Anamana comments on Surveillance advertising in Europe: The adtech industry tracks most of what you do on the Internet. This file shows just how much.

[–] Anamana@feddit.de 2 points 3 years ago* (4 children)

If you've given WhatsApp your mobile number, then it's your fault that Facebook can read and analyse everything you've said to anyone on WhatsApp, connected to a near-perfectly unique ID against your name.

But it's end to end encrypted, so I doubt Whatsapp is able to read any messaging content. The meta data (who is contacting who, when from where) is probably worth enough for them already.

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[–] setInner234@lemmy.world 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

Has that ever been independently verified? I remember the WhatsApp founders quit over FB policy to use messages for advertising, but perhaps they've changed course on that. You're right, the metadata alone would be insanely valuable.

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[–] Anamana@feddit.de 0 points 3 years ago

Don't think so, but it would be highly illegal in the EU if they would. Also kinda stupid, because they can gather enough information without reading message contents, like u said as well.

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[+] GlowingLantern@feddit.de 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

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[–] Anamana@feddit.de 1 point 3 years ago

Fair point about the backups, but I was mostly referring to the messaging aspect. As far as I know they use signals e2e encryption protocol, so it should be fine for personal use. Would also be illegal for Meta to use message contents for anything really, as they say they don't.

If we are talking about activism, politics and so on, then surely Whatsapp is not enough. But I was mostly talking about the ad-related context.

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