Nowadays, more and more people are now using WhatsApp to communicate with one another. And for the past two years, the app has been upgraded to integrate with various media technologies. And since security is an issue that’s always worth thinking of, it is very assuring that WhatsApp has now enabled end-to-end encryption as a new default feature in their application.
So how does end-to-end encryption work? To explain things in a simplest way possible, end-to-end encryption secures communication by means of a single encryption code that only the devices that is included in a particular conversation knows of. Whenever the devices pass messages to each other, the encryption code is used to open and translate the entire message once opened. What’s better with this kind of security is that the encryption code can only be used by the device that made it. Needless to say, even if hackers eventually find a way to intercept WhatsApp messages and obtained the encryption codes, there’s no way they can read the message unless they have the device. In addition to that, the company claims that the messages can’t be read in any way by law enforcement agencies, cyber criminals and even WhatsApp Company itself.
There’s no need for you to enable end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp since the feature is already enabled by default in the latest WhatsApp version. However, you have to make sure that you and the one you’re talking to must be using the same WhatsApp version in order to enjoy this feature. To verify if the end-to-end encryption feature works, you can take their phone and scan their WhatsApp QR Code. If the QR Code matches with the QR Code in your WhatsApp, a green tick will appear verifying that the encryption is enabled.
In addition to all of that, WhatsApp says that once a conversation is started, there’s definitely no need for device users to restart a new session with those he or she is talking to, unless the entire conversation is lost through a device change or app reinstallation. If that’s the case, there will be no records about your past conversations and even WhatsApp cannot do anything to retrieve it.
However, there are two things to consider when it comes to end-to-end encryption feature. The first one is the fact that, since your conversations are encrypted, the encryption keys are changed in every message, therefore adding up to the message sending delay. And the other one is, if WhatsApp is used by terrorists while engaging in their activities and law enforcement agencies such as FBI steps in, is there really no way for them to read the messages in any way?