Messengers have become an integral part of our daily routine: WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, etc. By connecting another platform for communication, we sign a user agreement, and few people read it to the end. This article is devoted to how messengers protect personal data of users, what dangers stand in the way of confidential data storage. Today in sight - WhatsApp.
Content
What is whatsapp network?
WhatsApp social network belongs to the famous corporation Facebook. It is intended for:
- exchange of text messages, pictures, videos;
- making video calls;
- Organize video conferencing between multiple users.
All these actions are carried out through the Internet. Typically, messages are encrypted with a security program to protect users from being intercepted by cybercriminals. But a thief and then a thief to find a loophole in the wall of protection.
Trap Number One: Pirated Software
WhatsApp Web utility is needed to synchronize your smartphone with a PC. This is convenient: no need to use wires to move files. But here lies the first vulnerability: downloaded software can be malicious.
Platforms Google Play, Steam, Play Market carefully check the exposed applications, which can not be said about the software downloaded from any site. It happens that they contain hidden spyware, worms, ransomware, and other nasty things. There are phishing sites that ask for a phone number to connect WhatsApp Web.
How to avoid this? Download applications from a reliable, trusted site.
Trap Number Two: Copy
Messenger developers, as they can, protect messages from hacking. It is understandable: their reputation depends on the safety of user data. Data is decrypted only when it reaches the addressee on his phone. This is where the next trap is set.
Taking an example from iCloud, Vatsap suggests the user to be safe, having kept a backup copy just in case. The idea is excellent: it helps to recover deleted files if they were accidentally deleted. And the execution of the plan is so-so, because backup copies are stored as is, that is, decrypted.
Trap # 3: Aggressive Advertising
Above, we talked exclusively about malicious hackers stealing your data from an honest Vatsap. But what if the other way around? What if the service provider is the hacker? Let's get it right.
Considering that WhatsApp is the brainchild of Facebook, no one is already surprised when someone from the smartphone’s notebook breaks into his friends on FB, or he knocks on the doors of his telephone interlocutors. So the media giant is expanding its customer base. Unclean - yes, annoying - yes, but it's not so bad.
The other half is using your correspondence against you. Not really, of course, against: no one will blackmail you. But to analyze the vocabulary, the history of queries, etc., then to intrusively offer you certain advertising content - they will.
Let us recall to the heap the frank political misinformation that Facebook and WhatsApp distributed for their good bakshish right before the election among their users in Brazil (2018) and the USA (2016). In America, Facebook was tried for this. You can still add India, but stop.
Total
Vatsap, of course, is a vulnerable messenger. But he transmits messages quickly, maintaining a stable communication between the interlocutors.Like all media resources that are registered in the country of the free world, they disclose user data at first glance to security structures, even without any regulations there.
Of course, capitalism dictates its own rules, and the service promotes advertising for a reward. Or anti-advertising. To hide your name, attach the messenger to the name card registered outside the homeland. And share secrets away from gadgets.
