Meredith Whittaker, the president of Signal, isn’t too happy with Will Cathcart’s recent statements, which suggest there are hardly any differences between WhatsApp and Signal.
Last month, Whittaker lashed out at WhatsApp’s data collection practices, saying that the messaging app collects too much sensitive metadata.
“It tells you exactly who you’re communicating with, at what time, how often, and where you are. You can derive so much from that. WhatsApp can link that information to Facebook, to Instagram and to payment data that they could buy into. Signal simply doesn’t have all that data,” she said.
Her comment didn’t go unnoticed. Will Cathcart, WhatsApp's head, spoke to a handful of Dutch journalists last week and told them false rumors are circulating regarding WhatsApp's security and privacy.
“We strongly believe in private communication,” he said, adding that WhatsApp uses the same security protocol as Signal. In addition, WhatsApp doesn’t keep track of whom and when people communicate, and location data and information about a user’s contact aren’t shared with other companies.
In a statement published on Monday, Whittaker says WhatsApp is making a mockery of things.
“In some ways, we’re amused to see WhatsApp stretching the limits of reality to claim that they are just like Signal – we take it as a bit of a compliment when a massive big tech platform strives to meet the bar we set and be cool like us. But the stakes of such marketing fluff are high, so we need to set the record straight,” she wrote.
Whittaker acknowledges that WhatsApp licenses Signal’s end-to-end encryption technology. Nevertheless, a lot of personal and intimate information isn’t protected. According to Signal’s president, this involves users’ location data, contact lists, when they send someone a message, when they stop, what users are in their group chats, their profile picture, and much more.
“These differences may be marketing gloss to Meta, but to us, they’re fundamental life or death issues that the public deserves to understand so they can make an informed choice,” Whittaker concludes.
On Sunday, WhatsApp sent a message to Dutch users stating that the company can’t read their messages, including text and voice messages, photos, videos, and calls.
“They are protected by end-to-end encryption because we are always committed to protecting your privacy,” the note reads.
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