WhatsApp Update: Pros and Cons
Ever since the popular social media messaging application, Whatsapp has been bowled over to Facebook for a whopping $19 billion, users all over are speculating the changes coming on. Hushing aside the rumors of Whatsapp becoming a full-fledged paid application or playing host to irritating advertisements, all that's changed is its latest update.
While setting headlines as Facebook's most expensive acquisition, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook has revealed that the potential of Whatsapp (catering to over 450 million users) values much more than what he has paid for. Although experts debate that since Whatsapp's revenue model is unlike its competitors like WeChat wherein users are charged much more. The new update of the application promises quite a few good things while patching up various bugs and focusing more on the privacy function.
To top it all, certain hitches in the social messaging application have been taken care of including hiding the 'Last Seen' status of users. The privacy settings for profile and photos too have been updated and a short cut camera widget is provided for quicker picture sending. The privacy settings can be handled easily in the 'Account settings' in such a way that users can wilfully hide their personal information from those not on their contact list.
Users can now add large video thumbnails while chatting and your devices would now have an option to show unread messages on the home screen widget. Regional language 'Hindi' has been enabled on Android 4.1 plus devices.
Another novel feature that has been added is that you can now make payment for your friend's Whatsapp service. The Whatsapp charge stays at 99 cents per year (post first year of service).
While all good has been said about the latest update, technical experts have revealed a major flaw in Whatsapp's privacy functions.
Double think chief technology officer for one has highlighted the vulnerability that users may be exposed to. This may be especially when users back-up their message data for some or the other reason. While uploading the back-up, Whatsapp fails to make a unique encryption code for every particular user and all the data is encrypted using the same code. With the power of technology and malicious intent a single decryption code may lead access to all our data exposing us to be a cyber crime victim. However with great minds working on it, this issue which is merely a theory should soon be resolved by Whatsapp as we all enjoy its presence and scale across the globe.
While setting headlines as Facebook's most expensive acquisition, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook has revealed that the potential of Whatsapp (catering to over 450 million users) values much more than what he has paid for. Although experts debate that since Whatsapp's revenue model is unlike its competitors like WeChat wherein users are charged much more. The new update of the application promises quite a few good things while patching up various bugs and focusing more on the privacy function.
To top it all, certain hitches in the social messaging application have been taken care of including hiding the 'Last Seen' status of users. The privacy settings for profile and photos too have been updated and a short cut camera widget is provided for quicker picture sending. The privacy settings can be handled easily in the 'Account settings' in such a way that users can wilfully hide their personal information from those not on their contact list.
Users can now add large video thumbnails while chatting and your devices would now have an option to show unread messages on the home screen widget. Regional language 'Hindi' has been enabled on Android 4.1 plus devices.
Another novel feature that has been added is that you can now make payment for your friend's Whatsapp service. The Whatsapp charge stays at 99 cents per year (post first year of service).
While all good has been said about the latest update, technical experts have revealed a major flaw in Whatsapp's privacy functions.
Double think chief technology officer for one has highlighted the vulnerability that users may be exposed to. This may be especially when users back-up their message data for some or the other reason. While uploading the back-up, Whatsapp fails to make a unique encryption code for every particular user and all the data is encrypted using the same code. With the power of technology and malicious intent a single decryption code may lead access to all our data exposing us to be a cyber crime victim. However with great minds working on it, this issue which is merely a theory should soon be resolved by Whatsapp as we all enjoy its presence and scale across the globe.
Report by :
Shivang Arora
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