As of Tuesday 6 April 2016, all WhatsApp messages and conversations are safer. The world’s most famous instant messaging company has introduced an encryption system that makes it impossible to intercept or spy on conversations. The news of the introduction of end to end encryption on WhatsApp came at a particular historical moment.

Surely you have heard of the dispute between the FBI and Apple . The American police detective had asked Apple to unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino Killer. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, responded with a sharp “no” . A position also supported by Mark Zuckerberg, owner of facebook but also of WhatsApp, who now introduces this new function demonstrating the concrete desire to protect the privacy of its users as much as possible.

But what does “end to end encryption” mean and why is this new measure so important to users? Is our privacy really safe now?

Amnesty International called the move a “big push” for freedom of expression.

“This is a great victory for privacy and freedom of expression, especially for activists and journalists who depend on reliable communications to do their jobs without putting their lives more at risk,” the institute said.

What is end to end encryption on WhatsApp?

“The idea is simple: – explains WhatsApp on the official blog – when you send a message, only the person or group to whom the message was sent can read it . No one else can see that message. Not cyber criminals. Not the hackers. Not the oppressive regimes. Neither do we. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private – a kind of face-to-face conversation . “

Here (below the preview image) the video published by WhatsApp explaining what end to end encryption is, you can find it on Facebook at this link:  https://www.facebook.com/WhatsApp/videos/1187381767987713/

Technically , end-to-end encryption works is a mathematical algorithm that transforms all of our messages, photos, videos and voice notes into a sequence of numbers . These are sent and received by the recipient as numbers, then the application on the recipient’s phone transforms the numbers back into messages, photos, videos and voice notes.

Thus, WhatsApp has adapted to other instant messaging services that already used this technology, such as Telegram.

If you want to know all the details of the functioning of the end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp, you can read   all the official regulations created by the same company at this link .

Does end-to-end encryption make WhatsApp 100% secure?WhatsApp seems to have no doubts: “ We live in a world where more and more data is digital, now more than in the past. Every day we hear stories of sensitive data being accessed or breached incorrectly. And if no one intervenes, other digital information or people’s communications will be vulnerable to attack for years to come. Fortunately, end-to-end encryption protects us from these vulnerabilities . “

But are we sure that everything really remains private?

In fact, even with end-to-end encryption it is still possible to spy on WhatsApp conversations. The point is that now to spy on WhatsApp it takes one of three things:

• the victim’s phone available for a few seconds
• the victim’s Apple ID
• have the person you want to spy on download an app

End-to-end encryption, on the other hand, intervenes in all those other cases in which spying takes place remotely with other methods reserved for super technology experts. But it cannot block the possibility of spying on messages that are already on the phone , as is possible – for example – through WhatsApp spying apps .

In other words: end-to-end encryption makes it impossible to “intercept” messages, but it can’t do anything about what’s already on the phone.

Security yes, then, but not total. End-to-end encryption on WhatsApp leaves some flaws open.