#WhatsApp #CEO reassures users on privacy, says won’t collect new data

In a blog post titled "Setting The Record Straight", WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum on Monday said his company was serious about the privacy of users and had no plans to collect additional user data at behest of Facebook, which bought the instant messaging app in a $19 billion deal. 

Koum's reassurance on privacy came after speculation that WhatsApp would start collecting more user data due to its acquisition by Facebook. 

"There has been a lot of inaccurate and careless information about what our future partnership (with Facebook) would mean for WhatsApp users' data and privacy ... I'd like to set the record straight," said Koum. "If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn't have done it. Our fundamental values and beliefs will not change. Our principles will not change." 

In the first week of March, Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC), a privacy watchdog in the US, asked the Federal Trade Commission in the US to probe, and if required stay, the Facebook-WhatsApp deal because it represented a privacy risk for WhatsApp users. EPIC said Facebook was known to change the data collection policies at the companies it acquired and if the same thing happened with WhatsApp, it would put over 450 million users at privacy risk. 

Koum said that speculation on the change in privacy and data collection policies at WhatsApp were baseless and unfounded. 

Koum said that as someone who grew up in the USSR, he understood the importance of privacy. "For me, this is very personal. I was born in Ukraine, and grew up in the USSR during the 1980s. The fact that we couldn't speak freely without the fear that our communications would be monitored by KGB is in part why we moved to the United States when I was a teenager," he said. 

"Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible: You don't have to give us your name and we don't ask for your email address. We don't know your birthday. We don't know your home address. We don't know where you work. We don't know your likes, what you search for on the internet or collect your GPS location. None of that data has ever been collected and stored by WhatsApp, and we really have no plans to change that," said Koum. 

Earlier at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had made similar statements. He told the audience during his keynote presentation at the MWC that there would not be any change in WhatsApp privacy policies. He also added that WhatsApp did not store the connect shared by users on its servers and hence Facebook had no access to chat logs of WhatsApp users.

Ref - TOI

#WhatsApp's new VoIP feature's images leak online

Alleged screenshots of WhatsApp's upcoming Voice over IP feature have surfaced, and they show an app that looks a lot like iOS 7's Phone app. 

The images come from iPhoneItalia, which also claims that besides the addition of VoIP, the new WhatsApp won't be very different from the existing app. 

The VoIP feature will allow WhatsApp users to make voice calls with their smartphones and tablets over Wi-Fi and cellular connections. 

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has been expected for weeks to introduce VoIP soon, but there's still no official arrival date.


Image courtesy: iPhoneitalia 


Competition by imitation
WhatsApp announced that it would soon add VoIP at MWC 2014, shortly after Facebook bought the company for $19 billion (about £11.4b, AU$21b). 

As has been pointed out, the VoIP design seen in these alleged screenshots pretty closely resembles the Phone app in iOS 7, from the blurred background image to the circular, red end call button. 

The other semi-big change supposedly coming in the next WhatsApp update is that the camera button to attach photos to messages will be located right above the keyboard instead of tucked away behind the "more" button. Despite the info, there's still no word yet on when this update is coming.

Ref - TOI

Use #Whatsapp on #Android? Your chats are not so secure

If you use WhatsApp on an Android phone, you should be careful about what you talk about or share on the instant messaging app. Using a few scripts and a rogue app, anyone can peer into your chat logs and see what you talk about with your friends. 

A Dutch security consultant has found that WhatsApp chat logs saved on the SD card of an Android phone can be read by other apps because of the way Android allows sharing of data between apps. 

"The WhatsApp database is saved on the SD card which can be read by any Android application if the user allows it to access the SD card. And since majority of the people allows everything on their Android device, this is not much of a problem," Bas Bosschert wrote on his blog. 

"What do we need to steal someone's WhatsApp database? First we need a place to store the database," Bosschert explained. "Next thing we need is an Android application which uploads the WhatsApp database to the website." 

When an Android application is installed, whether from the Play store or through an APK file, which is an installer file for Android phones and can be downloaded from various sources, the app requests for permissions to use network and SD card etc. 

To explain his hack, Bosschert set up a web server and then created an Android application that required several special permissions on a user's phone. But because Android OS allows applications to access various parts of the phone - this is why users can conveniently share almost everything through any app on Android phone - Bosschert's app had no difficulty gaining access to WhatsApp data. 

