Whatsapp comment

Saipanne

Hi,

So, a few friends and I are traveling to the US in two weeks and while chatting on whatsapp about a posh nightclub my friend quipped something along the lines of "**** the place, I hope they blow it up".

Immediately I thought about recent cases in the news where people made similarly flippant remarks on Twitter and were subsequently denied entry to the US, upon arrival. So it got me thinking whether my friend is likely to run into such problems, even though it wasn't a public message. My opinion is that whatsapp is probably monitored to some degree, so it might be flagged. What do you think?

silja

It was a stupid thing to say, but if Watsapp is like Google Hangouts or similar, ie not public, it is unlikely to be a problem.

Saipanne

silja wrote: »

It was a stupid thing to say, but if Watsapp is like Google Hangouts or similar, ie not public, it is unlikely to be a problem.

Yeah, he can be an idiot, at the best of times. Hopefully nothing comes of it.

listermint

if you cant make remarks like that in private company well whats the point of privacy.

A joke is a joke in context, I dont think stupid can be applied.

In fact its more stupid to not see when a joke is a qwip as opposed to a threat. There in lies the true stupidity.

bikermartin

There is no private messages/comment's on any messenger/text/calls your using. I would never trust anything that you need kept private. It's out of your control when you press send? Calls can also be recorded...... Maybe it's just me !

dave2pvd

listermint wrote: »

if you cant make remarks like that in private company well whats the point of privacy.

A joke is a joke in context, I dont think stupid can be applied.

In fact its more stupid to not see when a joke is a qwip as opposed to a threat. There in lies the true stupidity.

There is no privacy in electronic communications.

ProudDUB

listermint wrote: »

if you cant make remarks like that in private company well whats the point of privacy.

A joke is a joke in context, I dont think stupid can be applied.

In fact its more stupid to not see when a joke is a qwip as opposed to a threat. There in lies the true stupidity.

If you are making the remark via social media (which the OPs friend was) it is about as far away from "private" as it is possible to get.

Saipanne

Hmm, so my friend might be in trouble then?

ProudDUB

I seriously doubt it. Unless he is person already known to authorities as being a security risk, I doubt if his internet chatter is being monitored. No one ever knows with 100% accuracy what is and isn't being listened to these days, especially after the recent events in Paris, but I doubt if he has anything to worry about.

Saipanne

Yeah, i just got reminded of that Irish fella on Twitter who was deported for a similarly stupid comment. Maybe it was more public on Twitter, or maybe he just got unlucky.

But my mate has no criminal record and obviously isn't a terrorist. So hopefully nothing bad happens.

TerrorFirmer

Whatsapp is not social media, it is not remotely comparable to Twitter or Facebook situations which have arisen in the past.

It's a messaging app, not a public forum.

ceadaoin.

I thought whatsapp was pretty secure. Was it not in the news a while ago that the UK government were suggesting it could be banned because they couldn't monitor it due to all the info being encrypted?

Anyway, I highly doubt one comment would result in your friend getting into trouble. Unless he is a known terrorist. There's no way they can read all of the billions of messages sent on these apps even if they had the ability to.

iusedtoknow

ceadaoin. wrote: »

There's no way they can read all of the billions of messages sent on these apps even if they had the ability to.

They don't. But their computers can - I work in a mid size organization and can use an algorithm to search through the content of 70,000 peoples email's over a period of 10 years. We have petabyte after petabyte of information that is accessible within seconds. If it's been backed up...then I may have to wait 10 minutes for the tape to be retrieved. I can access text messages, iMessages - anything sent through a corporate device. I don't....but i could

If they wanted to find something, they can. However a passing comment like that is unlikely to cause any issues.

Outside of whispering in someones ear, there is no anonymity or privacy online, especially with messaging apps. It's just the new reality.

circular flexing

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Whatsapp is not social media, it is not remotely comparable to Twitter or Facebook situations which have arisen in the past.

It's a messaging app, not a public forum.

If you think that any conversation on Whatsapp is completely private, then I have some magic beans I would like to sell you.

El Burro Juicioso

I wouldn't worry about it. It's not a public forum, as a previous user said. Sure, they may be able to read it, and with keywords probably do but no one is going to arrest you over one throwaway comment. You still have lovely free speech to cling to. It's not like you are involved in a long plot.

A throwaway comment like that on a public forum is a different story, since I guess it could cause panic etc etc.

Forget it would be my advice.

ProudDUB

El Burro Juicioso wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about it. It's not a public forum, as a previous user said. Sure, they may be able to read it, and with keywords probably do but no one is going to arrest you over one throwaway comment. You still have lovely free speech to cling to. It's not like you are involved in a long plot.

A throwaway comment like that on a public forum is a different story, since I guess it could cause panic etc etc.

Forget it would be my advice.

No, he is unlikely to be arrested. But he could be very well told to shag off by US border police, when he presents himself for entry into their fair country, which is what the OP is asking about.

I suppose there is always a chance that some bored boffin, buried deep in the bowels of Langley, could link his name, his phone number & his WhatsApp posts, to his passport. (I watch a lot of Jason Bourne movies, so I consider myself an expert in these matter. ) Cue his then being turned away by the US immigration authorities.

But unless the OP's friend is Mick Wallace, I'd say there is a better chance of his winning this weeks Euro millions draw.

El Burro Juicioso

ProudDUB wrote: »

No, he is unlikely to be arrested. But he could be very well told to shag off by US border police, when he presents himself for entry into their fair country, which is what the OP is asking about.

I suppose there is always a chance that some bored boffin, buried deep in the bowels of Langley, could link together his name, phone number & WhatsApp info, to his passport. ( I watch a lot of the Jason Bourne movies, so I consider myself an expert in these matter. ) Cue his being turned away by USCIS.

But unless the OP's friend is Mick Wallace, I'd say there is a better chance of his winning this weeks Euro millions draw.

Agreed, the chance is infinitesimally small. So, don't worry about it.

I guess if we wanted to entertain the possibility, I know the patriot act applies to data that goes through the US, whether it is bound for there or not, but I don't think it applies to data that doesn't touch the US border. Depends where the servers exist in that case.

I'm not familiar with the twitter case, but really, you have to consider things like is the phone registered to the person's name etc or is it prepay... They would have some time issuing a request for details from an Irish mobile company's personal records when the weight of the case lies in one comment.

Twitter is easier to track someone down, definitely.

Eugene Norman

iusedtoknow wrote: »

They don't. But their computers can - I work in a mid size organization and can use an algorithm to search through the content of 70,000 peoples email's over a period of 10 years. We have petabyte after petabyte of information that is accessible within seconds. If it's been backed up...then I may have to wait 10 minutes for the tape to be retrieved. I can access text messages, iMessages - anything sent through a corporate device. I don't....but i could

If they wanted to find something, they can. However a passing comment like that is unlikely to cause any issues.

Outside of whispering in someones ear, there is no anonymity or privacy online, especially with messaging apps. It's just the new reality.

You can do that because you have the unencrypted text. That's not true of the government and whatsapp.

Hazys

Yes the NSA monitor and have access to certain messenger apps data but realistically the odds of 1. that their algorithm skimming true the billions of terabytes of data that would flag that comment as egregious enough so that a human would have to review it 2. then that human then deeming that comment to being enough of a threat to the USA to take action, is a billion trillion to one.