TL;DR: On WhatsApp, your Metadata is Meta's data 😅
I wouldn’t say that Will and I are battling but I do disagree. Because there are big differences between Signal and WhatsApp.
Signal is the gold standard in private comms. We’re open source, nonprofit, and we develop and apply e2ee and privacy preserving tech across our system to protect metadata and message contents. Check out <signal dot org slash bigbrother> to see just how little data we are able to provide in response to the subpoenas we’re not able to resist.
Now, WhatsApp licenses Signal’s cryptography to protect message contents for consumer WhatsApp. Not on WhatsApp for business. Neither consumer nor business WhatsApp protects intimate metadata—like contact list, who’s messaging whom, when, profile photo, etc. And, when compelled, like all companies that collect the data to begin with, they turn this important, revealing data over.
Don’t misunderstand—we love that WhatsApp uses our tech to raise the privacy bar of their app. Part of Signal’s mission is to set, and encourage the tech ecosystem to meet, this high privacy bar.
But these are key differences when it comes to meaningful privacy and the public deserves to understand them, given the stakes. Not have them clouded in marketing.