this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Sorry but you’ll need to hold the L on this one. If I encrypt a message with public key material for which the only private key material that can decrypt the message is in only my possession, it doesn’t matter if the message passes centralized servers.
I’m not trying to be rude, that’s just how it works.
People not understanding how security threats actually work is why everything is so broken these days.
If you do it by hand sure.
If you put the message into an app then the app is trusted to not leak the message. What is described in the article is that Whatsapp can instruct clients to send a copies of the message from the app to their server.
There is nothing stopping any messaging app doing this, having decentralized servers and 3rd party clients wouldn't stop this but it would make it much easier to protect yourself from the attack.
I’m not following. In the WhatsApp case, yes, because we can’t see how those keys are managed. In the Signal case, we can. So the centralized server has zero impact on the privacy of the message. If we trust the keys are possessed only by the generating device, then how does the encrypted message become compromised?
I’m not talking about anonymity, only message privacy. No different than any of the other proxies or routers along the way. If they don’t have the key, the message is not readable.
The centralized server is only important because it sends you the message to get around the encryption (either adding a new client to your list of trusted clients or in some other way getting your client to send your messages to Meta).
Because the client is capable of adding the backdoor, it isn't comprosing the encryption. When you add a desktop client to your Signal account it doesn't break E2E encryption either but your messages are visible in more places. That (or something like it) is what is being described, Meta aren't decrypting your messages as they go through their E2E network, they are tapping them client side.