American magazine accused WhatsApp and iMessage of transferring user data to the US FBI

American intelligence agencies have full access to the data of users of WhatsApp and iMessage messengers. The FBI document was leaked to the media. The document, dated January 7, 2021, indicates what types of data the FBI central office can request from companies that own popular instant messengers.

If there is a warrant, FBI operatives of the United States can request access to the address book of the messenger user, as well as those people with whom this user is in contact, even if they are not under investigation. Information should be provided every 15 minutes so that counterintelligence officers are aware of all updates to the user's address book.

By the way, WhatsApp, writes the American magazine Rolling Stone, did indeed confirm the fact of rapid transmission of messages to the FBI, but reported that the very content of the messages remains encrypted.

iMessage provides the FBI with not only basic user information, but all history his searches in the messenger for the last 25 days, as well as information about who was looking for this user. In addition, the secret service can obtain copies of the user's backups.

Recall that in January 2021, the WhatsApp messenger updated the personal data policy, after which the messenger was able to transfer personal data of users to Facebook. Initially, it was planned that the accounts of users who did not sign the updated user agreement would be deleted, but then the messenger decided that it would only limit the availability of functionality for such accounts. This circumstance, by the way, led to the fact that some of the users of the messenger flowed to Telegram, which pursues a more user-friendly policy and is more inclined to preserve the confidentiality of information.

On the other hand, given the spread of terrorism and extremism, drug trafficking, money laundering in the modern world, and given the role that information technologies, including the use of social networks and instant messengers, play in them, it is not surprising that the special services are concerned with the issue of gaining access to user data. Another thing is that, for example, access to the accounts and information of Russian WhatsApp users entails that the US FBI will be able to track the contacts of the same Russian politicians, officials, security officials, journalists and other people whose activities may be of certain interest to American special services.

Comments

[Victor_B]

It would be completely ridiculous if the AMERICAN social networks (and other microsoft with cisco) did not cave in under the AMERICAN special services!
Moreover, they simply have direct access to these bases at any time of the day or night "without attracting the attention of the orderlies."

[just exp]

has the whole world forgotten how much Snowden told?
it is the FBI that needs to make requests, and the NSA has access to any services in real time.

[Tatyana]

Users can also be visually monitored via a laptop. Namely, how the user visually looks, who else and what he has in his house, etc.
Therefore, I have a peephole in my laptop sealed with a piece of paper, as they say, out of harm's way.

[Overlock]

Quote: Victor_B

if the AMERICAN social networks (and other microsoft with cisco) would not cave in under the AMERICAN special services!

And what about this in Russia? Name at least one independent network or newspaper

[Victor_B]

Quote: Overlock

And what about this in Russia?

Much worse!
I just don’t understand, do you like it or not?

[Sidor Amenpodestovich]

Quote: Victor_B

Do you like it or not?

It cannot be liked or disliked. This is a given, like street cameras.

[for]

Quote: Victor_B

if the AMERICAN social networks (and other microsoft with cisco) would not cave in under the AMERICAN special services!

Is it different with us? Why do you use their software, put ours.

[Victor_B]

Quote: for

Is it different with us? Why do you use their software, put ours.

But let them watch me as much as they like!
I work as information noise.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: Victor_B

It would be completely ridiculous if the AMERICAN social networks (and other microsoft with cisco) did not cave in under the AMERICAN special services!

So they created these networks, with the permission of the American special services, to control the whole world.

[Prisoner]

They probably decided that it was better to be accused by a magazine, that by a prosecutor.

[ZAV69]

And who will allow the prosecutor to do this?

[VTR-295]

Use the Signal

[Overlock]

So after all, ours also collect information from social networks. Last, Rospotrebnadzor monitors opponents of vaccination and transfers the information to the prosecutor's office. What's better? They want total control everywhere

[Sidor Amenpodestovich]

Quote: Overlock

So after all, ours also collect information from social networks.

And they are absolutely right.

Last, Rospotrebnadzor monitors opponents of vaccination and transfers the information to the prosecutor's office.

Have you already been tracked as an opponent of vaccination?
Tracking those who spread false information. About liquid chipping, about the fact that the vaccine causes infertility and the like.

