In a move applauded by privacy advocates, instant messaging service WhatsApp is introducing end-to-end encryption of user data on Android devices, meaning that any messages sent through the app cannot be decrypted by anyone, making it impossible for government agencies to access that data by any means.
The encryption protocol has been provided by Open Whisper Systems, a collaborative open source project. The protocol is still a work-in-progress, so doesn’t yet work for group messaging or interactions that contain videos or photos, but Open Whisper Systems promise to address these issues in future. Open Whisper Systems announced the news on their blog, saying, For the past three years, we’ve been developing a modern, open source, strong encryption protocol for asynchronous messaging systems, designed to make seamless end-to-end encrypted messaging possible.
“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.”
Source: ars technica
