Is Facebook reading all your WhatsApp messages? So far, this is a 5-point story

Is Facebook reading all your WhatsApp messages. Know here…

Thursday, 9th September 2021

WhatsApp has long insisted that its chats are end-to-end encrypted, but the app has been attacked by scanners many times due to its security vulnerabilities. Although WhatsApp claims to be the most secure messaging app, it has been embroiled in controversy. A report now claims that WhatsApp is not as secure as it claims, and its end-to-end encryption is actually bogus. The report claims that Facebook has hired content moderators to access users' personal conversations. However, Facebook once again denied this claim and falsified the report.

The explosive report of the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative news editorial office ProPublica emphasized in a long article that Facebook has always understood user security or privacy. The report pointed out that, contrary to what WhatsApp claims, only the sender and receiver can access their messages, because their ability to convert messages into unreadable formats is clearly fake. WhatsApp stated that even the app itself cannot access the conversation, but ProPublica's report says otherwise.

-ProPublica stated in its report that WhatsApp has appointed more than 1,000 content reviewers to check the content of millions of users. The content manager is accused of using special Facebook software to sneak into a person's private WhatsApp messages and gain access to images and videos sent through the messaging app.

"These hourly workers sit in front of computers according to their work assignments, use special Facebook software to check private messages, images, and video sequences reported by WhatsApp users as inappropriate, and then check them by the company's artificial intelligence system. The report states that these contractors usually Will make judgments about anything that appears on the screen (from fraud or spam to child pornography and possible terrorist conspiracy) in less than a minute.

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-The ProPublica report also claimed to Carl Woog, the head of WhatsApp communications, A team of contractors will review WhatsApp messages to identify and eliminate the “most serious” abusers. However, he told the publication that these types of work are not called “content reviewers.”

-The report also emphasizes that WhatsApp Share metadata, unencrypted records of user activity with law enforcement agencies. Although compared with WhatsApp, its rival Signal collects much less metadata to ensure the privacy of its users.

-The ProPublica report mentions that WhatsApp can gain private access to chat only when the user presses the "Report" button in the app. When a user reports a chat, WhatsApp forwards five messages to their team, including a message that violates the app’s guidelines and four other messages. Then, WhatsApp will ban the account or take action against it based on the violation. However, WhatsApp only forwards 5 messages. Due to its end-to-end encryption method, all chat history will not be transferred to the computer.

Facebook denied ProPublica's claims in its defense. The company stated in a statement to Android Central, "WhatsApp provides a way for people to report spam or abuse, including sharing the latest news in chat. This feature is very helpful in preventing the most serious abuse on the Internet. The important object to accepting the view that the report's users choose to send us is incompatible with end-to-end encryption. In India, in accordance with the 2021 government IT rules, we have also issued a monthly report containing information on how protected WhatsApp works based on user reports Detailed information on user safety and prevention of abuse of the platform. WhatsApp remains firmly committed to protecting user privacy and safety," a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

IndiaToday