[SKVichyakow]

Conclusions are belated, only the lazy does not know about it. Now, if it were the other way around, then it really would be NEWS.

[rotmistr60]

Intelligence agencies would not be special services if they did not use data from social networks and telephone companies. There is nothing surprising in this. This is happening in all countries of the world and will happen. A person who has registered in any social network must be prepared for the fact that, if necessary, his data, correspondence, contacts can be requested by one of the special services. In the modern world, with modern technologies on the Internet, it is almost impossible to remain incognito.

[bukhach]

I completely agree with you and would add that in the modern world you are already from birth, from the receipt of a birth certificate, you are under a hood, taking into account the digitalization of our life from young nails to gray old age, this, as it were, is predetermined, no one guarantees that your data will not be at the disposal of certain persons or special services. Payment for the convenience of a digital civilization. For me, the age of steam was more humane.

[ximkim]

Here!!
Use Telegram.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: ximkim

Here!!
Use Telegram.

More reliable by pigeon mail.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: ximkim

Here!!
Use Telegram.

Subtracted that it became known that the founder of Telegram Pavel Durov became a citizen of France. The decree was published on the website of the Government Gazette of the country (JORF).

Based on the document dated August 23, he was among the persons acquiring the right to citizenship of the country.

So Telegram can also be under the hood.
No, just Pigeon Mail. "

[ximkim]

Well, they are surrounded by a circle.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: ximkim

Well, they are surrounded by a circle.

And they give up their own.

[askort154]

The Internet was created by the United States, not for the entertainment of the population, but to collect information about it in any industry and anywhere. Therefore, Russia, at last, is also preparing to create its own Internet.

[Alex_You]

Honestly, I personally do not care whether Comrade Major listens to me or not. The right to confidentiality blah blah blah, in the modern world no one has secrets, unless of course you are a drug dealer. The intelligence services of any country must monitor the population, and if this saves you from another terrorist attack, then I agree. Another thing is that the secret services are looking for a black cat in a dark room where it is not. All these "columbiners" who shoot children in schools perfectly describe what they want to do on Facebook or VK.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: Alex_You

The intelligence services of any country must monitor the population, and if this saves you from another terrorist attack, then I agree.

But the Taliban, as the Americans missed (or maybe did not want to).

[Alex_You]

Yes, no one there blinked, why did they agree with them in vain? Most likely, the Taliban gave some guarantees that they would go on the offensive immediately after the Americans left the country, but when the Americans began to load the military, the Taliban decided to draw up a new treaty.

[Fisherman]

Estooooonsyyyy bought a Rollingstone magazine? The whole world already knows about this for at least three years!

[CommanderDIVA]

Now 90 percent of personal information about a person can be obtained from social networks and all special services use this, WhatsApp belongs to Facebook, the head of which, a certain Zuckerberg, reasonably had contacts with the CIA and NSA, this has long been a Punchinelle secret.

[tihonmarine]

Quote: CommanderDIVA

WhatsApp belongs to Facebook, the head of which, a certain Zuckerberg, reasonably had contacts with the CIA and NSA, this has long been a Punchinelle secret.

Of course, most people know about this. Zuckerberg is only a "firm mark".

[Alexey Stepanov]

iMessage: the content of the messages is provided "with restrictions" (what this means is not explained in the document). Provides basic information about the user. On a search warrant, it issues iCloud backups. If a user backs up iMessage to iCloud, then this backup of iMessage messages is also issued (they are encrypted in the cloud, but Apple has the keys). At the same time, Apple, unlike Whatsapp, does not provide a pen register - this is when the FBI receives new information about the user's actions in the account in almost real time;
Whatsapp: the content of messages can be obtained if the user has an iPhone and the Whatsapp archive is backed up to iCloud (that is, it is actually issued by Apple). Provides basic information about the user. By court order, it presents a list of blocked user accounts. Submits an address book on a search warrant. At the same time, it provides a pen register (in fact, such an eavesdropping option at the metadata level) - it informs about new actions in the required account with a delay of 15 minutes, that is, who wrote to whom and called when

https://habr.com/ru/news/t/592515/

[Lech from Android.]

All the secret services of the world spy on everyone through Windows, antiviruses, social networks, gadgets, Trojans, viruses ... there is nothing new in the article.
I periodically have someone rummaging around on my desktop ... I don’t really know who ... hackers, special services, or just a helluva lot of curious citizens.

