Whatsapp Security Issues

WhatsApp is a simple, secure, reliable messaging, and calling platform all over the world. It is also a free download application that was created by Bryan Acton and Jan Koum who were former employees at Yahoo. The application was found in 2009 and today the parent company of the application is Facebook. WhatsApp joined Facebook in 2014. More than 2 billion people in around 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with their family and friends. In India, there are over 400 million people who use WhatsApp.

The application originally started as an alternative to Short Message Service (SMS). Now, the application supports sending and receiving various media like text messages, pictures, videos, contacts, documents, locations, and voice calls and video calls. There are countries where WhatsApp services are still not accepted. These countries include North Korea, Syria, Iran, UAE, and Cuba. Most of these countries have decided to ban the application in the country due to political uncertainties.

The application keeps on updating to their features to make it more convenient for the users. Their latest updates include WhatsApp payments, WhatsApp QR codes, disappearing messages, advanced search mode, dark mode, permanent mute option, and since the world is witnessing a pandemic and staying at their homes the company has extended the participants limit to eight users from four previously in group video calls. During the worldwide lockdown due to the COVID-19, WhatsApp has become a much more common platform for people who want to stay in touch with their family and friends. According to a study conducted by Kantar, WhatsApp has seen a 40 per cent increase in its users during the pandemic time. According to the study, during the early phase of the pandemic WhatsApp usage increased to 27 per cent, in the mid-phase 41 per cent, and by the last phase of the pandemic, the application witnessed an increase of 51 per cent.

What was the WhatsApp privacy policy update?

There have been a lot of issues regarding the application’s privacy policy update recently. Since the application is being used by numerous people across the world, this latest update was put under questioning by the users. In India, WhatsApp recently updated its privacy policy’s terms and services that all users had to accept by February 8, 2021. This recent update was put under question, and many issues regarding the applications privacy policy came up. The only option that was left for the users was to either accept the terms and services or delete the application. Later several news channels revealed that WhatsApp was selling its user’s data to Facebook, which was its parent company. Since this caused a lot of issues among the users and their data, WhatsApp extended the deadline to accept the privacy policy’s terms and services to May 15, 2021.

(Source: BBC)

The situation in India:

Numerous complaints and petitions were filed by the WhatsApp users against their data being shared. The government of India asked the application to withdraw its privacy policy, they also issued an official letter to the CEO Will Cathcart regarding the privacy policy issue. The application said that their user’s data are end-to-end encrypted and are not shared with any other application like Facebook. The new update on the privacy policy was to provide the users with more updates and transparency. WhatsApp also filed a legal challenge against the government of India. The company protested against the Delhi High Court’s new IT rules. They also went to court against India’s IT laws on privacy policy. Since many accusations were filed against the application regarding the user’s data being revealed, this leads to a fall in the usage of the application in the country.

What is end-to-end encryption?

WhatsApp as a messaging platform was enrolled in end-to-end encryption in 2016. This feature applied not just to text messages but also pictures, videos, and voice notes. The end-to-end encryption feature makes sure that the message sent across the sender to the receiver stays between the intended recipients and no one else can access these messages. Encryption is applied to messages so that only the device to which the message is sent can decrypt the message. Not even the application can access the messages. End-to-end encryption is always activated and cannot be turned off since it’s a default feature of the application. Other applications are secured with end-to-end encryption, some of them are Telegram, Signal Private Messenger, Vire, and many more.

(Source: Financial Express)

Is WhatsApp safe to use now?

As the new privacy policy caused a huge controversy in the country, the company decided to make changes to its privacy policy. The application came up with a new privacy policy that was safe for the users. This decision to make changes in the privacy policy on the company’s part gave way to a lot of controversies. The WhatsApp chats will remain end to end encrypted which doesn’t allow a third party to access the user’s data. The end-to-end encryption feature of the application makes it safe and unique from other social media platforms.

Right now all the users are worried about their personal data being shared without their permission. This is the major reason for the decline of WhatsApp users in India. Once when the application can restore the trust that they have lost, the application might be able to tackle its users. The foundation of any application is when they can earn the user’s trust and when the users feel that their data are safe. If this cannot be promised then the application will have to face the consequences.

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Author - Aleesha A Vithayathil

Content Writer at Escribo