YOU may have noticed a little yellow box with a message that has popped up on
your WhatsApp chat – but what does it mean?
Don’t worry, your phone hasn’t been hacked.
WhatsApp, which has more than one billion users globally, just added full “end-to-end
encryption” to all its services including voice calling, photos, videos
and group chats, on both iOS and Android devices.
The announcement reads: “Messages you send to this chat and calls are now
secured with end-to-end encryption. Tap for more info.”
This means nobody – “not cybercriminals, nor hackers, nor oppressive
regimes” – nor WhatsApp themselves can read your messages, unless they
have your phone and password.
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WhatsApp explains: “The idea is simple: 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.”
Before, text chats were encrypted via WhatsApp, but some other services were
not.
The Facebook-owned messaging service added its users must download the latest
version of the app for full encryption and that it works across all major
devices.