Tracing source of WhatsApp Message is not a big science


By MYBRANDBOOK


Tracing source of WhatsApp Message is not a big science

Since last year Government of India has raised its concerns on source of the certain messages, which had leads to law and order situations in the country, WhatsApp has announced measures such as limiting forwards to five groups at a time from the earlier 250, identifying forwarded messages, and a publicity campaign against fake news. The surprise part is they have not given the right answer to the query.

 

A widely news circulated over various Social media that , Whatsapp fuels fake news and violence in India. Now question arises is on weather WhatApp could not see those messages? The answer is absolutely No. They can see the messages and the source but they don’t want to share.

 

The fact is, WhatsApp can trace the origin of messages on its encrypted platform by embedding the first sender's information alongside content, according to a report submitted to the Madras High Court.

 

Recently, The Supreme Court has directed the RBI to submit within six weeks an affidavit on whether social messaging platform WhatsApp had complied with the banking regulator’s rules requiring payment service providers to store data locally.

 


The order on Friday came after a hearing on a PIL filed by the Centre for Accountability and Systemic Change (CASC), which has sought to stop WhatsApp from launching a payments service until it complies with the RBI’s circular on data localisation. WhatsApp should also appoint a grievance officer who is based in India, according to the CASC plea.


On July 31, V Kamakoti a professor at the Indian IIT, Madras, proposed two options that could be adopted by the US platform. In the first, it could embed information in an open and visible format; in the second, this would be encrypted, said the report.



"We provide two suggestions . However, WhatsApp Inc may have other methods for extracting original information," wrote Kamakoti, who is a member of the National Security Advisory Board in the Prime Minister's Office.



On July 24, the high court had directed Kamakoti to submit his ideas on technical possibilities of tracing origin of WhatsApp messages. In the first option suggested by the IIT-Madras professor, originator information is included along with each encrypted message. This means each recipient of a WhatsApp message or forward will get to know the identity of the person who originally sent the message.



However, in the second option while the originator information continues to travel with each message, the recipient is not able to view it, as the information remains encrypted. But, it can be revealed to law enforcement by WhatsApp, when and if demanded.

 

Kamakoti also clarified that if a message is modified in any way - be it through copy and paste, addition of text to media like images, audio or video by any user, then that user becomes the originator.



Finally, Kamakoti pointed out that WhatsApp has access to user details through the information it collects when the app is downloaded on a smartphone. This includes details on the hardware model, operating system, browser information, IP address, mobile network and phone number of the person.

 E-Magazine 
 VIDEOS  Placeholder image

Copyright www.mybrandbook.co.in @1999-2024 - All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. is prohibited.
Other Initiatives : www.varindia.com | www.spoindia.org