Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

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If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
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PSA: Anyone can tell if you are using WhatsApp on your computer (techcrunch.com)

submitted 10 months ago by clot27@lemm.ee to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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[–] nachtigall@feddit.de 58 points 10 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?

[–] technologicalcaveman@kbin.social 32 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 5 points 10 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.

[–] technologicalcaveman@kbin.social 15 points 10 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.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 3 points 10 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.