#instant messaging

Well, I am not missing WhatsApp.

–Initially posted on 05 sep. 2016

I’m ditching WhatsApp, following Facebook’s decision to begin harvesting data from its popular WhatsApp messaging service.

Even though you can prevent WhatsApp to give your phone number to Facebook (huh huh…) WhatsApp will still harvest your metadata.

“Sharing metadata with Facebook still exposes users to significant risks,” says Claire Gartland, consumer protection counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Facebook will have data indicating who WhatsApp users communicate with and how frequently, and connecting WhatsApp users with their social media accounts and broader online activity, associations, political affiliations, and more.”

–Wired

What’s In The Metadata?

See for yourself.

1. Location

• Specific location (home, place of work, etc.)
• Mobility pattern (from home, via commuter route, to work) — very unique, just 4 locations is enough to identify 90% of people.
• Paired mobility pattern with a known device (known as “mirroring”, when two or more devices travel together; including car telemetry!)

2. Network

• Numbers dialed (who you call)
• Calls received (who calls you)
• Calling pattern (numbers dialed, for how long, how frequently)

3. Physical

• IMEI (mobile phone device ID)
• IMSI (mobile phone telco subscriber ID)

4. Content

• Identifiers, e.g. names, locations
• Voice fingerprinting
• Keywords

–Keep reading on @thegrugq

See also How your phone tracks your every move with plenty of nice color charts for the ones too lazy too read.

Check out Metadata, 6 Articles That Show How Your Metadata Knows Everything About You.

Alternatives I’m Using

Instant Messaging

• Conversations.im, a XMPP protocol Android app with OMEMO/PGP encryption developed by Daniel Gultsch
• Signal App
• Delta Chat Delta Chat does not need a phone number and sends messages via your own emails, encrypted if possible with Autocrypt and your own PGP/GnuPG key
• Telegram

Voice Call

• Signal App
• Linphone(SIP)
• Jitsee Meet

Social Media

• Twidere client for Twitter and Mastodon
• Facebook [Edit: anything Facebook has been removed from all devices]

Sources

• PrivacyTools.io
• Prism-break.org
• Sub-Redditr/privacyandr/privacytollIO
• Me and My Shadow
• The Guardian Project, easy to use Android apps
• F-droid, an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) apps for Android

Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, OTR… et autant de protocoles de messagerie quasi instantanée, de modèles de sécurité et de protocoles cryptographiques : lesquels choisir ? Et si la solution idéale n’était pas dans la liste précédente ? Cet article évoque les limites de plusieurs de ces solutions, et présente le cœur cryptographique de Signal, WhatsApp et du protocole OMEMO. Il met finalement en exergue, par une analyse comparative, certaines limites de Signal et des qualités d’OMEMO.

tl;dr: utilisez conversations.im.

Source:

• MiscMag.com:1ère Partie
• Miscmag.com:2ème partie
• ANSSI:Télécharger le .pdf

So I bet we all will be much closer here from now on.