this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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As long as the keys are handled via a closed source app and server system, e2ee is potentially broken.
Even if you generated the key, keep the private part locally and submitted only the public part to your communication partner, you can never be sure that the intransparent app does keep your private key private.
With WhatsApp I'm quite sure that they somehow can retrieve the private key. Certain events point to that. But I see no reason to consider signal or telegram any more trustworthy - they are all prone to governmental influence.
And as open source and closed app infrastructure are incompatible, I would not handle anything important on an Android or Apple device.
What events point there?
I've no proof of this, but technically the whatsapp app is closed source so they could push an update that collects the private keys, if they don't do this already
I don't know about WhatsApp, but macOS backups your keys on iCloud by default, so...