Your WhatsApp Messages are Now Encrypted and More Secure
A wave of delight has started to sweep away 600 million users of the most popular messaging app WhatsApp. The company has released an update to its Android app that will have a strong end-to-end encryption by default. What does this mean for you? Scroll down to know.
The recent partnership of WhatsApp with Open Whisper Systems is nothing but good news for users who might have questioned the security or privacy of their WhatsApp messages. In its latest update for Android, the company has integrated the TextSecure encryption protocol.
What Does this Mean?
With the TextSecure encryption protocol in place, your messages are end-to-end encrypted. In other words, your messages can be read only by you and the receiver. So, this eliminates the risk of a hacker or anyone decrypting and reading your messages while it is traveling to the recipient’s device.
This Encryption Technology is Stronger than What Facebook and Google Uses
While our emails and messages on Facebook and Google are encrypted, they can still be read by authorities if permitted by law. TextSecure, on the other hand, ensures that the message is only read by the sender and the recipient, and no one else, nada. So, even if the government compels WhatsApp to share your data, there is no way they can do it. Hence, it can be safely said that this is the strongest security feature any major texting app has ever offered.
As per reports, WhatsApp is by far the largest platform that has deployed end-to-end encrypted communication in history.
Limitations
As of now, the TextSecure protocol only encrypts your text messages and not group chats, images and videos. However, Open Whisper Systems has stated in a blog post that they will be rolling out support even for these issues in the near future.
Do you have to Activate the TextSecure Protocol on your WhatsApp?
You do not have to do anything to turn this security feature ON, as it would be enabled by default. Also, this will not affect the way you use the WhatsApp in anyway. As Open Whisper Systems’ co-founder Moxie Marlinspike says it, “Ordinary users won’t know the difference, it’s totally frictionless.”
For those who would like to know about this development and how the TextSecure protocol works, here are some useful sources you can gather knowledge from:
https://whispersystems.org/blog/whatsapp/
https://wrd.cm/1xTD5aY
https://bit.ly/1oZqb9D
https://on.mash.to/1qlBo5u
Now that your WhatsApp messages are encrypted, do you feel safer about your privacy? Do leave your comments below!
37 Comments
Great,
n
thanks
Thank U
Nice one
Thank you
me inform
super GK Info…n
Good evening,
This is a great feature, how ever the government should be allowed to decrypt and read them in order to prevent crimes
It appears very convenient and safe. But let me try for some time
Dr. THOMAS
thanks and thanks to whats authorities. now a days security assumes very high importance
Its good for all of us.
Good
when my computer scanning through uniblue speedupMy PC then showng on computer junk file 3200 is it crash my pc after few days ? Please solve my problem if possible..
Hi Goutam,
In order to resolve this, we recommend that you contact our customer support center and have a word with our technical team. They will be able to gather more details for you and solve it permanently. You can either call them on 0-927-22-33-000 or submit a ticket by visiting this link – https://www.quickheal.co.in/submitticket.
Regards.
How would I know that its been already updated on my device???
Hi Manish,
If you go to Google Play and update the latest version of WhatsApp, then it will be applicable for your device. There is no way for end users to see whether this feature has been implemented as the feature is purely a back end one.
Regards.
This is an excellent achievement,
congratulations.
There is an issue circulating in our
newspapers, a virus spyware in the
form of a Blank Contact attachment
with a female name and pic.
I.T. professional advice not to download
such contacts for a while and disable automatic
downloading preference while on wifi.
They claim these spyware will be able to virtually
able to control our mobile and exploit our
personal data.
You have successfully Invented the Textsecure feature.
Please also try finding a solution from these spyware too.
Thanks.
Hi Munawar,
Thanks for sharing these details and your experience and for warning our fellow readers. We have shared your feedback with the concerned team and they are looking into this matter.
Best regards.
Hi Munawar,
Thank you for your appreciation, and the information. Our RnD team will definitely look into it.
Regards,
Thanks
Good & thangs
Very good news.
This really awesome!! Good job
thanks to whatsaap…
thanxxxx quickheal security s very powerful
Hi,
It is a great news.
I fear about the virus may be implant in encrypted form and damage.Is it possible.
Hi Tushar,
This is possible but it is very difficult to achieve. For this, a hacker will have to intensively target WhatsApp over a long period of time.
Regards.
thanks for the update
This is a good development. Thank you for this.
Good job guyz!(y) thanks a lot.. 🙂
indians don`t use whats app.go for hike its an indian app
I would like to know if we r safe of people hacking into cameras so far i put tape on my tablet phone
Hi Sharon,
There is a chance that hackers can access the camera of a device. However, if you follow all the right safety precautions with regards to smartphones and tablets, then you need not worry about this threat. If you feel there are a lot of threats that you cannot keep up with, we suggest that you do not use such devices for some time.
Best regards.
Best
Best
Thanks sir…..
Very good.Thanks for information.
What about Terrorist activities and communications through this App.I just came to know about Encryption. Indian Government should take appropriate action to maintain Internal and external security measures and if Necessary Ban this App in India.
Very Nice
it’s safe