WhatsApp has added an end to end encryption system to protect messages sent using its android app and named it “TextSecure”.
The encryption system being applied to WhatsApp is called TextSecure and has been developed by a non-profit group called Open Whisper Systems, BBC reports.
Initially, the encryption is being applied only to messages sent via the Android version of WhatsApp. Soon it will be extended to group messages, photos and videos sent via the Android app.
It said the data scrambling system should make it much harder to eavesdrop on the messages users exchange.
Tech firms have faced criticism by law enforcement figures who said greater use of encryption made it harder to track criminals and extremists.
“I do think this is the largest deployment of end-to-end encryption ever,” said TextSecure developer Moxie Marlinspike in an interview with tech news site Wired.
Open Whisper said it also planned to develop versions of TextSecure that work with WhatsApp apps on other smartphone operating systems but did not give a date for when those would be ready.
via - BBC