Many prestigious Western media houses have recently reported that WhatsApp (an instant messaging application for smart phones) and Snapchat (a photo messaging application) could be banned under sitting British Premier David Cameron's new surveillance laws if the Conservatives win the forthcoming polls in May 2015. The news has certainly rattled the 700 million global users of WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook on February 19, 2014 for US$19 billion. Research conducted by the Jang Group and Geo Television Network shows that in terms of international subscribers, WhatsApp is followed by China's WeChat (468 million active users), Viber (209 million active users) and Japan's LINE (170 million users). India alone boasts of a WhatsApp user base of more than 70 million, making it the largest single country in terms of number of users. (References: Press Trust of India, Times of India, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Facebook and the Financial Times London) On the other hand, Snapchat had claimed in May 2014 that it had 27 million users in the United States alone and approximately 50 million users globally. The Snapchat users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day, while the content of its stories was being viewed 500 million times per day. In terms of growth during 2014, Snapchat is followed by Facebook Messenger, Instagram and the Japanese LINE. Google rests at ninth and Viber at tenth position in terms of growth during 2014, followed by WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube and Skype etc. (Reference: United Kingdom's highly respected social media agency "Our Social Times," which provides social media strategy, marketing, management and monitoring services for a wide selection of clients) Unlike WhatsApp, Messrs Snapchat had declined to sell its platform to Facebook for $3 billion. Coming back to David Cameron's new surveillance laws, various civil liberties groups in the UK especially have voiced concern that this proposed move could lead to serious abuse of power. The British Prime Minister said recently that he wanted to impose new surveillance legislation for his country in a bid to outlaw certain forms of encrypted digital communication. An esteemed American weekly news magazine "Newsweek" has stated in its January 13, 2015 edition: "The Draft Communications Data Bill, nicknamed the 'Snoopers' Charter,' was first proposed by home secretary Theresa May in 2012, and would require internet service providers and mobile phone companies to maintain records - but not content - of each user's internet browsing history, emails, internet gaming, mobile messaging services for 12 months. Previous plans for the data bill were blocked by the Liberal Democrats, but Cameron has now stressed that he would ensure the legislation was passed if the Conservatives won the general election in May." The "Newsweek" has gone on to write: " The law, which Cameron pledges to bring in if he wins the 2015 election, means that communication which the security services can't read would be made illegal. Such a move could see a series of popular messaging platforms blocked, including WhatsApp, Snapchat, Apple's iMessage and FaceTime. Speaking at an event in the East Midlands, Cameron said he recognised such powers were "very intrusive" but that they were necessary to help counter the growing threat of terrorism in the UK. He said such a move would be "absolutely right." David Cameron was quoted as saying: "In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people, which even in extremis, with a signed warrant from the home secretary personally, that we cannot read? Up until now, governments of this country have said no, we must not have such a means of communication." The 82-year old "Newsweek" magazine had further quoted the British Premier as saying: "That is why, in extremis, it has been possible to read someone's letter. That is why... it's been possible to listen in to someone's telephone call. That is why the same has been applied to mobile communications. But the question remains: are we going to allow a means of communication where it simply isn't possible to do that? My answer is no, we are not. The first duty of any government is to keep our country and our people safe." Founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton in 2009, WhatsApp software automatically compares all the phone numbers from the device's address book with its central database, helping it get recognised and acknowledged as a fast and convenient way to quickly find and connect the user with contacts who are also using this messaging application. Although WhatsApp had released a new version of the Messenger application for iPhones a couple of years ago in an effort to plug the critical security holes that allowed forged messages to be sent and messages from any WhatsApp user to be read, the issue pertaining to the privacy vulnerabilities of message exchange has come to light. The surfacing of privacy issue is natural in an era where safe internet messaging is deemed a fiction by aware segments of the society, who have been particularly unnerved since American computer professional and whistle-blower Edward Snowden had leaked the classified information from the US National Security Agency (NSA)'s surveillance techniques and spying apparatus in June 2013. In July 2014, "The Washington Post" had reported on a cache previously provided by Snowden from domestic National Security Agency operations consisting of roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts. Leaked documents published by a top German media house "Der Spiegel" in 2014 had appeared to show that the NSA had targeted 122 "high ranking" leaders. Most experts on the subject of computer privacy have opined that since the WhatsApp service processes tens of billions of messages daily; it can hardly be considered safe. They argue that the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook cannot speak in favour of safe messaging. It is imperative to note that Facebook has long been criticised for the massive amounts of data it collects, besides being slated for its ever-changing privacy settings that may make that data available to others on the site. Users have thus expressed concerns often that the acquisition meant WhatsApp would change its privacy policy or share data on users with Facebook (the social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them). On the contrary, WhatsApp claims it doesn't even collect basic information such as email addresses or birthdays, unlike many social services such as Facebook. It keeps saying it does not collect message content or images sent between users, either. The WhatsApp terms of service state: "The contents of any delivered messages are not kept or retained by WhatsApp - the only records of the content of any delivered messages reside directly on the sender's and recipient's mobile devices (and which may be deleted at the user's option)." This is what Jan Koum, the WhatsApp CEO had said on record sometime back: "It has the effect of scaring people into thinking we're suddenly collecting all kinds of new data. That's just not true, and it's important to us that you know that." It is also worth mentioning here that Jan Koum was brought up in the conservative Soviet Union at a time when censorship was a daily part of the lifestyle. He had himself pointed to his upbringing as a major reason that user privacy continues to be a top priority for WhatsApp.
