WhatsApp's privacy woes show how messaging app tries to balance security and ease of use
- Samantha Masunaga for LA Times January 13th, 2017
- Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tn-whatsapp-encryption-chat-20170113-story.html
WhatsApp has become popular worldwide thanks to its powerful encryption technology. But making this type of secure messaging approachable and user-friendly can pose some problems.
An article published Friday by the Guardian suggests that WhatsApp has a “security backdoor” that could allow the app, its parent company Facebook Inc., or others to intercept encrypted communications. Privacy advocates quoted in the story said this flaw could be used by the government to spy on chats.