WhatsApp to ensure the safety of users via encrypted messages.
Facebook Inc. WhatsApp has come up with end to end encryption for its users that are one billion in number. This will prevent the users to remain safe from authorities trying to spy on them as well as hackers and criminals. The service is immensely popular and is owned by Facebook since the fiscal year of 2014. It has been a month since the company is striving to come up with an encryption service.
Brian Acton and Jan Koum, the co-founders of WhatsApp mentioned in a blog post regarding the new features. The messaging platform grants exclusive permission to users who are conducting their conversations, to go through the messages by putting WhatsApp beyond the loop. To explain it simply, every message sent will be secured through its own lock and the key is present only between the receiver and sender. Thus, once a message is sent it will not be stored on the company’s servers.
The end to end encryption can be enabled by the users by browsing to the Settings in the Security tab. Some users have been encrypted automatically by the company and have been informed about it via a message. The upgrade has been rolled from the side of the company thus users are not required to upgrade the WhatsApp app. The only condition is that the user needs to have the latest version and the change will be updated on its own. Users can also send messages themselves to experiment with the feature.
The Co-founders mentioned in the blog post, "The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to.” They further added, “No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private—sort of like a face-to-face conversation.”
The company’s recent announcement has also shed light on the repercussions of not being encrypted. The ideology behind this endeavor is to ensure the safety of people. Ironically, the blog post mentioned about hackers, criminals and rogue states but did not talk about the role of governments whatsoever. The battles of Edward Snowden with the National Security Agency (NSA) to reveal about privacy encroaching methodologies that are powered by the state are an area of concern here.
Authorities tend to approach tech companies a lot but WhatsApp is safe now since it does not have any access to users that can fend them off easily. It is as simple as it gets, the app cannot reveal information because it does not have access to it.
The social media giant is striving hard to ensure the security of users. Since the San Bernardino incident that took place with Apple Inc. users are extremely concerned about their privacy and security. The tech giants are constantly pressurize to reveal information to authorities thus by encrypting WhatsApp, FB has smartly overcome the security barriers. The users need not worry about their security whilst using this platform.
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