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WhatsApp to End Support Of Devices With Old Versions Of iOS And Android

December 9, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

Instant messaging App Whatsapp, will pull plug for devices running the older versions of mobile operating systems by the end of 2016. WhatsApp, the leading instant messaging client in the entire world, connects people globally without geographical barriers. In February this year, the application administrators announced that its services are being used by 1 billion users across the world but will be unavailable for some users. According to Apple, 63% of iOS devices are running on iOS 10, 29 % on iOS 9 and only 8 % on previous versions of…

European Union privacy officials asks Facebook told to stop exploiting WhatsApp data

October 28, 2016

European Union privacy chiefs said Facebook must stop processing user data from its WhatsApp messaging service while they are investigating the privacy policy changes the company announced in August. The Article 29 Working Party, made up of privacy chiefs from across the 28-nation EU, told Facebook it had “serious concerns” about the sharing of WhatsApp users’ data for purposes that were not included in the terms of service and privacy policy when existing users signed up to the service, according to a statement e-mailed on Friday. European privacy watchdogs don’t…

Cybersecurity firms greenlit to decrypt Viber, WhatsApp traffic

October 4, 2016

Russian cybersecurity companies have a greenlight to decrypt traffic of such popular communication tools as Viber, WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger, a popular business daily reports. The measure is connected to a recently-adopted anti-terrorism law. “We are going to look into the main messengers — WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Skype both for iOS and Android,” Kommersant cites a letter from an employee of Con Certeza, a company dealing with the development of tools necessary for enforcing law in the telecommunications field. The employee wrote that the company aims to make…

WhatsApp Calling Hits 100 Million Calls Daily

June 28, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

A few years after WhatsApp Calling was introduced, it has hit the 100 million mark. Today, 100 million people use WhatsApp to make calls. A figure that is worrying telcos the world over. WhatsApp announced the great news in a blog post that read: For more than a year, people have used WhatsApp Calling to talk with friends and family around the world. It’s a great way to stay in touch, especially when connecting with people in other countries, or when messages alone won’t do. Today, more than 100 million…

WhatsApp launches end-to-end encryption on messages for all its users

April 6, 2016

Instant messaging service WhatsApp in seeking to reassure its users about their privacy will be encrypting all messages sent via its app. WhatsApp’s announcement comes in the heels of one of the most high-profile clashes in the debate over encryption and data privacy between the government and a technology company. In February, the FBI asked Apple to unlock one of the San Bernardino shooters’ iPhones so authorities could access his data. Apple refused, stating a breach of privacy; the FBI took Apple to court but was eventually able to unlock…

Facebook’s shot at WhatsApp data gets both companies an FTC complaint

March 7, 2014 Staff Writer

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Facebook’s $16 billion acquisition of WhatsApp based on privacy concerns, according to a document released Thursday. EPIC and CDD’s problems with the acquisition center around the fact that WhatsApp staked its reputation on—that it’s a company keeping a reasonable distance from its customers’ data. Now that it will fall under the aegis of Facebook, its users stand to lose those privacy guarantees, even though WhatsApp told its users nothing…

Facebook-WhatsApp Deal Haunted by Past Web Merger Flops

February 28, 2014 Staff Writer

Facebook Inc. (FB) investors who pushed the company’s shares to a record after it unveiled the $19 billion deal for WhatsApp Inc. would be well served to remember — every Internet takeover of more than $10 billion has flopped. Last week’s proposed purchase would be the biggest Web acquisition in more than a decade and only the fifth ever to top that threshold, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts it in the same category as AOL’s merger with Time Warner and Terra Network SA’s takeover of Lycos, which…