In a video chat with TED2020 curator, Chris Anderson, the Head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart revealed interesting details about the platform’s security. Here are some of the details and you can also watch the full video of the TED2020 talk in this article.

With the pandemic ravaging the world and health experts requiring that people limit physical interactions, many events are going virtual. One of them is TED, a nonprofit devoted to sharing valuable ideas, primarily through the medium of ‘TED Talks’.

Cathcart revealed that WhatsApp usage had surged during the lockdown. He explained that this is because people trust the platform for its confidentiality.

“We believe this works because people trust WhatsApp. They trust that they can have a deeply sensitive private conversation. When they can’t be sitting face-to-face with the same all over security and privacy they would have had in the real world”, Will Cathcart said.

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Here is the full video of the conversation, titled: The future of digital communication and privacy.

Will Cathcart says that the platform’s privacy is as a result of the end-to-end encryption tool. It makes sure only the intended receivers get messages or any other files sent to them.

However, he further mentioned that there are conversations as to changing the end-to-end encryption tool. Some faction, Cathcart explained, believes that there should be a central data center, likely under government control, that oversees all digital data of users. He adds that there are consequences to this and that it may cause users to worry about their privacy even more.

Addressing the issue of people using WhatsApp to send inappropriate messages to others; the company is limited in what it can do according to Cathcart. He said that to block these messages before it gets to receivers will mean reading people’s messages without their permission. Thus, ultimately undermining their privacy.

“Even in some cases where it will help solve some crimes”, the Head of WhatsApp said, it would come with many negative consequences.

During the TED2020 conversation between WhatsApp’s Will Cathcart and Chris Anderson; the tech giant’s boss revealed that the company does not actually generate a ton of revenue. Its major focus is connecting people all around the world, whether person to person or person to business.

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