You may soon be allowed to edit your sent messages on WhatsApp, says report

 

In the wake of reporting that a few significant elements are being worked on, for example, bunch surveys and WhatsApp Premium, WhatsApp is presently dealing with the capacity to alter instant messages for a future update of WhatsApp beta analyzers.

As per WABetaInfo, the Meta-possessed stage is currently dealing with allowing clients to alter their instant messages for a future update of the application and this element is a work in progress so it isn't fit to be delivered to beta analyzers.

A screen capture shared by the site showed that the informing stage is fostering another choice that will allow clients to fix any grammatical mistake subsequent to communicating something specific.

Likely there will not be an alter history to actually take a look at past variants of altered messages however since this component is a work in progress, their arrangements might change prior to delivering the element, the report said.

What's more, insights concerning the time window to allow individuals to alter their messages are obscure right now.

WhatsApp is chipping away at carrying the component to WhatsApp beta for iOS, Android, and Desktop.

As of late, a report said that it restricted over 16.6 lakh terrible records in India in April in consistence with the enhanced IT Rules 2021.

The stage restricted north of 18 lakh such records in the nation in March. It likewise got 844 complaint reports in April inside the nation, and the records "actioned" were 123.

Also Read: Apple WWDC22 Live Updates: iOS 16 with personalised lockscreen unveiled

Messaging app Signal sees surge in new users after Elon Musk vouches for it

 

Encoded informing application Signal saw a critical flood in new clients pursuing its foundation after the universes most extravagant individual on planet, Elon Musk, tweeted to his 41.5 million adherents to utilize Signal and evidently disregard WhatsApp.

Musk tweeted an image late on Thursday, reprimanding Facebook for its failure to stop Capitol disarray becoming a web sensation.

The tweet posted a picture of a progression of ever-bigger dominos, compared the beginning of Facebook on the Harvard University grounds, right into turning into a stage that encouraged the assault on Capitol Hill.

"This is known as the domino impact," Musk said in a tweet.

A vocal pundit of Facebook-claimed WhatsApp, he added: "Utilize Signal".

Signal at that point saw a surge of new clients endeavoring to sign in.

"Confirmation codes are as of now deferred across a few suppliers on the grounds that such countless new individuals are attempting to join Signal at this moment (we can scarcely enlist our fervor). We are working with transporters to determine this as fast as could be expected under the circumstances. Keep it together," Signal tweeted.

"Everybody ought to have the option to enroll immediately once more. On account of the entirety of the transporters who flipped the correct switches so that individuals can continue to switch," it further said.

A year ago, attacking WhatsApp over rehashed clients' protection infringement in the midst of security weaknesses, Musk took to Twitter with an image, demonstrating different 'mechanical arm' emoticons speaking to Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and WhatsApp separately.

Musk posted the picture with the subtitle: "New emoticon! Last one accompanies free telephone hack." The "last one" turned out to be the WhatsApp adaptation of the mechanical arm emoticon.

Making history, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk, who had once chosen to auction Tesla inferable from helpless outcomes, turned into the most extravagant individual on earth on Thursday, going past Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos on Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a positioning of the world's 500 richest individuals.

WhatsApp snooping: Here's how you can still communicate securely

International News
Since the revelations about the Pegasus spyware having been used to snoop on more than a hundred Indians, many are justifiably worried.
You may think that if you are doing things that the government or powerful interests may not like, then it may seem like all the more reason to arrive at the decision that because you cannot do anything about the snooping, it is best to stop using your phone or stop communication altogether.
Some may feel equally justified in reaching the conclusion that you should forget about security and go about your business seeing that you cannot protect yourself any way.It is true that it is very, very hard to protect yourself against a hack like this. Perhaps not with Pegasus, which has probably run aground, but other hacks of this kind will most likely occur again.
But that does not mean you should give up on either communicating, or on communicating securely.Because the reality is that while you may not be able stop an attack like this, you can do a lot to mitigate surveillance in general. And if you do that, you will also mitigate the consequences, should you suffer a Pegasus style attack.
Let’s start by noting that attacks like Pegasus, by their very nature, are rarely conducted against large numbers of targets.Some have noted that Pegasus is very expensive, but that is not the fundamental reason.
Pegasus is a targeted individual hack that seeks to break the protections built into computer and phone operating systems. All hacks like this follow the same method. They rely on finding what are known as “zero day vulnerabilities”, namely bugs in a software that even the developer does not know about (hence “zero day”, as in zero days of warning).

This bug is then used to infiltrate the operating system of the phone or computer, and from there to monitor and attack other software. Use of zero days makes Pegasus-style attacks almost impossible to stop in advance....READ MORE

WhatsApp sues Israeli firm NSO for spying on journalists, activists

Technology
WhatsApp on Tuesday sued Israeli technology firm NSO Group, accusing it of using the Facebook-owned messaging service to conduct cyberespionage on journalists, human rights activists and others.
The suit filed in a California federal court contended that NSO Group tried to infect approximately 1,400 "target devices" with malicious software to steal valuable information from those using the messaging app.WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said the lawsuit was filed after an investigation showed the Israeli firm's role the cyberattack, despite its denials.
"NSO Group claims they responsibly serve governments, but we found more than 100 human rights defenders and journalists targeted in an attack last May. This abuse must be stopped," Cathcart said on Twitter.The lawsuit said the software developed by NSO known as Pegasus was designed to be remotely installed to hijack devices using the Android, iOS, and BlackBerry operating systems.
The complaint said the attackers "reverse-engineered the WhatsApp app and developed a programme to enable them to emulate legitimate WhatsApp network traffic in order to transmit malicious code" to take over the devices."While their attack was highly sophisticated, their attempts to cover their tracks were not entirely successful," Cathcart said in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, noting that the investigation found internet-hosting services and accounts associated with NSO.

