Facebook WhatsApp To Offer End To End Encryption

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.

BlackBerry Is Not Content With Facebook

Facebook has ended support for its app on BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS platform.

BlackBerry Ltd. is not happy by the decision made by Facebook Inc.

The social media giant made a decision to put a halt to its service for its application on the BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry 0 platforms. Back in March, Facebook owned WhatsApp announced that it would no longer support the BlackBerry version of its application after FY16. However, it has now been confirmed that the company will finish its support for BlackBerry APIs after this month.

So once these changes are implemented, the users on Blackberry OS and BlackBerry 10 will be diverted to the desktop version of Facebook in case the select the application. When the news surfaced to the executives at BlackBerry, they were not really happy with it. The company expressed its dismay by stating in an official blogpost, "We are extremely disappointed in their decision as we know so many users love these apps."

BlackBerry is struggling since a relatively long span of time, and this move is again a massive blow to them. The company also tried its best to encourage the social media giant to take its decision back. However, it did not really prove to be of any benefit for them. To strengthen the commitment to the users and developers at BlackBerry, it has asked the WhatsApp and Facebook users to express their dismay by coming up with a hashtag #ILoveBB10Apps.

WhatsApp made a claim that it decided to halt its services on BlackBerry since the platform did not really offer the desired specifications to support the enhanced features and expansions that were being added to the service time and again. The BlackBerry users have also signed a petition online requesting the service to function the way it did earlier. So far the company has been successful in getting a little more than 1800 signatures on it.

BlackBerry is reigning over a marginal share in the smartphone market globally, thus the recent step taken by Facebook will cause the company to lose more users in the times to come. The company is striving hard to bolster its finances and pump up its smartphone division, thus they also came up with the BlackBerry Priv smartphone in FY15 to redeem themselves. The smartphone might have encouraged developers of app to have faith in the BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS platform back. However, it now seems that they are not willing to take the risk again.

BlackBerry on the other hand has different plans as mentioned in the blog post. The company is optimistic about coming up with a new feature known as “Great Apps on BlackBerry” that will encompass the best 20 apps that are featured for 14 days every month. While this may be of interest to the app developers, conventional users might not really be happy if they don’t have WhatsApp and Facebook apps on their smartphones.

Brazil Police Is Treating The Facebook Executive With Respect

Facebook will continue with its expansion in Brazil amid detention of of executive.

An executive belonging to Facebook Inc. reportedly spent almost 24 hours in a jail in Brazil this week. As per him, the police authorities treated him with immense respect and the incident will not hamper the company’s expansion in the Brazilian market whatsoever.

The Vice President of Facebook, Mr. Diego Dzogan situated in Sao Paulo was arrested by the police on Tuesday since a conflict aroused where the law enforcement agency demanded the data out of WhatsApp messaging service which contains in encrypted data to be used to solve a sensitive drug trafficking case.

The executive was released a day after since the appeal judged decided to overturn the court orders of taking him into custody.

“I was treated with a lot of respect,” Dzodan stated on Saturday during a conference regarding the business trends in Latin America. The event was organized by students belonging to the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

As per the individual, the social media giant does not have any access over the data that is travelling on its secure messaging platform, WhatsApp. Thus, it is not possible for the company to comply to the request made by the Brazilian officials.

“The way that information is encrypted from one cell phone to another, there is no information stored that could be handed over to authorities,” he stated.

This comments were ascertained during a question and answer session that spanned for almost half an hour talking about the company’s approach on innovation. He also mentioned that the detention will not have any impact on the company’s plan for the Brazilian market. They will continue to expand their services in the region on the same pace.

“We are extremely committed to Brazil. Brazil is a huge market that really likes Facebook,” he claimed. “We are very focused on the long term.”

The law enforcement agencies in Brazil’s officials have mentioned little about their need for data from the social media giant’s messaging service which acquired back in 2014. They have also mentioned that they are willing to compromise on the present criminal investigation.

According to a spokesman belonging to the tech giant mentioned on Wednesday that the company was happy that Mr. Dzodan has been released. They also expressed his disregard on the detention considering it to be “an extreme, disproportionate measure.”

The incident took place during a time when tech based companies are dealing with immense pressures from regulatory bodies all over the globe. The idea that these authorities wish to nurture is the censorship of data along with the ability to eavesdrop on the user.

