Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, several countries and experts have been warning against possible cyberthreats funded by the Kremlin. Now in the United Kingdom, the British Army reportedly has banned WhatsApp over cybersecurity concerns.
According to reports, the British Army has banned the messaging platform due to concerns that Russia is hacking the network in order to obtain operationally critical information.
The Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) has announced the ban on WhatsApp owing to serious security concerns, according to a report by Daily Mail. In addition, the news outlet reported that the British government will stop using WhatsApp for high government officials.
However, Will Cathcart, the CEO of WhatsApp, has refuted all such claims.
Cathcart took it to Twitter and wrote that the British military has stated on the record that this allegation is false. They are not requesting that employees uninstall WhatsApp, and their internal communication guidelines are unrelated to the invasion of Ukraine.
“WhatsApp is secure and protects your messages and calls with end-to-end encryption – we cannot see them and they cannot be intercepted by any third party,” Cathcart stated, defending WhatsApp’s security mechanism.
According to him, during the ‘information war,’ certain actors are attempting to convince people of the protection given by end-to-end encryption. During a conflict, WhatsApp’s CEO advises prudence while spreading rumours and said that the WhatsApp staff will be available to engage on the facts.
Cathcart also said in his tweet. “We’ll continue to work with others that have a common interest in protecting people’s privacy and security.”
However, this is not the first time WhatsApp has found itself involved in a controversy related to data safety.
Last year, users received a pop-up message informing them of changes to the app’s privacy policies. It was revealed that any accounts that did not agree to the new terms would be suspended or deleted.
Many users were perplexed by the update, and a reference to Facebook made them fear that the contents of their messages would be shared with the social media behemoth. Facebook, now known as Meta, has received near-constant negative press for its poor data privacy practices. Because of the negative response, the company issued a clarification and postponed the changes.
WhatsApp is the most popular app worldwide with almost 2 billion monthly active users, dominating Messenger and WeChat.
But end-to-end encryption, which is active even when using multiple devices, is one of the features that attract many people to WhatsApp over other instant messaging services.
According to a ProPublica report, though, WhatsApp messages are not end-to-end encrypted, and Facebook inspects the content of messages on the platform.
According to the report, published in September 2021, all of these practices are described in the users’ privacy policies, but people need to look hard to find them. Facebook states that these practices are based on user feedback and that they are confident that users understand what happens after reporting.
However, WhatsApp clearly says: “WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption is used when you chat with another person using WhatsApp Messenger. End-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you’re communicating with can read or listen to what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp.”
“This is because, with end-to-end encryption, your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them. All of this happens automatically: no need to turn on any special settings to secure your messages,” says the company.
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