Fresh from a competitor’s recent run-in with the law concerning privacy and security issues, mobile messaging app WhatsApp announced their new encryption policy on Wednesday, which would protect its 1 billion subscribers from any future attempts to parse information from the service.
WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, will now screen all phone calls, text messages, photos or videos, while being protected by an ”end-to-end” encryption, according to Wired.
The update comes shorty after tech giant Apple’s refusal to abide with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over a federal order to unlock an IPhone of a convicted mass shooter.
With the end-to-end encryption in place, WhatsApp management will have no way of complying with a court order demanding access to the content of any form of communication on its service.
“Building secure products actually makes for a safer world, (though) many people in law enforcement may not agree with that,” says Brian Acton who co-founded WhatsApp in 2009 alongside Jan Koum.
“With encryption,” Acton explains, ”anyone can conduct business or talk to a doctor without worrying about eavesdroppers”.
“You can even be a whistleblower and not worry,” the former Yahoo employee added.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the FBI or any other government agency has yet to make a statement regarding the company’s move regarding its user privacy. Khristian Ibarrola,INQUIRER.NET