> German officials relationship to WhatsApp is a bit silly,
I find HN hivemind relationship to these apps quite silly. A government should never entrust any information to a third party it has zero control over. An individual consumer and a government employee working with classified information have vastly different responsibilities.
> I always wonder what their conrete worry or attack scenario is
The security of these public apps are akin to a glass cannon. Strong in one scenario, hilariously weak in another. State actors can easily circumvent and extract full text messages and not just metadata.
It's not clear from the article, but the debate in Germany is about local offices using WhatsApp to interact with citizens. Like people asking about garbage collection dates, or informing about school closings. Things you might as well post on a wall or send with a postcard. Anything remotely sensitve, like getting a certificate of residence, has to be done in person anyway.
You're right when it comes to government officials working with classified information. But otherwise its completely normal to subcontract IT to third parties, even (especially) in the US.
Many people on HN say over and over that Facebook is a private company and they can ban you whenever they want for any or no reason.
A company that behaves this way cannot be trusted of course. If I get banned I cannot know about closed schools and garbage collection dates? And with no way to appeal or get redress. Of course completely unacceptable.
I find HN hivemind relationship to these apps quite silly. A government should never entrust any information to a third party it has zero control over. An individual consumer and a government employee working with classified information have vastly different responsibilities.
> I always wonder what their conrete worry or attack scenario is
The security of these public apps are akin to a glass cannon. Strong in one scenario, hilariously weak in another. State actors can easily circumvent and extract full text messages and not just metadata.