WhatsApp is the largest messaging platform, but it is also the only one that can provide the FBI with information about its users in a way that allows the US federal agency to follow much more closely what people do in the application. According to a private document from the FBI, they can obtain from WhatsApp, almost in real time, information about the people with whom they have conversations, the contacts in their address book, but also what other contacts they have in their own address book.
WhatsApp is not the only messaging application that can provide this kind of information, but it is the only one that can provide information about how users communicate with each other once every 15 minutes, something really worrying. The texts of the messages cannot be revealed by those from WhatsApp, they being encrypted, but based on a warrant, those from the FBI can receive information about the moments when the users of the platform communicate with each other, with updates once every 15 minutes.
WhatsApp: The Surprising Announcement That Creates Many Question Marks
WhatsApp provides this information without problems to the FBI, NSA, or any other American federal or police agency, of course also from other countries around the world, if there is a mandate that compels it to do so. Those at WhatsApp don't really have anything to do in these situations, and that's because if there is a mandate that requires them to provide this information, they have to do it, or they risk being accused of not respecting the legislation of the country in which they operate, and the service may be suspended.
WhatsApp has always said that no one can read the messages sent by people, and what was discovered in the internal document of the FBI confirms this, even if it raises a lot of question marks. WhatsApp reveals a series of sensitive user data, and this includes people's contact books, and somewhat similar data is also provided by other messaging platforms that must comply with the authorities' requests, no matter when they come.
WhatsApp says that it protects, for the rest, people's data, but it remains to be seen what other information will be revealed in the future to show us that not everything we are told is really so reassuring for everyone.
