Telegram’s Pavel Durov slams WhatsApp encryption as “consumer fraud”
According to the information on the WhatsApp website, the end-to-end encryption is “on by default” so that only the sender and recipient can read messages, and “no one in between” (including WhatsApp) can access them.
The Meta Platforms app, WhatsApp, also explains that when a message is sent, “the only person who can read it” is the intended recipient, and not hackers, governments, or even WhatsApp itself.“WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption is used when you chat with another person using WhatsApp Messenger, News.Az reports, citing Premium Times ng.
End-to-end encryption keeps your personal messages and calls between you and the person you’re communicating with.
“No one outside of the chat, not even WhatsApp, can read, listen to, or share them. This is because with end-to-end encryption, your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them.
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“All of this happens automatically: no need to turn on any special settings to secure your messages,” WhatsApp stated on its website, saying that the encryption protocol secures messages leaving users’ devices,
In his post on Sunday, Mr Durov said the WhatsApp encryption feature is “giant consumer fraud”, stating that it backs up users’ information on other servers.
“WhatsApp’s ‘E2E encryption by default’ claim is a giant consumer fraud: ~95 per cent of private messages on WhatsApp end up in plain-text backups on Apple/Google servers — not E2E-encrypted. Backup encryption is optional, and few people enable it — let alone use strong passwords,” Mr Durov said.
Mr Durov, ex-CEO of VK, said even when users encrypt WhatsApp backups with password, the messages still end up in unencrypted cloud backups if the receivers do not have the same setting on their device.
“Even if you encrypt your WhatsApp backups with a strong password, your messages still end up in unencrypted cloud backups — because 90+ per cent of the people you message haven’t done the same. Add the fact that WhatsApp stores and discloses who you chat with, and the picture is dire,” he said.
The Telegram founder further alleged that Apple and Google disclose backed-up WhatsApp messages to third parties multiple times annually.
“Apple and Google disclose backed-up WhatsApp messages to third parties thousands of times per year. Meanwhile, Telegram hasn’t disclosed a single byte of users’ messages in its entire 12+ year history,” he said.
By Leyla Şirinova
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