Messengers are not ready to degrade metadata protection for the sake of integration with Meta.
In accordance with the new EU legislation, Meta must ensure compatibility of its messengers with other services by March 2024. However, the popular instant messengers Signal and Threema do not plan to connect to the function of third-party WhatsApp chats due to the need to maintain a high level of user privacy and security.
Under the terms of the DMA, Meta must "be ready to provide interaction with other services within three months of receiving the request." The company itself notes that the actual public inclusion of the interoperability feature may take longer.
In the first year of DMA implementation, only personal third-party chats are required, including sharing files, images, videos, and voice messages. In the future, this support should also cover group chats and calls.
Earlier, Meta reported that third-party messenger development companies will have to sign an agreement on interaction with Messenger and WhatsApp before starting to jointly implement the interoperability function.
The company asks other providers to use the WhatsApp Signal encryption protocol, but says it is ready to work with other protocols if they meet the same security standards. For its part, Meta promises to provide end-to-end encryption (E2EE) regardless of the chosen protocol.
However, two leading secure messaging platforms — Signal and Threema - have made it clear that they are not interested in interacting with WhatsApp. They stressed that the privacy and security of users is a priority, despite the possibility of expanding the user base due to compatibility with WhatsApp.
Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal, said: "Our privacy standards are extremely high, and not only will we not lower them, but we want to continue to raise them. Currently working with Facebook* Messenger, iMessage, WhatsApp, or even the Matrix service would mean a deterioration in our data protection standards."
A Threema representative expressed a similar opinion: "The main reason is that our security and privacy standards are incompatible with them. We cannot and will not deviate from these standards — that's the whole point of Threema."
Although WhatsApp chats are fully encrypted using the same Signal protocol that Signal and Threema also use, WhatsApp does not offer advanced metadata privacy protection. Although metadata does not contain the content of messages, it is still valuable and potentially confidential, as it shows who is communicating with whom and at what time. Since the source code of WhatsApp is closed, Signal and Threema say that the developers of these messengers will also not know what else can happen to their users ' data when they fall into the hands of WhatsApp.
In addition, it remains unclear whether WhatsApp will open up access for interaction to competitors around the world or restrict it only to EU countries, as Apple did with a special version of iOS 17.4 with access to alternative app stores exclusively for the EU.
At the moment, one of the most popular messengers in the world - Telegram, whose user base exceeds the combined audience of Signal and Threema, has not published an official statement about its plans to ensure compatibility of chats with WhatsApp.
In accordance with the new EU legislation, Meta must ensure compatibility of its messengers with other services by March 2024. However, the popular instant messengers Signal and Threema do not plan to connect to the function of third-party WhatsApp chats due to the need to maintain a high level of user privacy and security.
Under the terms of the DMA, Meta must "be ready to provide interaction with other services within three months of receiving the request." The company itself notes that the actual public inclusion of the interoperability feature may take longer.
In the first year of DMA implementation, only personal third-party chats are required, including sharing files, images, videos, and voice messages. In the future, this support should also cover group chats and calls.
Earlier, Meta reported that third-party messenger development companies will have to sign an agreement on interaction with Messenger and WhatsApp before starting to jointly implement the interoperability function.
The company asks other providers to use the WhatsApp Signal encryption protocol, but says it is ready to work with other protocols if they meet the same security standards. For its part, Meta promises to provide end-to-end encryption (E2EE) regardless of the chosen protocol.
However, two leading secure messaging platforms — Signal and Threema - have made it clear that they are not interested in interacting with WhatsApp. They stressed that the privacy and security of users is a priority, despite the possibility of expanding the user base due to compatibility with WhatsApp.
Meredith Whittaker, President of Signal, said: "Our privacy standards are extremely high, and not only will we not lower them, but we want to continue to raise them. Currently working with Facebook* Messenger, iMessage, WhatsApp, or even the Matrix service would mean a deterioration in our data protection standards."
A Threema representative expressed a similar opinion: "The main reason is that our security and privacy standards are incompatible with them. We cannot and will not deviate from these standards — that's the whole point of Threema."
Although WhatsApp chats are fully encrypted using the same Signal protocol that Signal and Threema also use, WhatsApp does not offer advanced metadata privacy protection. Although metadata does not contain the content of messages, it is still valuable and potentially confidential, as it shows who is communicating with whom and at what time. Since the source code of WhatsApp is closed, Signal and Threema say that the developers of these messengers will also not know what else can happen to their users ' data when they fall into the hands of WhatsApp.
In addition, it remains unclear whether WhatsApp will open up access for interaction to competitors around the world or restrict it only to EU countries, as Apple did with a special version of iOS 17.4 with access to alternative app stores exclusively for the EU.
At the moment, one of the most popular messengers in the world - Telegram, whose user base exceeds the combined audience of Signal and Threema, has not published an official statement about its plans to ensure compatibility of chats with WhatsApp.