[razved]

What a surprise ...

[A. Privalov]

"If there is an order" ...

there is a lot to do ...

By the way, in the USSR, at one time, under the pretext that the enemy could overhear, electrical sockets were disconnected in the kitchens ...
That is true, electromagnetic speakers from radio outlets that were available in all apartments and were constantly on, worked perfectly as microphones and, if necessary ...

In fact, the outlets were being removed due to chronic power shortages. To prevent people from using electricity for heating. After all, almost until the end of the 50s, there were very few household electrical appliances in the USSR.
Moreover, until the beginning of the 1960s, there was no mass installation of electric meters, and the payment for the consumed electricity was made according to the number of consumers. Moreover, for a socket for a light bulb they paid 10 kopecks a month, and for an electrical outlet - 50 kopecks.
The savings were significant, so they installed the minimum number of sockets, and instead of an outlet, if necessary, they used such a rogue patron.

Or this:

In addition, even after the war there were a lot of houses, especially in the villages, where, apart from the “Ilyich's lamp” connected back in the 1920s, there were no other power supplies. Somehow they managed, with one light bulb and an iron, which was just turned on from the "swindler" into the socket of an inverted lamp, only not in order to secretly save money, but for the sake of everyday convenience.
Light bulbs in old houses were often hung low precisely for the purpose of easily replacing them with a socket-socket, where it was possible to stick a household appliance in the family.

[alystan]

Here's an example of my family.
1964 - lost their father, left a mother and grandmother, but there are five of us, the oldest is 17, the youngest is a year old, and I was 10.
In two years they built their own house, quite large and spacious, three rooms and a veranda (about 5x5). Lights were installed everywhere, sockets in every room, an electric meter and a radio set. In addition, there was electric lighting in all outbuildings in the yard (a summer kitchen, a storage shed, a shed, a small cattle shed. Electricity was occasionally lost and everyone still had kerosene lamps for such a case. But the electric bulbs were already quite modern.
But this seems to be more as soon as it pulls on insanity:

By the way, in the USSR, at one time, under the pretext that the enemy could overhear, electrical sockets were disconnected in the kitchens ...

[A. Privalov]

Quote: alystan

Here's an example of my family.
1964 - lost their father, left a mother and grandmother, but there are five of us, the oldest is 17, the youngest is a year old, and I was 10.
In two years they built their own house, quite large and spacious, three rooms and a veranda (about 5x5). Lights were installed everywhere, sockets in every room, an electric meter and a radio set. In addition, there was electric lighting in all outbuildings in the yard (a summer kitchen, a storage shed, a shed, a small cattle shed. Electricity was occasionally lost and everyone still had kerosene lamps for such a case. But the electric bulbs were already quite modern.
But this seems to be more as soon as it pulls on insanity:

By the way, in the USSR, at one time, under the pretext that the enemy could overhear, electrical sockets were disconnected in the kitchens ...

What does insanity have to do with it? Due to the lack of power and lack of fuel in the war and the first post-war years, a strict regime of energy saving was introduced, which, first of all, affected the population. For each subscriber where the meter was located, the consumption rate was determined at the rate of 5 kWh per person per month. Current limiters were installed on metering devices. Where they were not there, the supervisors-fitters, when taking readings from the general house meter, monthly or once every two months, disconnected subscribers for exceeding the norm.
Nobody was going to tell people the truth that there is not enough electricity, so they were talking nonsense by turning off the "extra" sockets. People believed.

[Bradley]

The main thing for me is that the FSB should not be handed over. The Americans won't do anything to me, but here you can sit down if a post or message from the wrong system is in the chat.
So let them drain the Americans, purple, in general.
Although my friends and I use the Cart.

[alystan]

Americans won't do anything to me

You don't know the Americans well !? Or do you want to pass for your own?

[Bradley]

You don't know the Americans well !? Or do you want to pass for your own? am

What will they do to me? Gasoline will be dumped?
Their laws do not apply to the Russian Federation.

[Nitarius]

It's high time .. MAKE YOUR OWN! and we have OFFICIALS about the Western .. and they don’t move their snout to defend their own country and people!