WhatsApp to bring support for face unlock feature on Android: Report

 WhatsApp is reportedly preparing to bring support for face unlock feature on Android devices.

According to WABetainfo, a website that tracks WhatsApp in Beta, the feature will be very helpful specifically for Pixel 4 users as the device comes without a fingerprint sensor and only supports facial recognition.

Once the feature rolls out, the "fingerprint lock" settings will be renamed to the more general "biometric lock".

The settings are likely to be based on Android's BiometricPrompt API, which allows apps to use biometric unlock for authentication.

Face unlocking has already been on iOS for some time now, which makes sense given the iPhone X first introduced FaceID back in 2017.

Whatsapp is also bringing a feature like Skype and Zoom where one can join the ongoing calls even if you have missed. This means when a user is busy and can't join the video or voice call can join them later when the call is still ongoing.

WhatsApp has enabled multiple features like 'Always Mute option', a new Storage Usage UI along with accompanying tools as well as new Media Guidelines to its Android beta user base.

WhatsApp adds dark mode support for Android, iOS: Here's how to enable it

Social media giant Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp on Wednesday enabled dark mode support for its app through an update. The update is currently being rolled out for iPhones and Android smartphones. The dark mode support for WhatsApp is one of the most anticipated features, which was undergoing beta testing until now. With the update, the dark mode support graduates from beta to become a full-fledged feature, available on WhatsApp for iPhones and Android smartphones users.

“We are very excited to update WhatsApp with the most requested feature from our users everywhere - dark mode. Dark mode for WhatsApp offers a fresh look on a familiar experience. It’s designed to reduce eye strain in low light environments. And we hope it helps prevent those awkward moments where your phone lights up the room,” said WhatsApp in a statement.

The dark mode for WhatsApp is designed with focus on two particular areas – readability and information hierarchy. For readability, the WhatsApp dark mode uses colours that are closer to the system defaults on iPhones and Android smartphones, therefore, minimises eye fatigue. Similarly, the important information elements are highlighted by using colours and design elements, which help users focus their attention on each screen.

Users on Android 10 and iOS 13 can use dark mode by enabling it in system settings. Users on Android 9 and below can go into WhatsApp Settings -- Chats -- Theme -- select ‘Dark’.

Earlier, Facebook enabled dark mode for Instagram. Besides, there are several other apps, including Gmail, Messenger and Google Chrome, on both iOS and Android platforms that support native dark mode.

WhatsApp on New Year's eve: 20 bn messages sent in India, 100 bn worldwide

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has reported that during the 24 hours leading up to midnight on New Year's Eve, over 20 billion messages were sent via the private messaging app in India alone.

WhatsApp has over 400 million users in India.

Worldwide, a record-breaking 100 billion messages were sent via the private messaging app on New Year's Eve.

In WhatsApp's 10-year history, December 31, 2019, saw more messages sent than on any previous day.

WhatsApp data also showed that of the 100 billion messages sent, more than 12 billion were picture messages sent around the world on New Year's Eve.

The top 5 most popular WhatsApp features with its users worldwide over the course of 2019 were text messaging, status, picture messaging, calling and voice notes.

WhatsApp's new feature will now let you decide who can add you to groups

WhatsApp on Wednesday rolled out a feature that will let users decide who can add them to WhatsApp groups

How to enable the feature

1. Go to settings in your app

2. Tap Account> Privacy > Groups

3. Select one of three options: 'Everyone,' 'My Contacts,' or 'My Contacts Except'

‘My Contacts’ means only users you have in your address book can add you to groups and ‘My Contacts Except’ provides additional control for who among your contacts can add you to a group

India concerned over social media role in radicalising terror recruits: US

India continues to remain concerned over the use of internet, particularly social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp, for the recruitment and radicalisation of terrorist, according to a report by the US State Department.

Days after WhatsApp snooping case came to light, the State Department said this in its annual 'Country Reports on Terrorism' for the year 2018. Mandated by the US Congress, the report was released on Friday.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Thursday said Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using an Israeli spyware Peagasus.

"Indian government officials continue to be concerned over the use of the internet including social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp for terrorist recruitment and radicalisation and the fomenting of inter-religious tensions," the report said in its India section.

India's Home Secretary and other senior government officers met representatives from global social media companies to review steps to prevent online terrorist recruitment and radicalisation, it said.

Nevertheless, cases of online terrorist radicalisation in southern India were reported throughout the year, including reports of some recruits being smuggled to ISIS pockets in Afghanistan, the report said.

