Finally WhatsApp has done something that makes me
declare that WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum has gone “pon the river, pon the bank”, Elephant
Man Style, in his disdain for Brazil’s stance on the Right to Privacy and Freedom
of Speech.
I'm of course talking about their WhatsApp desktop
app for Windows 8+ and Mac OS 10.9+ computers which was announced on their WhatsApp
blog on May 10th, 2016 in the post “Introducing
WhatsApp's desktop app”.
 |
The App is merely an extension of WhatsApp on your
smartphone and is an improvement on the WhatsApp Desktop App that they'd rolled
out in on the 21st January 2015 as reported in my blog article
entitled “@WhatsApp
comes to the Desktop via the Browser - Why Desktop on Laptop and PC is Mobile
Social Network's Last Frontier”.
So why are they releasing yet another Desktop App?
WhatsApp
on Desktop - How Right to Privacy and Freedom of Speech being eroded before Rio
2016 Olympics
It may be due to legal issues within Brazil
concerning access to user data as noted in the article “WhatsApp
launches native desktop app for Windows and Mac”, published MAY 10, 2016 by
Ken Yeung, Venturebeat.
 |
They've also rolled out E2EE (End to end Encryption)
their service since Tuesday April 5th 2016 as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Why
Viber and WhatsApp going E2EE as Telecom Providers need encryption”.
So going desktop may be their way of giving users
options as to how they can receive their messages, being as they have no plans
to compromise on security as pointed out by WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum as noted in
the article “WhatsApp
Founder Slams Brazil Shut-Down, Says We 'Won't Compromise User Security’”,
published May 3, 2016 by Parmy Olson, Forbes.
To use the WhatsApp App, do the following:
1. Visit
https://www.WhatsApp.com/download
from your desktop browser
2. Open
the app
3. Look
under Settings for WhatsApp Web menu
4. Scan
the QR code using the WhatsApp app on your phone
Americans traveling to Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil
may wish to take note of this, as going to Brazil may mean facing outages to
WhatsApp Service. So travelling with your Laptop and WhatsApp on your browser
will allow you to still receive you messages, voice notes and notifications
without having to use your smartphone.
Also, it's potentially harder for Brazil to block.
Once the desktop app is authenticated using the procedure above, you can revive
your messages on your Laptop WITHOUT the phone. Guess I was right about 2016
being the year of encryption as noted in my Geezam
blog article entitled “Why
Google’s Blogger is going HTTPS and How to Enable HTTPS”.
Government Censorship means Silicon Valley companies
have to find creative ways to allow their users to use their service and
preserve Right to Privacy and Freedom of Speech even as they respect the laws
of the countries they operate.
Here's the link:
https://www.WhatsApp.com/download
No comments:
Post a Comment