Israel's AI-aided system Lavender is identifying alleged 'suspects' in Gaza which the military is targeting in air strikes by tracking their WhatsApp contacts, Tech for Palestine's Paul Biggar has said....

According to software engineer and blogger, Paul Biggar, however, one key detail on the methods employed by the Lavender system that is often overlooked is the involvement of the messaging platform, WhatsApp. A major determining factor of the system’s identification is simply if an individual is in a WhatsApp group containing another suspected militant.

Aside from the inaccuracy of the method and the moral question of targeting Palestinians based on shared WhatsApp groups or social media connections, there is also notably the doubt it brings to the platform being privacy-based and guaranteeing “end-to-end” encryption for messages.

Stating that WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, makes it complicit in Israel’s killing of “pre-crime” suspects in Gaza, Biggar accused the company of directly violating international humanitarian law, as well as its own public commitment to human rights.

These revelations are the latest evidence of Meta – formerly Facebook – aiding in the suppression of Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices, with the platform long having been criticised for taking significant steps to shut down dissent against Israeli and Zionist narratives. Those measures have included permitting adverts promoting a holocaust against Palestinians and even attempting to flag the word ‘Zionist’ as hate speech.

Questioning the accuracy of the report, a WhatsApp spokesperson told MEMO: “We have no information that these reports are accurate. WhatsApp has no backdoors and we do not provide bulk information to any government. For over a decade, Meta has provided consistent transparency reports and those include the limited circumstances when WhatsApp information has been requested. Our principles are firm – we carefully review, validate and respond to law enforcement requests based on applicable law and consistent with internationally recognized standards, including human rights.

      • sphinx00@lemmy.world
        111·
        8 months ago

        Unfortunately in some countries like mine, we’re stuck with it. Literally everyone here uses it, for everything including business. If I migrate to Signal, I’ll have no one to talk to.

        • Paddzr@lemmy.world
          9·
          8 months ago

          There are local businesses who ONLY use Facebook. No website, no nothing. Not even google maps location.

          Sucks. I have a generic blank FB with my initials and that’s it.

            • Paddzr@lemmy.world
              3·
              8 months ago

              I mean I do. But there are two businesses I use twice a month where it is straight up impossible to interact with. A small business won’t see the investment into a website.

              And no. There are no alternative businesses I could deal with in +80 mile range.

              Could one live without fb? Yeah obviously. But it’s not all redundant with alternatives.

              • glasgitarrewelt@feddit.de
                2·
                8 months ago

                It’s hard to relate, because I wouldn’t even know if there are businesses in my area which only use facebook - because I don’t use facebook.

                I wanted to use a business that wanted me to send them pictures of my drive way via Whatsapp. I ended up taking my business to a different guy, who was able to work with mail. No harm done, everyone is still happy, still no need for Meta products.

                Edit: of course I acknowledge that I don’t know anything about you or your situation. You maybe really can’t work/live without facebook.

                • Paddzr@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  8 months ago

                  Word of mouth is how you find such businesses or local boards people advertising their services. That’s 90% of it or google search taking me to their FB page.

                  But yeah, if it means I can support local businesses? It’s a price worth paying by having a fb account with no activity or info.

                  At the end of the day, i care about the local guy running butchers out of a truck going to spots when they have meat more than giving money to tesco who under cuts farmers. Fb allows people to have automaty. While it’s not black and white. I do admit it’s way more on the dark side.

        • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
          4·
          8 months ago

          I get what you’re going through. The same is true for my country. However, I understood very early on that I needed to do something about it, because just “following the rest” is the reason why all these companies are getting away with their surveillance and making truckload of money with our data without our consent.

          Fast forward to today, and I have not used WhatsApp in over 8 years. My communication with my wife, my business partner and 1 of my friends is done exclusively over Session, the rest is over Signal. Anyone not on those platforms, good luck trying to reach me.

          If we ever want things to change, we have to risk losing communication with some people. Those that consider you important won’t mind adding another messaging app to their phones.

          • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
            3·
            8 months ago

            “Easier” is what got us to where we’re at today in terms of our privacy, and even our security. These companies are betting precisely on us being lazy and choosing easy. Let that comment sink in for a few seconds.

            • glasgitarrewelt@feddit.de
              3·
              8 months ago

              You are absolutely right of course, I was a bit sarcastic in the comment above. I firmly belive that the pursuit of a more convenient live will be our downfall - in terms of privacy, but also e.g. in terms of traffic (cars are very convenient but shouldn’t be the future for the masses).

              • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
                2·
                8 months ago

                I do love my car, and it pains me to no end to have to agree with you. We’re on the wrong road believing that electric cars will have any significant positive impact on pollution. Sure, if we all charged from renewable energy, but that’s very rarely the case.

                We have electric cars in my house, 2 of them, I and we charge solely from solar energy when at home, but out on the road, I don’t believe that to be the case.

                Then there’s traffic and how cities are built around it, instead of the other way around.

                Yeah, we’re fucked.

                • glasgitarrewelt@feddit.de
                  2·
                  8 months ago

                  Same here, I really like driving, it can be fun and (sometimes) relaxing and there is no better place to sing along to some songs.

                  At the same time I try to avoid driving as much as possible, I take the bike, walk, take the train, no matter the weather. I don’t want to be one of those cars sitting at the red light, using up space, polluting the environment and giving our local parties the idea, that we need that one more lane.

                  Some things are more important than a few convenient minutes.

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
        1·
        8 months ago

        Wow every single account of Zuckerberg comes off as him sounding like some kind of sociopathic alien

      • Zeroxxx@lemmy.id
        15·
        8 months ago

        WhatsApp Indians, Brazilians, Indonesians, Malaysians and ROW users are all laughing at you.

    • FutileRecipe@lemmy.world
      15·
      8 months ago

      For like the past decade. I’m guessing you don’t have a WhatsApp account? When I had one for work (I used a disposable number) the splash screen on app launch had “by Meta” and the settings had “by Meta” at the bottom. Might’ve been a couple other spots but I remember those two.