The State Department in its report said that India continued to experience attacks, including by Pakistan-based terrorist organisations and tribal and Maoist insurgents.

Indian authorities blamed Pakistan for cross-border attacks in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. India continued to apply pressure to detect, disrupt, and degrade terrorist organisations' operations within its borders, including the disruption of an ISIS-inspired terrorist cell reportedly planning terrorist attacks in late 2018, it said.

During 2018, India sought to deepen counterterrorism cooperation and information sharing with the US, including through the bilateral Counterterrorism Joint Working Group meeting in March and the first 2+2 (top US and Indian diplomatic and military officials) Ministerial Dialogue in September.

In June, the Indian government designated Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham-Khorasan (ISIS-K), an Afghanistan-based affiliate of ISIS and al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) as terrorist organisations under domestic designation authorities, it said.

The parts of India most seriously impacted by terrorism in 2018 included the Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast Indian states, and parts of central India in which Maoist terrorists remain active. India continued to apply sustained pressure to detect, disrupt, and degrade terrorist organisations' operations within its borders, it said.

According to the report, Indian leadership expressed resolve to prevent terrorist attacks domestically and to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism, in cooperation with the United States and other like-minded countries.

WhatsApp did not disclose information about Pegasus in May, says govt

In the ongoing tussle between the government and Facebook-owned instant messaging service WhatsAppover Israeli malicious software being used to spy on some Indian citizens, government sources said late Friday evening that WhatsApp had not disclosed to Indian authorities full information about the video calling vulnerability.

“WhatsApp had given information to CERT-IN, a government agency as seen in the attached image in May. As is seen in the image, it is a communication in pure technical jargon without any mention of Pegasus or the extent of breach. Thus, the information shared was only about a technical vulnerability but nothing on the fact that privacy of Indian users had been compromised,” said a government source.

The image referred to was a security alert from the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In), which was published in May.

“A vulnerability has been reported in In the ongoing tussle between the government and Facebook-owned instant messaging service WhatsAppover Israeli malicious software being used to spy on some Indian citizens, government sources said late Friday evening that WhatsApp had not disclosed to Indian authorities full information about the video calling vulnerability.

“WhatsApp had given information to CERT-IN, a government agency as seen in the attached image in May. As is seen in the image, it is a communication in pure technical jargon without any mention of Pegasus or the extent of breach. Thus, the information shared was only about a technical vulnerability but nothing on the fact that privacy of Indian users had been compromised,” said a government source.

The image referred to was a security alert from the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In), which was published in May.

“A vulnerability has been reported in WhatsApp which could be exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system... Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow the attacker to access information on the system such as call logs, messages, photos, etc, which could lead to further compromise of the system,” it said.

CERT-In is the national agency that keeps a tab on cyber incidents and cyberattacks in India.

On October 30, Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, had written in an opinion piece in The Washington Post: “In May, WhatsApp announced that we had detected and blocked a new kind of cyberattack involving a vulnerability in our video-calling feature... Now, after months of investigation, we can say who was behind this attack. Today, we have filed a complaint in federal court that explains what happened and attributes the intrusion to an international technology company called NSO Group.”

The following day, it was reported that the vulnerability in WhatsApp had been exploited to target journalists and activists in India as well.

Pegasus is a malicious software developed and sold to governments by NSO Group. It was used to hack into Apple devices running certain versions of iOS, first reported about in 2016.

The government has asked WhatsApp to explain by November 4 how the breach occurred and how the privacy of Indian citizens was compromised. which could be exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system... Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow the attacker to access information on the system such as call logs, messages, photos, etc, which could lead to further compromise of the system,” it said.

CERT-In is the national agency that keeps a tab on cyber incidents and cyberattacks in India.

On October 30, Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, had written in an opinion piece in The Washington Post: “In May, WhatsApp announced that we had detected and blocked a new kind of cyberattack involving a vulnerability in our video-calling feature... Now, after months of investigation, we can say who was behind this attack. Today, we have filed a complaint in federal court that explains what happened and attributes the intrusion to an international technology company called NSO Group.”

The following day, it was reported that the vulnerability in WhatsApp had been exploited to target journalists and activists in India as well.

Pegasus is a malicious software developed and sold to governments by NSO Group. It was used to hack into Apple devices running certain versions of iOS, first reported about in 2016.

The government has asked WhatsApp to explain by November 4 how the breach occurred and how the privacy of Indian citizens was compromised.

WhatsApp says 'strong action' taken in spyware breach incident

Amid uproar over allegations of an Israeli software being used to spy over activists and journalists, WhatsApp on Friday said it had taken a strong action and supports the government’s stand on the need to safeguard the privacy of all citizens.

