Business

WhatsApp boss in online spat with Elon Musk

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart responded to Elon Musk's claims that the messaging app «exports your user data every night». In his post on platform X, Mr. Cathcart stated that this assertion is «incorrect». He emphasized that WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, meaning the company cannot read them.

Yann LeCun, head of AI at WhatsApp's parent company Meta, also shared his thoughts, using more technical language in his post on X, criticizing Mr. Musk's claims. On another platform Meta, Threads, Mr. LeCun continued his criticism, accusing Musk of «contradictory and unrealistic statements about artificial intelligence» and «spreading conspiracy theories» on his own social media platform.

Mr. Musk has a well-known reputation for frequently getting into online conflicts, from disputes with divers to fired former employees. In this case, Mr. Cathcart is correct in stating that only the sender and receiver of a WhatsApp message can read its contents. The company is so committed to message encryption that it has previously stated it would «rather be blocked in the UK» than weaken the encryption it uses.

However, Mr. Musk’s vague words claiming that «user data» is uploaded could be interpreted as a reference to metadata, the additional pieces of information transmitted along with the actual message. «WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, but user data involves more than just messages», noted security researcher Tommy Mysk in a post on X. This also includes metadata such as the user’s location, contacts the user communicates with, patterns of when the user is online, and more.

It is known that WhatsApp shares some metadata with other platforms owned by Meta, but this does not include messages. «One area of particular concern is WhatsApp’s data sharing with other Meta companies», noted Dr. Tristan Henderson, a computer science lecturer at the University of St Andrews. This includes enough metadata for these Meta companies to make suggestions and show personalized ads, which in itself demonstrates that metadata can reveal a lot.

WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy specifically states that the company will use some user data to «show relevant offers and ads in Meta Company products».

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