Announced today, WhatsApp has completed work on end-to-end encryption for all of its services, allowing users to chat and call in complete privacy.
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This means that all messages, phone calls and files sent via WhatsApp will now be encryption end-to-end. Now all of your WhatsApp interactions are totally encrypted, and the only person that can read your messages is the one that they’re intended for. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers.
“While WhatsApp is among the few communication platforms to build full end-to-end encryption that is on by default for everything you do, we expect that it will ultimately represent the future of personal communication”, Koum said.
However, a closer look at the terms and conditions reveals that WhatsApp is not encrypting everything.
That means that WhatsApp couldn’t help governments crack your messages even if it wanted to.
This is coming after Apple-FBI row, and the United States authorities ordered the tech company to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters. The communications app began offering it by default on text-only messages between two users in 2014, but group messages and those containing rich media such as photos and videos were not fully encrypted.
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said that, in fact, private conversations are personally very important for him.
The instant messaging app has introduced “end to end” encryption to its service, meaning messages are scrambled as they travel between the two devices.
Facebook’s move comes as the nation debates the uses and limits of encryption technology.
The blog highlighted that there are stories around sensitive records being improperly accessed or stolen and people’s digital information and communication will be more vulnerable to attack in the years to come.
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That’s because Whatsapp has now implemented encryption for all its users’ communications from Tuesday. With the end-to-end encryption, messages will be unreadable, either to criminals or to law enforcement officers.
