WhatsApp allays fears of privacy breach

Stunned by the Cambridge Analytica revelations, WhatsApp has made it plain and simple that never keeps track of the users’ friends and family. But the cyber experts, mostly, cast doubts over its privacy and security features saying that WhatsApp might mine the metadata and information about the calls. The Facebook–owned global messaging platform claimed to have been collecting little data from the users saying that every single message is end-to-end encrypted and hence there is hardly any room left for breach of privacy. WhatsApp authorities told media that they won’t compromise the privacy and security under any circumstances and that only the group administrators have the access to the invite links as optional feature to be used only with the trusted ones. All members receive a notification the moment a new one joins the group, said the WhatsApp authorities adding that only the group members are free to see their fellow members along with their names and phone numbers. One is free to quit a group or block whatever is unwanted. But all members are free to record conversations at any moment as they enter the group since they have the access to the phone numbers of the users. A school of experts reads it differently. They say WhatsApp’s group chat feature poses a huge threat for the users since the phone numbers are available in the Facebook. According to some of the experts, WhatsApp keeps making money with user data. Many experts have raised doubts over WhatsApp’s privacy and secrecy saying that the instant messaging service is not fully secured if one goes by the Cambridge Analytica scam even after the existing slew of provisions for the user agreement. Since its inception WhatsApp has been assuring its users of an uncompromising privacy and Security features and if one the trust is breached in any form, the consequences would be serious.