Bosschert wrote that the code that allows his application to access WhatsApp data and then upload it to his web server can be added to a popular Android app by a rogue developer to fool users and steal WhatsApp chat logs. 

The older versions of WhatsApp were so insecure that they didn't even encrypt their data stored on SD card. The data from older versions of whatsApp could be read by anyone once it was uploaded on the web server. Even the data from newer version of WhatsApp, which uses encryption, can be accessed with ease. 

"The WhatsAppp database is a SQLite3 database which can be converted to Excel for easier access. Lately WhatsApp is using encryption to encrypt the database, so it can no longer be opened by SQLite. But we can simply decrypt this database using a simple python script. This script converts the crypted database to a plain SQLite3 database," wrote Bosschert. "We can conclude that every application can read the WhatsApp database and it is also possible to read the chats from the encrypted databases." 

Bosschert joked, "Facebook didn't need to buy WhatsApp to read your chats." 

The security issue apparently doesn't exist on iPhones or Windows Phone devices because on these smartphones, apps have limited access to storage and other phone hardware. The more flexible access to phone hardware allows Android apps to talk to each other and helps a user quickly share content between apps. This is very convenient compared to what is possible on iPhone or Windows Phone, where it is difficult to share content between apps. But it also exposes data to rogue apps. 

Google says that it keeps an eye on apps inside its Play store and removes apps if they pose any security risks. But this doesn't negate the fact that theoretically it is possible for a rogue app to do more damage on Android because of the open nature of the OS compared to iOS, which uses silos. Google also advises people against installing apps that don't come through Play store. By default Android phones are set to not install apps downloaded outside the Play store.

Ref - TOI

#MWC2014: #WhatsApp's worth is more than $19 billion, #Facebook #CEO #MarkZuckerberg says

Billionaire Facebook founderMark Zuckerberg defended his huge $19 billion takeover of free mobile messaging service WhatsApp, saying it is actually worth much more. 

The 29-year-old Facebook chief announced the stock and cash purchase on Wednesday, a deal that marries his social network of 1.2 billion active users with Whatsapp's 450 million users. 

Asked about the price tag during an on-stage discussion at the February 24-27 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Zuckerberg saidWhatsApp was attractive as a company by itself, and as a strategic fit with Facebook. 

"I just think that by itself it is worth more than $19 billion [14-billion-euro]," said Zuckerberg, wearing a grey t-shirt, sneakers and black trousers. 

"I mean it is hard to exactly make that speech today because they have so little revenue compared to that number," he conceded. 

"But the reality is that there are very few services that reach a billion people in the world. They are all incredibly valuable, much more valuable than that," he added. 

"I could be wrong. This could be the one service that gets to a billion people and ends up not being that valuable. I don't think I am." 

Other Android messaging applications such as KakaoTalk, Vine and WeChat were already bringing in two to three dollars a person "with pretty early efforts", he said. 

"That shows that if we can do a pretty good job of helping WhatsApp to grow then this is just going to be a huge business," Zuckerberg said. 

"So even just independently I think it is quite a good bet." In partnership with Facebook, WhatsApp can focus on connecting "one, two, three billion people over the next however long that is going to take," Zuckerberg said. 

The Facebook boss said he and WhatsApp founder Jan Koum shared a vision of connecting everyone in the world to the Internet, delivering development benefits and in the longer term profits, too. 

Zuckerberg said Facebook planned to leave the WhatsApp service unchanged. 

"WhatsApp doesn't store the content," he said. "We would be pretty silly to get in the way of that." 

Hours earlier, WhatsApp's Koum said the messaging service would launch free voice calls by mid-year, putting it on a par with key competitor Viber which already does so. 

He, too, stressed that Facebook did not plan to change WhatsApp. "Mark really understands that for WhatsApp to be successful it really needs to stay independent," he said. 

Zuckerberg has come a long way in the mobile world in a short time. When Facebook sold its shares to the public in an initial public offering in May 2012, "it literally had no mobile advertising revenues", said Eden Zoller, analyst at the research house Ovum. 

"It did actually have a pretty strong mobile user base at IPO but what it had failed to do at that time was actually monetise those mobile users," she said. 

At the time of the float, worries over the lack of money coming in from the mobile business sent Facebook's shares sliding. 

But the social network -- boasting more than 1.2 billion members -- quickly repaired its strategy. 

By the end of 2013, mobile devices accounted for 53% of Facebook's advertising revenue, bringing in $1.2 billion in the last quarter and more than $3 billion over the whole year.

