesting contacts they can spam, the better. I already have the apps that come with iOS. I don't need to increase the number of apps doing the same thing.

Privacy is more than just encrypting your texts. It's also not giving your contacts to a company notorious for monetizing every scrap of information they can get from you.

Carry on with this thread if you like. I'm done with it.

[CarbShark]

I'm not concerned about privacy in my messages. I really don't care if someone "listens in" to a text telling me that tomorrow's boat is going to be half an hour late. But the fewer apps searching my phone for personal information and harvesting contacts they can spam, the better. I already have the apps that come with iOS. I don't need to increase the number of apps doing the same thing.

Privacy is more than just encrypting your texts. It's also not giving your contacts to a company notorious for monetizing every scrap of information they can get from you.

Carry on with this thread if you like. I'm done with it.

Fine. You are missing the point made a couple times now that you can deny the app permission to access your contents (as you can for any app on the iPhone). That's what I've done, so instead of having a list of dozens (hundreds?) of my  contacts who have it, in the app I only have the contacts I actually use it to communicate with it.

And, seriously, if you're traveling to remote areas you probably need its flexibility more than most people.

Have a great trip, and keep in touch! (if you can)

[arthwollipot]

It accesses your contacts so that you can know who you know that already uses the app. In other words, it provides a useful function.

[CarbShark]

It accesses your contacts so that you can know who you know that already uses the app. In other words, it provides a useful function.

Or you can choose not to give it access.

[arthwollipot]

It accesses your contacts so that you can know who you know that already uses the app. In other words, it provides a useful function.

Or you can choose not to give it access.

If you decide that you do not want to take advantage of that useful function, yes. You absolutely can choose that.

[John Albert]

WhatsApp is not a very good tool for tampering with witnesses in a criminal investigation.

[CarbShark]

WhatsApp is not a very good tool for tampering with witnesses in a criminal investigation.

 If you'd read the link you'd realize that Manafort shot himself in the foot (and tried to tamper with the wrong witnesses). WhatsApp acted exactly as advertised

And while some of the sources willingly handed over WhatsApp and Telegram messages to special prosecutor Robert Mueller, it’s clear that the feds also have a court order to search through Manafort’s iCloud account.
...
As WhatsApp notes on its website, “Media and messages you back up aren’t protected by WhatsApp end-to-end encryption while in iCloud.”

[The Latinist]

Daniel, just so you know: any text message you send from your iPhone to another iPhone will, when possible, actually be routed through Appple’s servers rather than your carrier’s.  Such messages will appear in blue rather than green.  Unlike text messages, they are end-to-end encrypted such that Apple has no access to the contents of your messages.

As for WhatsApp, you can deny it access to your photos and it will still work. If you only want to do text messages, you can deny it access to your contacts and manually add any phone numbers you want to recieve text messages from. You won’t be able to make voice calls.

[John Albert]

If you'd read the link you'd realize [...] blah blah blah

Yes I read the link, and nothing you said negates my point that WhatsApp is not a good tool for tampering with witnesses.

After all, it was intended as a joke.

[CarbShark]

If you'd read the link you'd realize [...] blah blah blah

Yes I read the link, and nothing you said negates my point that WhatsApp is not a good tool for tampering with witnesses.

After all, it was intended as a joke.

Well if you're tampering with witnesses, don't save, and especially don't back up your messages, and only tamper with witnesses who won't turn you in. In which case WhatsApp is a perfectly fine tool.

[John Albert]

Also, make sure all your witnesses remember to delete all the correspondence on their end, and don't back the messages up to iCloud either.