Iranian state television has urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smart phones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel.
They are basically at war with the US and there is this piece of US Tech that nearly everyone is carrying around and that can access their communications, precise location, microphone and camera.
It’s also owned by a company, Meta, that has a history of being used as a tool to manipulate public opinion.
I have no particular sympathy for Iran’s leadership but I can understand why they would advice that (and I don’t think WhatsApp is the only way for people to communicate with the outside world).
I get what you mean and it’s a fair point. But I would still go with Meta as the most immediate threat in a war with the US.
As the ignorant I am, my understanding is that the phone manufacturer has a level of control on the way Android works and so it wouldn’t be as easy for Google to access any individual Samsung or Xiaomi phone as it is for Meta with WhatsApp, an app they fully control with permissions to use (way too many) phone features regardless of brand.
Plus, getting both Google and Apple to cooperate and coordinate sounds harder to me than just going to one company, that is basically controlled by only one person.
They are probably using Xiaomi which is based in China, using AOSP with whatever mods they throw on it, which isn’t based anywhere and is open source, or it could be Huawei too.
They are basically at war with the US and there is this piece of US Tech that nearly everyone is carrying around and that can access their communications, precise location, microphone and camera.
It’s also owned by a company, Meta, that has a history of being used as a tool to manipulate public opinion. I have no particular sympathy for Iran’s leadership but I can understand why they would advice that (and I don’t think WhatsApp is the only way for people to communicate with the outside world).
Meta is also literally developing AI war machines for the US. That also runs on said data from WhatsApp.
Okay so they uninstall WhatsApp? What operating systems are they using and what countries are the manufacturers for those based in?
I get what you mean and it’s a fair point. But I would still go with Meta as the most immediate threat in a war with the US.
As the ignorant I am, my understanding is that the phone manufacturer has a level of control on the way Android works and so it wouldn’t be as easy for Google to access any individual Samsung or Xiaomi phone as it is for Meta with WhatsApp, an app they fully control with permissions to use (way too many) phone features regardless of brand.
Plus, getting both Google and Apple to cooperate and coordinate sounds harder to me than just going to one company, that is basically controlled by only one person.
They are probably using Xiaomi which is based in China, using AOSP with whatever mods they throw on it, which isn’t based anywhere and is open source, or it could be Huawei too.