Ref - TOI

#Facebook to buy mobile messaging app #WhatsApp for $19 billion

Facebook Inc will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock, as the world's largest social network looks for ways to boost its popularity, especially among a younger crowd.

The acquisition of the hot messaging service with more than 450 million users around the world stunned many Silicon Valley observers with its lofty price tag.

But it underscores Facebook's determination to win the market for messaging, an indispensable utility in a mobile era.

Combining text messaging and social networking, messaging apps provide a quick way for smartphone users to trade everything from brief texts to flirtatious pictures to YouTube clips - bypassing the need to pay wireless carriers for messaging services.

And it helps Facebook tap teens who will eschew the mainstream social networks and prefer WhatsApp and rivals such as Line and WeChat, which have exploded in size as mobile messaging takes off.

"People are calling them 'Facebook Nevers,'" said Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed and an early investor in Snapchat.

WhatsApp is adding about a million users per day, Facebook co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said on his page on Wednesday.

"WhatsApp will complement our existing chat and messaging services to provide new tools for our community," he wrote on his Facebook page. "Since WhatsApp and (Facebook) Messenger serve such different and important users, we will continue investing in both."

Smartphone-based messaging apps are now sweeping across North America, Asia and Europe.

"Communication is the one thing that you have to use daily, and it has a strong network effect," said Jonathan Teo, an early investor in Snapchat, another red-hot messaging company that flirted year ago with a multibillion dollar acquisition offer from Facebook.

"Facebook is more about content and has not yet fully figured out communication."

Even so, he balked at the price tag.

As part of the deal, WhatsApp co-founder and chief executive officer Jan Koum will join Facebook's board, and the social network will grant an additional $3 billion worth of restricted stock units to WhatsApp's founders, including Koum.

That is on top of the $16 billion in cash and stock that Facebook will pay.

"Goodness gracious, it's a good deal for WhatsApp," Teo said.

TERMS

Shares in Facebook slid 5 percent to $64.70 after hours, from a close of $68.06 on the Nasdaq.

Facebook said on Wednesday it will pay $4 billion in cash and about $12 billion in stock in its single largest acquisition, dwarfing the $1 billion it paid for photo-sharing app Instagram.

The price paid for Instagram, which with just 30 million users was already considered overvalued by many observers at the time.

Facebook promised to keep the WhatsApp brand and service, and pledged a $1 billion cash break-up fee if the deal falls through.

Facebook was advised by Allen & Co, while WhatsApp has enlisted Morgan Stanley for the deal.

Ref - TOI

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#WhatsApp Messenger Updated to Work on #iOS 4 and #iOS 5 Again

WhatsApp messenger has been updated to work on iOS 4 and iOS 5, after the recent 2.11.6 update had a bug that instantly crashed the app for those users.

WhatsApp Messenger is a smartphone messenger available for iPhone and other smartphones. WhatsApp uses your 3G or WiFi (when available) to message with friends and family. Switch from SMS to WhatsApp to send and receive messages, pictures, audio notes, and video messages.

WhatsApp on iPhone works with virtually all carriers and networks but some carrier limitations may apply. If you are on an Apple unsupported wireless carrier, double check our FAQ for up to date information on our coverage. 

* NO HIDDEN COST: Once you and your friends download the application, you can use it to chat as much as you want. Send a million messages a day to your friends for free! WhatsApp uses your Internet connection: 3G/EDGE or Wi-Fi when available.

* MULTIMEDIA: Send Video, Images, and Voice notes to your friends and contacts.

* GROUP CHAT: Enjoy group conversations with your contacts. Add or Remove group participants, change group subject and set a group icon.

* PERSONAL: Set a profile photo which will be shown to all your contacts

* NO INTERNATIONAL CHARGES: Just like there is no added cost to send an international email, there is no cost to send WhatsApp messages internationally. Chat with your friends all over the world as long as they have WhatsApp Messenger installed and avoid those pesky international SMS costs.

* SAY NO TO PINS AND USERNAMES: Why even bother having to remember yet another PIN or username? WhatsApp works with your phone number, just like SMS would, and integrates flawlessly with your existing phone address book.

* NO NEED TO LOG IN/OUT: No more confusion about getting logged off from another computer or device. With push notifications WhatsApp is ALWAYS ON and ALWAYS CONNECTED.

