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First party E2EE has some value even under a "trusting trust" scenario: it lets service operators keep rogue employees from accessing your data. To compromise your data requires pushing a software update, which on pretty much every platform[0] creates a paper trail of cryptographic signatures leading back to the company's signing keys. If someone finds out about user data being stolen through a modified version of the app, that can be traced back to any developer who had access to key material.

Yes, if the organization itself decided to compromise its own scheme, E2EE cannot stop that... but again. That creates evidence and paper trails. The kinds of people with the power to do this want plausible deniability; the last thing they want is mathematical proof that they screwed their own customers on purpose. Same with that rogue employee: they don't want to be known as the guy who signed spyware.

[0] Yes, including sideloading-friendly ones. If your rogue update isn't signed it will trip a bunch of scary warnings at install time.




Trusting trust is required for E2EE to have value at all, otherwise E2EE is just a claim that cannot be taken at face value.




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