NOT-SO-PRIVATE

Report: WhatsApp Vulnerable to Snooping

“Security backdoor” discovered for surveillance.

According to a new Guardian report, Facebook’s encrypted mobile-messaging service WhatsApp is vulnerable to government snooping. The app has long been touted as one that protects users’ privacy, but according to the report, a security backdoor has been discovered in the program’s end-to-end encryption protocol. The service centers around unique security codes “that are traded and verified between users to guarantee communications are secure and cannot be intercepted by a middleman,” however, the report revealed, the app can generate new encryption keys for offline users “unbeknown to the sender and recipient of the messages”—effectively providing a way in for snoops.