Following Apple’s brush with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over encryption, messaging app WhatsApp announced it will encrypt all messages sent through the service. Mountain View, Calif, yesterday turned to the story of debate over the privacy and digital security of data. That also means only the authorized users of all the communication media data can get the messages read.
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“WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you’re communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp“, the company said on its website on Tuesday.
Whatsapp introduces message encryption – As cyber crimes continue to become bigger, Whatsapp has taken a major step in protecting users by introducing message encryption. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers.
WhatsApp will hold no keys to users’ private communication and so could not grant agencies access even if they had a warrant. “End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation”, WhatsApp said in a statement.
Google, Facebook and Yahoo use less extensive encryption to protect emails and messages while they’re in transit but retain the ability to scan messages.
According to WhatsApp, the update will apply to every call made and every message sent – including photos, videos, files, and voice messages – through the service.
The issue has between balancing privacy and national security concerns has always been discussed between Silicon Valley, politicians and law enforcement, but it was the Federal Bureau of Investigation vs. Apple case that dragged it into the spotlight.
The company believes that it has a responsibility to secure communications between parties.
End-to-end encryption is a technology that translates messages into a code that’s unreadable except to those who exchange the messages.
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If you’re interested in learning more about how end-to-end encryption works, you can read about it here.
