A new WhatsApp password feature will allow users to 'lock and hide' their 'most intimate conversations', Meta has said.
Chat Lock will give users the ability to stash away any private chats by removing them from the main inbox into a special folder that can only be accessed via a password or biometric security - such as a fingerprint or Face ID. It's the latest addition in a series of features gradually being introduced to encrypted messaging services.
Meta also gives WhatsApp users the option to encrypt their backup data and stop other users from being able to screenshot chats as well as make messages disappear automatically. Users are able to lock a chat with ease by tapping the name of a chat and pressing on the lock option.
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Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post: “New locked chats in WhatsApp make your conversations more private. They’re hidden in a password protected folder and notifications won’t show sender or message content.”
While the new move provides an extra layer of privacy for WhatsApp users, it may strain relations between Meta and the UK government due to the latter's Online Safety Bill. Meta previously protested the legislation last April, arguing that it would undermine the end-to-end encryption enjoyed by WhatsApp users.
However, the government denied that the Bill would ban encrypted messaging, stating that it aims to target child abuse content while keeping privacy enshrined online. Despite this, tech companies who refuse to comply with the government's demands to identify and remove content deemed harmful from their platforms could receive massive fines.
Meta responded to this by threatening to withdraw WhatsApp from the UK last March. WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart told The Guardian in April that the bill 'poses an unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every UK citizen as well as those they communicate with in other parts of the globe.
A No 10 spokesperson previously said in response to the criticism: "Tech companies we believe have a moral duty to ensure they are not blinding themselves and law enforcement to unprecedented levels of child sexual abuse. We support strong encryption.
"This cannot come at the cost of public safety It does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption, nor will it require services to weaken encryption.
"It will not introduce routine scanning of private communication. This is a targeted power to use only when necessary. And whether other measures cannot be used."
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