* NO NEED TO ADD BUDDIES: Your Address Book is used to automatically connect you with your contacts. Your contacts who already have WhatsApp Messenger will be automatically displayed under Favorites, similar to a buddy list.

* OFFLINE MESSAGES: Even if you miss your push notifications or turn off your iPhone, WhatsApp will save your messages offline until you retrieve them during the next application use.

* AND MUCH MORE: Share location and places, Exchange contacts, Custom wallpaper, Custom notification sounds, Landscape mode, Message timestamps, Email chat history, Broadcast messages and media to many contacts at once, and much much more!

What's New In This Version:
2.11.7

- make the app work again for iOS 4 and iOS 5 users

You can download WhatsApp Messenger from the App Store for free.

#WhatsApp Messenger is Updated With New iOS 7 User Interface

The popular WhatsApp Messenger has been updated with a new iOS 7 user interface, broadcast lists, larger thumbnails, new notification alerts and sounds, and more.

WhatsApp Messenger is a smartphone messenger available for iPhone and other smartphones. WhatsApp uses your 3G or WiFi (when available) to message with friends and family. Switch from SMS to WhatsApp to send and receive messages, pictures, audio notes, and video messages. First year FREE! ($0.99 USD/year after)

Features:
● NO HIDDEN COST: Once you and your friends download the application, you can use it to chat as much as you want. Send a million messages a day to your friends for free! WhatsApp uses your Internet connection: 3G/EDGE or Wi-Fi when available.
● MULTIMEDIA: Send Video, Images, and Voice notes to your friends and contacts.
● GROUP CHAT: Enjoy group conversations with your contacts. Add or Remove group participants, change group subject and set a group icon.
● PERSONAL: Set a profile photo which will be shown to all your contacts
● NO INTERNATIONAL CHARGES: Just like there is no added cost to send an international email, there is no cost to send WhatsApp messages internationally. Chat with your friends all over the world as long as they have WhatsApp Messenger installed and avoid those pesky international SMS costs.
● SAY NO TO PINS AND USERNAMES: Why even bother having to remember yet another PIN or username? WhatsApp works with your phone number, just like SMS would, and integrates flawlessly with your existing phone address book.
● NO NEED TO LOG IN/OUT: No more confusion about getting logged off from another computer or device. With push notifications WhatsApp is ALWAYS ON and ALWAYS CONNECTED.
● NO NEED TO ADD BUDDIES: Your Address Book is used to automatically connect you with your contacts. Your contacts who already have WhatsApp Messenger will be automatically displayed under Favorites, similar to a buddy list.
● OFFLINE MESSAGES: Even if you miss your push notifications or turn off your iPhone, WhatsApp will save your messages offline until you retrieve them during the next application use.
● AND MUCH MORE: Share location and places, Exchange contacts, Custom wallpaper, Custom notification sounds, Landscape mode, Message timestamps, Email chat history, Broadcast messages and media to many contacts at once, and much much more!

What's New In This Version:
- new iOS 7 User Interface
- broadcast lists: communicate with your classmates, work colleagues or just friends by messaging many people at once.
- improved share location: 3D map view, hide places, search places
- large thumbs: see more
- new notification alerts and sounds: WhatsApp Settings > Notifications > New Message.
- application will now use your device text size as configured in iOS Settings > General > Text Size
- new improved User Interface for managing your blocked contacts: WhatsApp Settings > Chat Settings > Blocked
- crop image before sending 

You can download WhatsApp Messenger from the App Store for free.

WhatsApp Messenger Gets Multi-Send UI, iCloud Backup, URL Schema Support

WhatApp Messenger has been updated with a multi-send UI that lets you send multiple photos at once, URL schema support for 3rd party apps, and iCloud chat history backup and restore.

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform smartphone messenger currently available for iPhone and all other smartphones. The application utilizes push notifications to instantly get messages from friends, colleagues and family. Switch from SMS to exchange messages, pictures, audio notes and video messages with WhatsApp users at no cost. All features are included without the need for extra in-application purchases.

Features:
* NO HIDDEN COST: Once you and your friends download the application, you can use it to chat as much as you want. Send a million messages a day to your friends for free! WhatsApp uses your Internet connection: 3G/EDGE or Wi-Fi when available.

* MULTIMEDIA: Send Video, Images, and Voice notes to your friends and contacts.

* GROUP CHAT: Enjoy group conversations with your contacts. Add or Remove group participants, change group subject and set a group icon.

