Unencrypted chat history is a prime target for police

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1874605

A 17-year-old from Nebraska and her mother are facing criminal charges including performing an illegal abortion and concealing a dead body after police obtained the pair’s private chat history from Facebook, court documents published by Motherboard show.

    • MonomateEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      Ops, my bad. I was under the impression the only reason WhatsApp is encrypted today is because they already were by the time FB bought them.

      They paid US$ 20B to buy WhatsApp, and encryption is a major deterrent for them scanning all messages to enhance their targeted advertising business.

        • MonomateEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Maybe you’re right, but I’d be hesitant to say WhatsApp user’s contacts list would be worth US$ 20B.

          My theory is they bought WhatsApp just because it was organically growing to be the dominant messaging app, and Facebook didn’t want to lose this marked and bought them to squash the competition.