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Facebook-owned social messaging platform WhatsApp on Wednesday said that it is not working on any technology to decrypt the messages as yet, because doing so would mean changing the whole structure of the app.
“We have created encryption to protect the privacy of the users. We have no intention to do that (decrypt)…we do not have the ability to decrypt the messages on WhatsApp,” Carl Woog, Head of Communications at WhatsApp, told reporters here.
He said the company can see only the very few last messages that are part of conversations between two people or a group, but cannot decrypt the history of the messages.
When asked if the company could have the technology to decrypt in future if the Indian regulations or policy demands, Woog said: “We will take one step at a time…right now, we are trying to explain that we believe a private system has significant benefits from the privacy and safety perspective (of users). We have to see what happens.”
The company says it cares about the privacy of its users.
“We do not ask for much information from them. Yet, even basic account information along with an IP address and associated carrier information can be used to teach our machine learning systems the difference between bulk and normal registrations,” Woog added.
In the recent past, the Silicon Valley-based company has worked hard to curb fake news in India, after the government directed it to bring out effective solutions that can bring in accountability and facilitate enforcement of law against dissemination of wrong information.
And now — with the General Elections around the corner — the company has shared some insights on how it fights bulk messaging and automated behaviour.
Curbing fake news
According to a report, WhatsApp has banned over two million accounts per month over the last three months across the globe for bulk or automated behaviour, and over 75 per cent of those accounts did not have any recent user reports. The company has the largest user base in India, with around 200 million people using the app everyday.
“To address rare cases when we ban an account in error, we also have a team that reviews and responds to user appeals. In that process, users may be asked for additional information so that the access to their account could be restored,” the company said.
In India too, WhatsApp has launched a nationwide campaign called “Share Joy, Not Rumors” in over 10 languages across multiple formats including television, print, online and radio to help prevent the spread of rumours and fake news.
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