Facebook is not the only company who has been dealing with this problem lately but the tech behemoth Apple Inc. and the United States Law Enforcement agencies are also dealing with a conflict where the authorities are demanding the company to unlock the user’s iPhone to which the latter is not agreeing.

Facebook Immersive Advertisement Garner Traction

Facebook Canvas can be a blessing in disguise for advertisers.

Facebook Inc., recently came up with a new advertisement format for its social media network. The advertisers will not get the liberty to showcase full screen immersive ads on the platform that will add a new dimension to the media experience of users. An event was held at New York recently where the company came up with Canvas- a mobile ad product which will be intriguing and interactive as committed earlier in September.

The company’s new advertisement feature can be accessed by all marketers. This is quite similar to what the social media giant did when it launched Instant Articles to all publication houses across the globe along with big industry tycoons. Many analysts are also calling Canvas as Instant Ads as it seems to be a complement to the new service with a similar idea. Both he services are designed to come up with rich media content so that consumers are more inclined to go through and experience advertisements.

Canvas is a great platform that gives a lot of power to advertisers allowing them to come up with immersive ads. These ads can thus surface to the desired audience without the need to exit the social media app. The recent format enables the advertisers to link small ads present on the News Feed to a broader Canvas. Once this ad is clicked then a full screen version of the ad is launched having rich media content.

The user base of FB is massive with 1.55 billion individuals associated to the platform. This gives the advertisers a mass audience to select from. This is the biggest possible audience one can approach over the Internet.

Canvas will monetize via the increase in mobile consumption  all over the globe. As per the company during the December trimester, around 80% of the company’s ad revenues were governed via mobile platforms. The sites on mobile phones have grown tremendously in contrast to their size in 2011. More content is being added to the platform regularly. The only issue which users might encounter is the increase in load time. users will have to wait an extra five to ten seconds for the ad to load. Sadly, consumers these days require everything fast paced thus the waiting time can be a problem.

Other than that, the rich immersive media experience being offered by Canvas will take more time to load. This can cause problems for the advertiser. Facebook wants to give those advertisers a platform that is not highly equipped with technology. With the technology by Facebook, the experience will be smooth on mobile; this will act as an opportunity to establish the endpoints of an advertisement inside an app. These will surface to the masses in a short span of time with the interaction getting maximized.

Facebook Wishes To Integrate Advertisements In Messenger

Facebook Messenger might feature advertisements in Q2FY16.

A document which was leaked belonging to Facebook Inc. which was sent to some of the big advertisement giant reveals that the company has plans to come up with ads in Messenger during the second quarter of the fiscal year of 2016.

The document which has been obtained by TechCrunch was kept confidential to keep its sources safe claims that the businesses will now be able to send their advertisements in the form of messages to those who initially contacted the company via messages. To gear up for the service, the social media giant is recommending all the businesses to start chat threads with their clients so that they can send targeted ads once the service is officially launched.

According to the document, the company has also launched a URL that will open a thread instantly with a business. The tech giant has authorized the existence of a URL short link which clearly indicates that the leaked document is credible.

When it comes to the advertisements on Messenger, Facebook acknowledged TechCrunch, “We don’t comment on rumor or speculation. That said, our aim with Messenger is to create a high quality, engaging experience for 800 million people around the world, and that includes ensuring people do not experience unwanted messages of any type.” This message clearly indicates that Facebook users need not be worried since they are coming up with ads but these ads will not in any way be annoying or nagging.

Messenger has become one of the fastest evolving and most renowned services by the company with 800 million individuals on board each month. However, this is the first time; FB has decided to monetize this platform.

The good thing is that the company will not allow the brands to send the ads via messages to just everyone on the basis of likes on the Page. Thus, all those who have communicated with a business voluntarily will be sent the ad. So this will minimize the chances of spam and will not be annoying. As of now, all the messages that come are from friends so the company will try is best to save the high signal to nose ratio with certain restriction while advertising.

This news which has surfaced is a contradiction to what Mr. Zuckerberg initially said to satisfy users on WhatsApp which was acquired in FY14.  During an analyst call, “I don’t personally think ads are the right way to monetize messaging.” Other than that the CEO of WhatsApp, Mr. Jan Koum highlighted through a blog post back in 2012 that, “Advertising isn’t just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought,” along with that it is a mere waste of engineering resources.

Hence in a nutshell, Facebook is coming up with another intriguing feature for advertisers that will result in targeted ads that can eventually bolster revenues for them. The idea is appealing however, the company needs to make sure that advertisers don’t spam consumer inboxes.

