As the dispute between tech conglomerate, Apple and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) blaze the headlines over the past few weeks, online messaging service, WhatsApp, has announced its implementation of end-to-end encryption to every form of communication on its service. This ensures that every single one of its billion users around the world will not have to worry about privacy and security issues when using WhatsApp on any device.
End-to-end encryption basically means any and every type of content passing through WhatsApp – whether it is text messages, phone calls, images, and even videos shared across the platform – is not stored in plain sight on WhatsApp’s servers. The company itself is not able to decrypt users’ messages, as it does not have a hold on the encryption keys.
This timely introduction comes after the December 2015 shooting where a work-issued iPhone 5C was recovered from the crime scene. This prompted the FBI to conduct an investigation as to whether Apple would grant them access to unlock said iPhone.
Bought over by Facebook in 2014 for US$19 billion, WhatsApp is known as the world’s most popular messaging service by far when it hit one billion active users in February 2016.
