Whatsapp reaches two billion users
The Whatsapp chat service has cracked the two billion user mark. The Facebook subsidiary expressly emphasized on Wednesday that the content is protected from unauthorized access by complete encryption as standard.
The popularity of WhatsApp among users shows that encrypted communication must be defended, says Whatsapp CEO Will Cathcart in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Most recently, the U.S. government made a new attempt to demand backdoors for investigators in encryption systems from Silicon Valley. The authorities criticize the fact that they cannot access messages from criminals even with a court order - unlike classic SMS or telephone calls, where there are legally mandated monitoring interfaces. The tech companies counter that a backdoor for authorities could potentially also be abused by online criminals and would therefore jeopardize the security of user data. (SDA)
