Whatsapp States to be “Excited” About the Digital Projects in India

Following the spotting of Unified Payments Interface on WhatsApp spotted in the Google Play Beta Program, a top executive of WhatsApp mentioned that the mobile messaging app is thrilled about the digitization drive of the government and the future assignments in the country. Without probing into the specificities regarding when the instant money transfer access would finally be launched in India, which holds a user base of monthly active users above 200 Million, the Software Engineer at WhatsApp, Alan Kao, said, “We are very thrilled about the digitization of India and the assignments in the future.”

Introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India and controlled by the Reserve Bank of India, UPI enables the instant fund transfer on the mobile platform amid 2 bank accounts. The Facebook-owned platform had been in news for functioning toward an UPI-based interface in its application. Also, as per media reports, the foremost messaging platform is said to be in conversations with the National Payments Corporation of India and a few banks to allow financial transactions through UPI.

UPI-based payment services are already supported by few mobile messaging platforms such as Hike Messenger and WeChat. When enquired about how secure is WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption, Kao said the application is safe and encryption for all its above 1 Billion users worldwide is by “default.” The firm emphasized it has been continuously functioning to uphold the security and privacy of its users.

The executive said, “The company takes down third-party applications that claim to be in some way associated with WhatsApp. We take them down as it hampers users’ security.” The users are also suggested by the company to avoid installing or using apps that can compromise safety. The end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp was employed with assistance from Open Whisper Systems—which is the maker of safe messaging app Signal.

Kao mentioned, “We have functioned with Signal protocol of Open Whisper System for around 2 years to execute end-to-end encryption.” Talking about the way end-to-end encryption functions, Kao said, “After sending a message, while it is still in travel, no one can interpret that message.” However, the company said that it is imperative for users that they should only install trusted apps as the keyboard app (in this certain events) can gather data if it doesn’t come from a trusted source.

This feature was initially introduced to messages but later extended to video and voice call features as well. Kao added, “In history, this is the largest ever implementation of end-to-end encryption and this has been a huge step for free speech.”