Following from last week’s unnerving revelation that the FBI managed to hack into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone without Apple‘s help, messaging service WhatsApp has announced they’re rolling out end-to-end encryption.
From today onwards, your messages, photos, calls and group chats will be secure from even WhatsApp itself, let alone the FBI or anyone else who wants to come a’snooping.
“The idea is simple,” said co-founder Jan Koum in a blog post this morning. “When you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via Whatsapp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation.”
He said that growing up in the USSR during communist rule makes this move a personal one, too. “The fact that people couldn’t speak freely is one of the reasons my family moved to the United States.”
“We live in a world where more of our data is digitised than ever before,” he said. “Every day we see stories about sensitive records being improperly accessed or stolen. And if nothing is done, more of people’s digital information and communication will be vulnerable to attack in the years to come.”
It comes after Australia last year passed data retention laws, meaning telcos are mandated to hold on to your calls, texts, emails, download volumes and locations for up two years, with intelligence and law enforcement agencies will have immediate access without a warrant.
Photo: Getty / Brazil Photo Press / CON.