On Thursday, the Facebook-owned company had said Indian journalists and human rights activists were among those globally spied upon by unnamed entities using Israeli spyware Pegasus, leading to furore over breach of privacy.

The government has asked it to explain and list out the measures it has taken to safeguard the privacy of millions. According to sources, the firm has been asked to submit its response by November 4.

The firm will reply, one of the persons said.

“We agree with the government’s statement about the need to safeguard the privacy. That is why we’ve taken this strong action to hold cyber attackers accountable,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, government sources said late Friday that WhatsApp did not disclose full information about the video calling vulnerability to Indian authorities.

Centre wants WhatsApp to explain Israeli spyware breach by November 4

The government has given time till November 4 to WhatsApp for explaining how the Israeli surveillance software was used to spy on some people in India and what the firm was doing to stop such occurrences.

It is still not clear which government entity bought the software that has reportedly impacted 1,400 devices globally. WhatsApp has said it was filing a complaint in the US against Israeli technology firm NSO Group for the cyberattack that exploited vulnerability in the app's video calling feature.

“Government of India is concerned at the breach of privacy of citizens of India on the messaging platform WhatsApp. We have asked WhatsApp to explain the kind of breach and what it is doing to safeguard the privacy of millions of Indian citizens,” Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, tweeted. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the attempts to align the government for a reported breach were “misleading”. “It is clarified that the government operates strictly as per provisions of the law. There are adequate safeguards to ensure that no innocent citizen is harassed or his privacy breached,” it said. However, it did not address the question of whether the central or state governments or any of their agencies have ever bought NSO Group’s spyware technology or its well-known product Pegasus.

In the vulnerability, a WhatsApp user could receive what appears to be a video call and even if the call is unanswered, the attacker could transmit malicious code to infect the victim’s phone with spyware. Another NSO Group software, Pegasus, was used to install spying software on devices between August 2016 and August 2018 by Toronto-based Citizen Lab.

The NSO Group claims to sell surveillance technology to governments globally only for the purposes of fighting terrorism and crime but has been accused of selling to governments that have a track record of spying on its citizens.

In response to a Right to Information request, asking if the government has bought from the NSO Group, filed by activist Saurav Das, the MHA said it had no information on the issue. The Opposition and experts did not take kindly to the government’s stand. “I am extremely concerned and I am sure the parliamentary committee on information technology would share my concerns. However, the story only broke after our last meeting. I intend to consult other members by email on the matter. In any case, cybersecurity is a major issue on our agenda and we are definitely going to take this up under that rubric. Of course, we will be seeking clarifications from the government,” said Shashi Tharoor, who heads the panel on IT.

Randeep Singh Surjewala, in-charge, All India Congress Committee Communications, said the Centre needs to answer which agency purchased the software and what action it would take.

WhatsApp sues Israeli firm NSO for spying on journalists, activists

WhatsApp on Tuesday sued Israeli technology firm NSO Group, accusing it of using the Facebook-owned messaging service to conduct cyberespionage on journalists, human rights activists and others.

The suit filed in a California federal court contended that NSO Group tried to infect approximately 1,400 "target devices" with malicious software to steal valuable information from those using the messaging app.

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said the lawsuit was filed after an investigation showed the Israeli firm's role the cyberattack, despite its denials.

"NSO Group claims they responsibly serve governments, but we found more than 100 human rights defenders and journalists targeted in an attack last May. This abuse must be stopped," Cathcart said on Twitter.

The lawsuit said the software developed by NSO known as Pegasus was designed to be remotely installed to hijack devices using the Android, iOS, and BlackBerry operating systems.

The complaint said the attackers "reverse-engineered the WhatsApp app and developed a programme to enable them to emulate legitimate WhatsApp network traffic in order to transmit malicious code" to take over the devices.

"While their attack was highly sophisticated, their attempts to cover their tracks were not entirely successful," Cathcart said in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, noting that the investigation found internet-hosting services and accounts associated with NSO.

The suit calls on court to order NSO Group to stop any such attacks and asks for unspecified damages.

WhatsApp in May called on users to upgrade the application to plug a security hole that allowed for the injection of sophisticated malware that could be used for spying at the messaging app used by 1.5 billion people around the world.

The malicious code was transmitted through WhatsApp servers from about April 29 to May 10, targeting devices of attorneys, journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, diplomats, and other senior foreign government officials, according to the complaint.

