How can I use WhatsApp in a way that it will not know anything about my phone, or location?

VPN
21

But the goal here is not about the data I give it. Its about the data I don’t give it.

Particularly… I don’t want it going over to another app on my phone and be like “Sup homie! What’chu got for me?”

22

Element is free, Threema is not

Edit: whats element one?

23
24

Threema is secure though. It’s open source and doesn’t collect user data.

25

Sounds cool, but you lose your privacy by using their service.

Per the Element One FAQ:

"Do messages stay end-to-end encrypted?

Encrypted messages from WhatsApp,Signal and Telegram are decrypted as they pass across the bridge. The bridge operates in EMS’ trusted environment, with no content scanning or datamining. Bridges will be end-to-end encrypted in the future, but aren’t today."

It’s great they say no scanning or data mining. What if law enforcement comes with a warrant? There goes the whole purpose of using end-to-end encryption.

26

Bridging an end-to-end encrypted messenger means it’s not encrypted end-to-end anymore which pretty much defeats their primary purpose.

27

Yeah, never said anything against it.

I just don’t think its going to ever take off.
If you want to encourage your friends to switch to signal, they just have to install one single app. Threema has a paywall.

I think Element will eventually take over

28

I would not pay for it. You will have to trust their bridge.

Per their FAQ all the encrypted messages get decrypted at their bridge. Currently there is no encryption on the Element One side now. It says it will be in the future. (who knows when)

29

So wait! Session has no e2ee encryption?

30

Oof. And here I was excited for it :')

31

Session & Signal are e2e encrypted. Using Element.io essentially circumvents that.

The problem with Element.io is it functions as the Session (or Signal) client. That means one end of the end-to-end is their server, not your device.

At that point, why bother using an e2e messaging tool? If it’s acceptable to do without e2e (which is fine for a lot of risk models), then just use whichever messaging app is most convenient.

But, if you really want/need e2e, then don’t go near Element.IO.