It is sad, and misinformative, that this article is currently #1 on HN, while the much more accurate and better-written Guardian piece "WhatsApp backdoor allows snooping on encrypted messages" is #2.
The linked piece is hard to critique because it's borderline incoherent. The "conclusion" is simply not a conclusion, particularly this passage:
> A provider always has the ability to intercept messages as long as the user does not verify fingerprints. With WhatsApp, it is even harder to make sure, no MitM takes or took place. WhatsApp is closed source, so who can tell, if WhatsApp just displays wrong identity keys and lets the user think that everything is perfectly OK ..?
The linked piece is hard to critique because it's borderline incoherent. The "conclusion" is simply not a conclusion, particularly this passage:
> A provider always has the ability to intercept messages as long as the user does not verify fingerprints. With WhatsApp, it is even harder to make sure, no MitM takes or took place. WhatsApp is closed source, so who can tell, if WhatsApp just displays wrong identity keys and lets the user think that everything is perfectly OK ..?