Facebook claims WhatsApp Tops 2 Billion Users Worldwide, Insists Powerful Encryption is a’Necessity’
WhatsApp currently has over 2 billion users worldwide, based on Facebook — and the firm states it”doesn’t undermine” on the messaging program’s accumulative encryption, regardless of warnings against law enforcement officials.
WhatsApp, that Facebook obtained for about $ 19 billion in 2014, utilizes strong crypto to maintain data delivered over the service confidential,”helping protect from hackers and criminals,” in accordance with this social-media giant. No one, not even Facebook, may read messages or listen to calls WhatsApp, it asserts.
“Strong encryption is a must in contemporary life. We won’t compromise on safety because that will make people less secure,” Facebook stated in announcing that the two billion-user milestone.
However Facebook’s intends to more broadly utilize powerful encryption across its family of programs has drawn concern from government officials, such as U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who dread that the messaging tools might be used by criminals and terrorists. “Businesses shouldn’t intentionally design their strategies to preclude any type of access to articles for preventing or investigating the most serious offenses,” Barr, together with leading law enforcement officials in the U.K. and Australia, wrote in a letter into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg final fall.
The security features of WhatsApp does not indicate it’s impervious to security breaches, yet. Last month U.N. forensic specialists, after reviewing an investigation commissioned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, said the signs indicated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was supporting a hack Bezos’ iPhone through WhatsApp”in a bid to affect, if not silent, ” The Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia.” Bezos had obtained a movie through WhatsApp in the Saudi leader’s private cell phone in 2018, which enabled Bezos’ phone to be monitored, according to the analysis. The Saudi government has denied involvement in the alleged hack.
COPYRIGHT_BP: Published on https://bingepost.com/facebook-says-whatsapp-tops-2-billion-users-worldwide-insists-strong-encryption-is-a-necessity/27334/ by Cecilia Jones on 2020-02-12T18:37:07.000Z
Meanwhile, many Americans are not aware that Facebook possesses WhatsApp. According to a poll last autumn by Pew Research Center, just 29percent of U.S. adults properly named Instagram and WhatsApp as possessed by Facebook.
The exec running WhatsApp is Will Cathcart, that formerly had been in charge of conducting the Facebook program. He had been appointed to this post after former WhatsApp mind Chris Daniels left the business this past year.
