Facebook's Whatsapp beefs up security claiming largest encryption communications deployment 'in history’
Over 600 million Whatsapp users will soon be alse to send encrypted messages through the app in a move which puts users’ communications just out of reach of government snoopers.
Whatsapp is rolling out end-to-end encryption
This news comes just as the US Freedom act, designed to reign in the mass surveillance and collection of data legally perpetrated by the NSA, was blocked by the senate on Tuesday, underlining the importance of encryption.
Users of the app will soon benefit from end-to-end encryption provided by Open Whisper Systems, although initially, the feature will only launch for the Android app and will not yet cover group chat.
However, the Facebook-owned firm is looking to cover all aspects of its service with iOS support in the works.
Open Whisper Systems issued a statement announcing the upgrade: “Today we’re excited to publicly announce a partnership with WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the world, to incorporate the TextSecure protocol into their clients and provide end-to-end encryption for their users by default.
“Billions of encrypted messages are being exchanged daily but we’ll be rolling out support for more platforms. WhatsApp runs on an incredible number of mobile platforms, so full deployment will be an incremental process.”
The firm added: “We believe this already represents the largest deployment of end-to-end encrypted communication in history.”
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