* PERSONAL: Set a profile photo which will be shown to all your contacts

* NO INTERNATIONAL CHARGES: Just like there is no added cost to send an international email, there is no cost to send WhatsApp messages internationally. Chat with your friends all over the world as long as they have WhatsApp Messenger installed and avoid those pesky international SMS costs.

* SAY NO TO PINS AND USERNAMES: Why even bother having to remember yet another PIN or username? WhatsApp works with your phone number, just like SMS would, and integrates flawlessly with your existing phone address book.

* NO NEED TO LOG IN/OUT: No more confusion about getting logged off from another computer or device. With push notifications WhatsApp is ALWAYS ON and ALWAYS CONNECTED.

* NO NEED TO ADD BUDDIES: Your Address Book is used to automatically connect you with your contacts. Your contacts who already have WhatsApp Messenger will be automatically displayed under Favorites, similar to a buddy list.

* OFFLINE MESSAGES: Even if you miss your push notifications or turn off your iPhone, WhatsApp will save your messages offline until you retrieve them during the next application use.

* AND MUCH MORE: Share location and places, Exchange contacts, Custom wallpaper, Custom notification sounds, Landscape mode, Message timestamps, Email chat history, Broadcast messages and media to many contacts at once, and much much more!

What's New In This Version:
2.10.1:
- multi-send UI: can send multiple photos at the same time
- URL schema support for 3rd party apps (see our blog for more info)
- iCloud chat history backup and restore: WhatsApp > Settings > Chat Settings > Chat Backup

You can purchase WhatsApp Messenger from the App Store for $0.99.

WhatsApp is Now Bigger Than Twitter

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said the service is now bigger than Twitter today at D:Dive Into Mobile, reports AllThingsD.

Today, WhatsApp is the single most-used independent smartphone app in nearly every country in the world. It has hundreds of millions of users and sends as many as 18 billion messages per day. And, as CEO Jan Koum said onstage at D:Dive Into Mobile Tuesday, WhatsApp is now bigger than Twitter, which officially claims 200 million monthly active users. The company daily processes 8 billion inbound messages and 12 billion outbound.

The app has repeatedly been rumored for acquisition but has denied those rumors. It plans to move to yearly subscription model for iOS users later this year.

Google Negotiating $1 Billion Acquisition of WhatsApp Messenger?

Google is rumored to be negotiating an acquisition of WhatsApp Messenger for around $1 billion, according to Digital Trends.

Messaging app WhatsApp is in the negotiating phase over prices with Google in what could be Google’s next billion dollar acquisition, according to an inside source. While the deal started four or five weeks ago, we’ve been told that WhatsApp is “playing hardball” and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is “close to” $1 billion right now.

Last December, rumors surfaced that Facebook was looking to acquire WhatsApp; however, that deal never materialized.

WhatsApp recently announced that it would make the switch to yearly subscriptions for iOS users later this year.

You can purchase WhatsApp Messenger from the App Store for $0.99.

WhatsApp Messenger to Move to Yearly Subscription Model

WhatsApp Messenger is planning to make the move to a yearly subscription model for its iOS app, reports TechCrunch.

Jan Koum, WhatsApp’s CEO, said that the company will make the shift sometime this year for new users only. His interview with Dutch journalist Alexander Klopping was obtained by TechCrunch who highlighted some other key takeaways as well.

– On a desktop version: “We get that question asked a lot,” Koum said of desktop apps. “We feel strongly that the world is moving to mobile and [so] we want to be mobile-only. Your phone is with you all the time, and desktop is to many becoming a secondary experience. [So] our answer is no, not anytime soon.”

– On live streaming video: “definitely not this year.”

– On exit strategies in general: “We don’t discuss exit strategies internally,” Koum said. “A lot of companies in Silicon Valley talk about exit strategies. The way we look at it, is it’s like entering a marriage and talking about divorce. We just don’t have one. We don’t have one because we don’t plan or want to think about it. We want to focus on good products.”

– On cannibalizing carrier revenues: “We actually have really good relationships with a lot of carriers. We’re doing some revolutionary stuff. The world is switching to data [and we have] some good partnerships, for example with Three in Hong Kong.” That partnership gives Three subscribers access to WhatsApp when they travel internationally for the equivalent of about $6/day. “We understand that a lot of people are switching to our product instead of SMS but we look at it as evolution.”

You can purchase WhatsApp Messenger from the App Store for $0.99.