WhatsApp Does NOT Encrypt Your Fingerprints

[FrgMstr]

The long and the short of it is that a drug dealer put a picture of his hand in a WhatsApp message, and the cops took the picture and got enough of his fingerprint information from the photo to find him. It is good to see the bobbies across the pond have better things to do than to track down people voicing their opinions on Twitter. I hope the authorities do not get my prints off those glow sticks I left in that abandoned warehouse this weekend.


An image of a man holding ecstasy tablets in his palm was found on the mobile of someone arrested in Bridgend. It was sent to South Wales Police's scientific support unit and helped to secure 11 convictions. These are believed to be the first convictions in Wales from fingerprints taken from a photograph. The unit's Dave Thomas described its use as "groundbreaking" and said officers are now looking more closely at photographs on phones seized for potential evidence.

 

[thenapalm]

I'm a sucker for Ikea so walking through one on Ikea-brand ecstasy would be pure heaven.

 

[wootius]

Well, you guys wanted super good cell cameras.

 

[Spidey329]

Worth noting that it wasn't a situation where they scanned the fingerprint and went out to arrest someone based on it.

It was apart of a larger group of evidence with a suspect to compare to.

 

[darckhart]

So I guess I'm not understanding something here about Whatsapp's encryption. Is it NOT fully end-to-end encryption of the entire stream? I'm pretty sure I heard Zuckerberg say last week that they can't see the contents of any Whatsapp communications...

 

[dvsman]

High resolution pics from a SOTA smartphone - who knew?!

 

[Burticus]

Note to self, only buy burner phones with crappy cameras for drug deals.

 

[SomeoneElse]

trying to understand the finger print thing when in the photo i don't see the tips of the fingers? Do they take prints of the whole hand in the UK?

 

[Spidey329]

So I guess I'm not understanding something here about Whatsapp's encryption. Is it NOT fully end-to-end encryption of the entire stream? I'm pretty sure I heard Zuckerberg say last week that they can't see the contents of any Whatsapp communications...

It's (supposedly) encrypted from prying eyes unless they obtain one of the end points. In this case, a raid took place and the police recovered a phone, including the WhatsApp communications that included the photo.

trying to understand the finger print thing when in the photo i don't see the tips of the fingers? Do they take prints of the whole hand in the UK?

It wasn't a database fingerprint match. It was a partial print match of a suspect they already had.

 

[SFB]

Bit of a click bait on the thread title... WhatsApp is End-to-End Encrypted. You can't blame the app if either the sender or receivers device is compromised. No man in the middle attack took place and encryption scheme was not broken. The same thing would happen if you were using the signal app (without enabling disappearing messages) and gave the police an unlocked phone.

An image of a man holding ecstasy tablets in his palm was found on the mobile of someone arrested in Bridgend.

 

[FrgMstr]

Bit of a click bait on the thread title... WhatsApp is End-to-End Encrypted. You can't blame the app if either the sender or receivers device is compromised. No man in the middle attack took place and encryption scheme was not broken. The same thing would happen if you were using the signal app (without enabling disappearing messages) and gave the police an unlocked phone.

Just trying to take advantage of the stupid ones to get them to post more than 30 times in 6 years. FISH ON!

 

[one swell foop]

Look, if you provide it to a third party, it's discoverable. You provide your fingerprints to a company? I can subpoena that if it's material to my case. You provide a cheek swab to 23&Me? I can subpoena that if it's material. Don't provide crap like that unless your okay with an enemy or opposing party getting a hold of it in a worst case scenario.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

So I guess I'm not understanding something here about Whatsapp's encryption. Is it NOT fully end-to-end encryption of the entire stream? I'm pretty sure I heard Zuckerberg say last week that they can't see the contents of any Whatsapp communications...

It is encrypted while in transmission.

If the cops have access to your phone though, they can just open the app and start looking.

Titles are not always literal.

 

[Krazy925]

Why would you take pictures of yourself with drugs if you are a drug dealer.

This is why smart people don’t do shit like this. They also stay free men.