ZICTA cannot read your WhatsApp messages
WhatsApp users in Zambia have been alarmed by an announcement by ZICTA that they are able to read WhatsApp messages.
This is not true. According to a report by WhatsApp, they have an end to end encryption that makes it impossible for any government or their agencies to intercept their messages. Unless ZICTA is more advanced that European and American governments, this is by far a long shot.
Read an article on WhatsApp below.
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WhatsApp has added end-to-end encryption to all of its messages – meaning that the company couldn’t give information to governments, even if it wanted to.
The latest version of the app will use security technology that means that messages can’t be intercepted as they travel between devices. Encryption ensures that only a message’s sender and recipient can read messages, stopping them from being intercepted on their journey.
That fact has meant that strong, or end-to-end, encryption has led to public disagreements between technology companies and governments. In the UK, politicians have proposed banning such technologies, forcing companies to install “backdoors” that would weaken that security so that messages can be read by spies.
WhatsApp said that it had added the new, stronger measures across its messages because it “has always prioritized making your data and communication as secure as possible”. “From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call you make, and every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you send, is end-to-end encrypted by default, including group chats,” it wrote in a blog post announcing the change.
“The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to,” WhatsApp wrote. “No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation.”
The company also made explicit reference to the ongoing debate about whether technology companies should be able to use such security measures.
“Recently there has been a lot of discussion about encrypted services and the work of law enforcement,” it wrote. “While we recognize the important work of law enforcement in keeping people safe, efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing people’s information to abuse from cybercriminals, hackers, and rogue elements.