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WhatsApp End to End Encryption May Weaken With Facebook Integration: Report

WhatsApp End-to-End Encryption May Weaken With Facebook Integration: Report

By Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: 26 January 2019 13:12 IST

Highlights

WhatsApp's lauded end-to-end encryption could weaken upon integration
Melding encryption from three different services may be a problem
Report cites a noted cryptographer for insight into end-to-end encryption

WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption -- the hallmark of users' security -- may go for a toss if Facebook integrates the popular mobile messaging platform with not-that-secure Instagram and Messenger. According to a report on Friday, to universally preserve end-to-end encryption poses a whole additional set of critical challenges for Facebook.

WhatsApp chats are currently end-to-end encrypted by default. Facebook Messenger offers the feature if you turn on Secret Conversations. "Instagram does not currently offer any form of end-to-end encryption for its chats," the Wired report said.

Mark Zuckerberg Plans to Integrate WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger: Report

"The big problem I see is that only WhatsApp has default end-to-end encryption. So if the goal is to allow cross-app traffic, and it's not required to be encrypted, then what happens? There are a whole range of outcomes here," Matthew Green, a cryptographer at the Johns Hopkins University, was quoted as saying.

WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum quit Facebook over difference of opinion with CEO Mark Zuckerberg when it comes to data privacy and encryption. Koum announced his exit "after clashing with its parent, Facebook, over the popular messaging service's strategy and Facebook's attempts to use its personal data and weaken its encryption".

Brian Acton started WhatsApp with Koum. Facebook acquired the messaging service ago for $19 billion in 2014. Acton quit Facebook in 2017 and Koum left the company last April.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Facebook has planned to integrate chats within WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.

"Facebook is still in the early planning stages of homogenizing its messaging platforms, a move that could increase the ease and number of secured chats online by a staggering order of magnitude," said the Wired report.

We discussed what WhatsApp absolutely needs to do in 2019, on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

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