this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 7 months ago (1 children)

When someone sends a message to another WhatsApp user, their device creates a different session key for each device the receiver is using, thus telling the sender how many devices the receiver is using.

So like any other service using the Signal protocol, or am I wrong?

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I knew my brother got a new phone because signal told me their usual device had changed.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What are some good reasons for this? My initial thought is that it's intrusive and violates a user's privacy.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Well, I knew my brother was getting a new phone soon anyways so getting notified his device changed wasn't a surprise. Otherwise, getting notified hia device changed without that knowledge may have triggered me to contact him elsewhere to ask if he did. Signal is mostly going to be conversations between close/trusted individuals. It doesn't tell you what they changed to, the message basically tells you that if this person didn't legitimately change devices then it might be a bad actor.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Oh, so it's not like "person is on their computer" or "person is on their iPhone"? That's what I was imagining and that can obviously be problematic, since some devices would be location bound, and you might not want someone to know your location. Also if it identifies your device, then it's another avenue for bullying (apparently kids get bullied for not having iPhones) and some potential security risks.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In other news, water is wet. I only see FUD here.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Water is actually not wet. It only makes other materials/objects wet. Wetness is the ability of a liquid to adhere to the surface of a solid. So if you say something is wet we mean the liquid is sticking to the surface of the object

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Where is the good old water is not wet bot from reddit times when we need him.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Be the change you want to see!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sadly the people here dont seem to know this copy pasta. I got downvotes.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You forgot either quotes around the whole thing, a reference, or "/s"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

Thats not how copy pastas work

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but what about wet ice?

That's wet Water as well.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yes true. Ice is an non liquid object. So if you have a thin layer of still liquid water on the ice then the Ice is wet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Water sticks to itself, that's why we have surface tension, so I'd say water is indeed wet.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Tal Be’ery, the co-founder and CTO of crypto wallet maker ZenGo, found that it’s possible to determine whether a user on WhatsApp is using more than just the mobile app.

Be’ery demonstrated and proved his findings in tests performed with WhatsApp numbers controlled by TechCrunch.

“[It] could be useful for information gathering and plotting an attack,” Runa Sandvik, a digital security expert, told TechCrunch, referring to how hackers could figure out that their target is using WhatsApp on a desktop, which is generally an easier target to compromise than a mobile phone.

“It at least tells you more about the devices they use and how ‘accessible’ their WhatsApp setup may be,” said Sandivk, who is the founder of Granitt, a startup that aims to train at-risk people like journalists, activists, and politicians.

Meta’s spokesperson Zade Alsawah told TechCrunch that the company received Be’ery’s research and concluded that the app’s current design “is what users want and expect.”

Anyone can find out this kind of information by using WhatsApp on the web and inspecting traffic with a browser’s developer tool, Be’ery explained.


The original article contains 533 words, the summary contains 181 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Jokes on you, I don't

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

This is a security feature to let you know that the sender may be an imposter, right? Like matrix's verified sessions, if my friend gets a new phone or pc it's unverified and I have to verify the new session through another means, like in person or phone.