Facebook Is Not Sensitive To Indian Sentiments

Facebook is being ignorant to the sentiments of the Indian populace.

Facebook Inc. is now being associated to the evil East India Company, where the director of the company, Mr. Marc Andreessen is now being alleged of being a rapist, anti-Indian and some other brutal titles. It will not be astonishing to see any Indian activist coming up with a “Quit India campaign” to eliminate the service from the region in line with the efforts by Mahatma Gandhi to combat Britain back in 1942. Ironically, the reason behind this misery is that the company failed to offer Internet access to the underprivileged.

The intentions of the social media giant were pure but the issue faced was that Mark Zuckerberg and Andreessen were not able to comprehend to the values and culture of the masses they wishes to cater to. India has been suffering for almost two centuries while they were under the colonial rule. And during this time, they had a bounty of treasures, a staggering economy, and were suppressed culturally. So the masses became deprived of their basic rights in their own country. This resulted in a lot of social trauma, sacrifice and humiliation for the nation which is not that easy to recover from.

Andreessen recently tweeted which stated, "Anti-colonialism has been economically catastrophic for the Indian people for decades. Why stop now?" resulted in a massive uproar. The damage felt by the masses was actually massive which eventually resulted in Mr. Zuckerberg to disregard the comments of the company’s own board member via a public statement.

All those who know Andreessen know for a fact that the intention was not to condone colonialism. He was actually being joyful, indifferent, and critical about the Indian government who has made a decision to put an end to the Free Basics Program in India.

The company might have a pure intention to educate the masses, however they fail to understand that the illiteracy rate in India is quite high and one wrong move can actually cause them harm in the long run. India and Facebook has been in the limelight since a fairly long span of time which has resulted in negative publicity for the company. The social media behemoth not only had to deal with criticism in India but was under scrutiny all over the globe which isn’t actually any good news.

The company now needs to understand the root cause of the conflict which is causing distress for all. The more Facebook is sensitive to the sentiments of the Indians; they are high chances that their products penetrate amongst the audiences more. Moreover, Mr. Andreessen needs to keep hold of his sentiments considering the vulnerability of the situation. Indian is an emerging economy and all big tech based companies understand the potential of this market. It is high time that the company makes its ties better with the local government and masses since a great chunk of their revenue stream flows from this market only. It is a matter of sanity now for Mr. Zuckerberg.

Facebook Instagram Comes With A New Intriguing Feature

Now you can manage multiple accounts on Instagram.

Facebook Inc. owned Instagram, a photo sharing platform recently made an announcement through a blog post where they acknowledged the users regarding a new feature that is now live for its Android and iOS app users.

The mechanism is very simple where users are required to open the Instagram application from the device, and then browse to the profile setting where they will be required to press the option of adding an additional account. After that, you will be asked to type in your username and password so that the social media platform verifies your identity and the account is added to your mix.

As per the update, every Instagram user can run almost five accounts that can be logged in a go. So if you wish to switch amongst the multiple accounts, then just tap on the username surfacing on the top of the screen when you browse through your profile. A list will appear of your managed accounts and then you can choose the one you want.

All the Instagram accounts have been enabled with push notifications. Thus all those users who now have added more than one Instagram account to the application will thus get notified through all the accounts which have notifications set on enabled. It is quite similar to the situation where users deal with a singular Instagram account, thus the push notifications are dependent on the last login time of the users. All the notifications that have gathered after the last logon will be received once a user logs in.

However, if you wish to remove accounts, all you need to do is simply log out and the account will be removed from the list. The company has made it relatively easier for users to gauge which profile is actually active and which is not by making sure that the display picture of the signed in account is always prominently visible via the app.

Facebook which is the parent company of Instagram has been offering this feature to its user base since a fairly long time. The reason why the company has come up with a feature of this nature for Instagram is simple, by making it live, the social media giant wishes to attract advertisers and marketers who are running multiple accounts in one go. The company has enabled the marketers to switch amongst the accounts however, the company will not be responsible if the advertiser makes any blunder while switching. So, all the advertisers need to be extremely careful while switching from one account to another.

The company is on the right track when it comes to coming up with services and features that are likely to appeal the masses. The feature to switch accounts will be received positively amongst the users and will allow Page managers to explore the platform with ease. the photo sharing platform has gained significant momentum and this feature will further make it engaging and user friendly for all those running several accounts.