According to the reports of leading web portal, the Indian rules state online services are only permitted to use up to 40-bit encryption and if they want to use higher encryption standards, they need to seek govt's permission. But, WhatsApp on the other hand offers 256-bit key for encryption of all chat messages.
Hence, all those users who have updated their WhatsApp in India are actually using it illegally, says the report published in web portal.
On Tuesday April 05, WhatsApp, which has more than a billion users, said it has introduced encryption to all its services."Encryption is one of the most important tools, governments, companies and individuals have to promote safety and security in the new digital age. Recently there has been a lot of discussion about encrypted services and the work of law enforcement," WhatsApp said in a blog post.
WhatsApp said end-to-end encrypted messages can only be read by the intended recipients."And if you're using the latest version of WhatsApp, you don't have to do a thing to encrypt your messages: end-to-end encryption is on by default and all the time," it said.
WhatsApp's use of encryption has already caused friction in Brazil, where authorities recently arrested and then released a Facebook Inc. executive after the company said it was unable to unscramble a user's encrypted messages. That's because end-to-end encryption automatically encodes each message with an algorithm that can only be unlocked by the sender and recipient.