The suit calls on court to order NSO Group to stop any such attacks and asks for unspecified damages.WhatsApp in May called on users to upgrade the application to plug a security hole that allowed for the injection of sophisticated malware that could be used for spying at the messaging app used by 1.5 billion people around the world...READ MORE

WhatsApp's new fingerprint feature may stop users from taking screenshots

Company News

Do you often take screenshots of your private chats on WhatsApp? As part of the company's security changes, a new authentication feature, if enabled, will prevent users from taking screenshots, according to WabetaInfo.

The Facebook-owned messaging app is reportedly testing a new fingerprint feature that would require users to scan their fingerprints to access chats. As a result, people who get a hold of your phone will not be able to send or read your private messages on WhatsApp. However, once enabled, users will no longer be able to capture screenshots.

The Android beta version 2.19.106, tested by WabetaInfo, said, "We do not know why WhatsApp decided to prevent screenshots when fingerprint is enabled."

It also provided a screenshot of an alert that read: "Fingerprint security - When enabled, fingerprint is required to open WhatsApp and conversation screenshots are blocked. You can still reply to messages from notifications and answer calls if WhatsApp is locked."

WhatsApp This screenshot shows the fingerprint update by WhatsApp
WhatsApp won't be the only one to act on this. Streaming service Netflix also prevents its users from taking screengrabs of its videos.

On the other hand, Snapchat notifies people that their stories have been grabbed.

Doodle away


 The new feature will also roll out animated stickers and doodles that will be included in WhatsApp sticker packs. Doodle UI will also users to edit photos by drawing on them or adding stickers. These stickers can also be grouped as categories such as "Favourite" so you can easily find the sticker you want to use.

Facebook and Twitter are getting sucked into India-Pak information battle

Current Affairs

Pakistani social media campaigner Hanzala Tayyab leads about 300 ultra-nationalist cyber warriors fighting an internet war with arch-foe India, in a battle that is increasingly sucking in global tech giants such as Twitter and Facebook.

Tayyab, 24, spends his days on Facebook and encrypted WhatsApp chatrooms organising members of his Pakistan Cyber Force group to promote anti-India content and make it go viral, including on Twitter where he has more than 50,000 followers.

That ranges from highlighting alleged Indian human rights abuses to lionizing insurgents battling Indian security forces in Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan region at the heart of historic tensions between Pakistan and India.

Tayyab’s job became harder on Monday when the Pakistan Cyber Force’s Facebook account was taken down, one of 103 Pakistani accounts the social media giant said it had deleted because of “inauthentic behaviour” and spamming. Some Indian nationalist accounts have also been suspended in recent weeks.

Portraying himself as an online combatant defending Pakistan from India’s attempts to destabilise his country, Tayyab plans to continue playing his role in the broader information war being fought between the nuclear-armed foes.

“We are countering the Indian narrative through social media, we are countering the enemies of Pakistan,” Tayyab told Reuters in the capital Islamabad.


 With a combined population of 1.5 billion, India and Pakistan are hot growth markets for Facebook and Twitter, say analysts...Read More

Future of communication is encrypted, private messaging: Mark Zuckerberg

Companies News

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday the company would encrypt conversations on more of its messaging services and make them compatible, the latest sign that the world's biggest social network sees its future in intimate online chats.

Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook profile that within a few years direct messaging would dwarf discussion on the traditional, open platform of Facebook's news feed, where public posts can go viral across the world.

"Working towards implementing end-to-end encryption for all private communications is the right thing to do," Zuckerberg said. He cautioned that details of the plan could change as the company consults experts throughout 2019.

The strategy could frustrate law enforcement surveillance efforts as well as lawmakers who have called on Facebook to better moderate user content. It also would limit the company's ability to generate revenue through targeted ads.

But Zuckerberg said he could live with those tradeoffs because users want better control of their data while still having easy access to their contacts.

As part of Zuckerberg's strategy, a Facebook user would be able to communicate with WhatsApp users while only having a Messenger account and vice versa. Users would also have more options for how long chats are saved, he added.


 "The future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won't stick around forever," he said...Read More

WhatsApp completes a decade of operations: How it signed up 1.5 bn people

Companies News:

As WhatsApp completes 10 years of operations, the Facebook-owned messaging service continues to be one of the most powerful platforms globally as well as in India.
This comes despite the messaging platform being embroiled in a slew of controversies in most of the countries it operates in.

WhatsApp, which has been able to hold its weight against Twitter, Google and Microsoft’s Skype, has about 1.5 billion users in 180 countries who find it easy to send messages across different countries and mobile devices.

“It’s been 10 years since we started WhatsApp! Over the past decade, we’ve heard from people across the globe who are using WhatsApp to stay in touch with their loved ones, connect with their communities, and build businesses,” said WhatsApp in a blog post. “We’re excited to continue building features that make WhatsApp even more simple and reliable for everyone,” it added.
Even Internet giant Google has not been able to create a platform such as WhatsApp. Last December, Google officially announced that it was shutting down its smart messaging app Allo.

Even though WhatsApp did not go for country-by-country launch to start with, the app was pretty much available in Google Play Store for all users, including those in India. However, its popularity in the country really picked up around 2010-11, especially as several of its early features were designed keeping Indian conditions in mind, given the choppy connectivity and existence of devices of different makes.


 In fact, India was the first country where WhatsApp rolled out in-app video calling services in 2016, ahead of its global launch, underlining the importance of the market for the company. It launched payments through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for a select number of users last year, but has been awaiting regulatory clearance to launch the service formally...Read More