"A user would receive what appeared to be a video call, but this was not a normal call," Cathcart said of the cyberattack.

"After the phone rang, the attacker secretly transmitted malicious code in an effort to infect the victim's phone with spyware. The person did not even have to answer the call."

The NSO Group came to prominence in 2016 when researchers accused it of helping spy on an activist in the United Arab Emirates.

Its best-known product is Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target's phone camera and microphone, and access data on it.

The firm has been adamant that it only licenses its software to governments for "fighting crime and terror" and that it investigates credible allegations of misuse, but activists argue the technology has been instead used for human rights abuses.

Danna Ingleton of Amnesty International said the results of the WhatsApp investigation "underscore that NSO Group continues to profit from its spyware products being used to intimidate, track, and punish scores of human rights defenders across the globe, including the Kingdom of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico."

Ingleton said Amesty and other groups are seeking in the Israeli courts to block NSO for exporting the technology.

"WhatsApp deserves credit for their tough stance against these malicious attacks, including their efforts to hold NSO to account in the courts," she said.

WhatsApp plans to roll out payments service in India later this year

WhatsApp Global Head Will Cathcart on Wednesday said the company could roll out its payments service to users across India later this year.

The messaging app, which has about 400 million users in India, has been testing its payments in the country since last year with about a million users.

Cathcart said the company's vision is to make sending money as easy as sending a message on the platform.

"We believe that if we get this right, it will accelerate financial inclusion and bring value for people in India's fast growing digital economy, We can't wait to provide the service more of our users all across India later this year," he said at an event.

WhatsApp's service, which would compete against the likes of Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay, is yet to be rolled out nationally in India. The Facebook-owned company, which has over 1.5 billion users globally, is looking rolling out its payments service in other markets as well.

WhatsApp's ambitious payment services' blueprint in India has been caught in a bind over concerns around authentication and its data storage practices. In the past, its home grown rivals have alleged that WhatsApp's payment platform has security risks for consumers and is not in compliance with the guidelines.

In October last year, WhatsApp had said it has developed a system to store payments-related data in India as part of compliance with the Reserve Bank of India's policy on storing such data locally.

In May this year, the messaging app had told the Supreme Court that its trial run is likely to be completed by July, and that it will not launch payments services without fully complying with the central bank norms.

How a $14 tech tool is helping political parties bypass WhatsApp controls

WhatsApp clones and software tools that cost as little as $14 are helping Indian digital marketers and political activists bypass anti-spam restrictions set up by the world's most popular messaging app, Reuters has found.

The activities highlight the challenges WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc, faces in preventing abuse in India, its biggest market with more than 200 million users.

With fervent campaigning in India's staggered general election, which concludes on May 19, the demand for such tools has surged, according to digital companies and sources in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its main rival, the Congress party.

After false messages on WhatsApp last year sparked mob lynchings in India, the company restricted forwarding of a message to only five users. The software tools appear to overcome those restrictions, allowing users to reach thousands of people at once.

Divya Spandana, the social media chief of the Congress, and the BJP's IT head, Amit Malviya, did not respond requests for comment.

Rohitash Repswal, who owns a digital marketing business in a cramped, residential neighbourhood of New Delhi, said he ran a Rs 1,000 ($14) piece of software round-the-clock in recent months to send up to 100,000 WhatsApp messages a day for two BJP members.

"Whatever WhatsApp does, there's a workaround," Repswal said during an interview at his small, two-bedroom house.

Reuters found WhatsApp was misused in at least three ways in India for political campaigning: free clone apps available online were used by some BJP and Congress workers to manually forward messages on a mass basis; software tools which allow users to automate delivery of WhatsApp messages; and some firms offering political workers the chance to go onto a website and send bulk WhatsApp messages from anonymous numbers.

At least three software tools were available on Amazon.com's India website. When purchased by a Reuters reporter, they arrived as compact discs tucked inside thin cardboard casings, with no company branding.

WhatsApp declined a Reuters request to allow testing such tools for reporting this story.

"We are continuing to step up our enforcement against imposter WhatsApp services and take legal action by sending cease and desist letters to hundreds of bulk messaging service providers to help curb abuse," a spokeswoman said. "We do not want them to operate on our platform and we work to ban them".

WhatsApp clones

Modified versions of popular apps have become common as technically-savvy hobbyists have long reverse-engineered them.

Tools purporting to bypass WhatsApp restrictions are advertised in videos and online forums aimed at users in Indonesia and Nigeria, both of which held major elections this year.

For Indian politicians, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are key campaigning tools to target the country's near 900 million voters.

