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this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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Some level of privacy, yes. Solely in WhatsApp-signal chats. And users can be notified of that, like they were with SMS.
But you know what the alternative is? Nobody using signal. And that's objectively worse.
Cross-compatibility with WhatsApp would mean way more people on signal, and way more people willing to try, meaning more signal-signal chats. Meta would scrape metadata like when two accounts send messages and the like, but the contents of the chats would of course still be E2EE.
Signal-SMS is FAR less private, but they were fine with that for years, and people are still angry about it being removed.
Cross-compatibility removes the biggest hurdle for Signal - the chicken and egg problem of nobody using signal because they can't talk to anyone. It would act as a Trojan horse for pushing signal-signal communication.
Those choices don't occur in a vacuum.
What do you think happens to the nonprofit foundation built entirely around a fanatical devotion to privacy, if they partnered with Facebook. Not just partnered with, but in doing so, weakened the overall privacy of their platform.
Putting aside adoption rates, how does that impact their organizational sustainment and viability e.g. their ability to draw in donations, retain talent, or stay independent?
That all gets better due to having far more users. You can't just say "let's ignore adoption rate" - that's a pretty huge deal. It's by far and away the main thing that holds them back.
And again, they were fine with SMS, which is far far worse.