Two Congress sources and one BJP source told Reuters their workers used clone apps such as "GBWhatsApp" and "JTWhatsApp", which allowed them to cut through WhatsApp's restrictions.

Both apps have a green-colour interface that closely resembles WhatsApp and can be downloaded for free from dozens of technology blogs. They are not available on Google's official app store but work on Android phones.

WhatsApp describes such apps as "unofficial" and says its users can face bans, which means the company can block the account associated with a particular mobile number if it detects unusual activity. Some Congress workers said they did not care.

"WhatsApp occasionally bans some of these numbers, but the volunteers would use new (mobile) sim cards to sign up," said a Congress member with direct knowledge of the activities.

In Mumbai, a person in the social media team of a senior BJP candidate said no restrictions on JTWhatsApp meant his team could easily send forwards to up to 6,000 people a day, as well as video files containing political content which would be far bigger in size than allowed on the official WhatsApp service.

Reuters was not able to ascertain the overall scale of such activities and found no evidence that BJP and Congress leaders officially ordered workers to campaign this way.

'Business senders'

In New Delhi, digital marketer Repswal said he would typically charge Rs 150,000 ($2,161) for a month's service for creating digital content, providing a database of mobile numbers and then sending 300,000 WhatsApp messages.

He uses a piece of software named "Business Sender" which he said he also sells for Rs 1,000 ($14).

A person can add many mobile numbers in a field and compose messages with pictures. Using a so-called "Group Contacts Grabber" feature, the user can also extract a list of mobile numbers from a particular WhatsApp group with a click of a button.

Repswal didn't name the two BJP members he worked for, but in a demonstration for Reuters, added dozens of mobile numbers in the software, typed a test message saying "your vote is your right" and hit "send". Then, his WhatsApp web version started delivering the messages almost robotically, one after the other.

Business Sender was "not supported or endorsed" by WhatsApp and was developed by "Tiger Vikram Mysore INDIA", its system properties said.

A member of the software support team at Business Sender, Rajesh K., declined to identify the developer by his real name, but said the tool was designed in Lebanon about four months ago and takes advantage of what he called a "loophole" in WhatsApp's system.

"This is not rocket science or fabricated software," said Rajesh. "There are hundreds of such software available." In April, when a Reuters reporter responded to a text message with an "Election Special" offer of sending 100,000 "bulk WhatsApp" messages for Rs 7,999 ($115), he was invited to an office in a dusty industrial area of Noida in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

"How many messages you want to send, tell us: 10,000, 1 million, 2 million," a representative asked, while showing a black-coloured, password-protected website they use for sending bulk WhatsApp messages.

WhatsApp's new fingerprint feature may stop users from taking screenshots

Do you often take screenshots of your private chats on WhatsApp? As part of the company's security changes, a new authentication feature, if enabled, will prevent users from taking screenshots, according to WabetaInfo.

The Facebook-owned messaging app is reportedly testing a new fingerprint feature that would require users to scan their fingerprints to access chats. As a result, people who get a hold of your phone will not be able to send or read your private messages on WhatsApp. However, once enabled, users will no longer be able to capture screenshots. 

The Android beta version 2.19.106, tested by WabetaInfo, said, "We do not know why WhatsApp decided to prevent screenshots when fingerprint is enabled."

It also provided a screenshot of an alert that read: "Fingerprint security - When enabled, fingerprint is required to open WhatsApp and conversation screenshots are blocked. You can still reply to messages from notifications and answer calls if WhatsApp is locked."

WhatsApp This screenshot shows the fingerprint update by WhatsApp

WhatsApp won't be the only one to act on this. Streaming service Netflix also prevents its users from taking screengrabs of its videos.

On the other hand, Snapchat notifies people that their stories have been grabbed.

Doodle away

The new feature will also roll out animated stickers and doodles that will be included in WhatsApp sticker packs. Doodle UI will also users to edit photos by drawing on them or adding stickers. These stickers can also be grouped as categories such as "Favourite" so you can easily find the sticker you want to use. The UI feature, as shown below, looks similar to Instagram's doodle drawer.

WhatsApp Screenshot of the new Doodle UI feature by WhatsApp

Earlier this month, the company released a statement that they would be releasing a new feature that would stop people from adding users automatically to group chats. Currently, being added to a group chat exposes your numbers to several others who you might not know.

In addition, to minimise the spread of fake news on its platform, WhatsApp is testing the "Forwarding Info" and "Frequently Forwarded Message" feature that would let its over 1.5 billion users know how many times a message has been forwarded.