Page 23 - ATODAY

TECHNOLOGY A23
Wednesday 6 April 2016

WhatsApp extends encryption

to photos, video, other messages

BRANDON BAILEY phones, Apple’s iPhones er’s encrypted messages. This Feb. 19, 2014, file photo, shows WhatsApp and Facebook
AP Technology Writer and other devices. That’s because end-to-end app icons on a smartphone in New York.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Encryption has become a encryption automatically
WhatsApp says it’s now hotly debated subject, with encodes each message Associated Press
using a powerful form of some U.S. authorities warn- with an algorithm that can
encryption to protect the ing that criminals and vio- only be unlocked by the cryption for its iMessage WhatsApp uses encryp-
security of photos, videos, lent extremists can use it to sender and recipient. service, but some experts tion technology from Open
group chats and voice hide their tracks. WhatsApp A handful of less-popular say WhatsApp’s method Whisper Systems, a San
calls in addition to the text co-founder Jan Koum, who services, including Signal, may be more secure be- Francisco group that de-
messages sent by its more grew up in the Soviet Union, Wickr and Telegram, use cause it provides a security veloped its software with
than a billion users around says he believes consum- end-to-end encryption, code that senders and re- private funding and gov-
the globe. ers should have easy-to- while others don’t use en- cipients can use to verify a ernment grants, including a
use encryption as protec- cryption at all. Google, message came from some- State Department program
The popular service owned tion against hackers and Facebook and Yahoo one they know — and not that encouraged encryp-
by Facebook began ap- identity thieves, as well as use less extensive encryp- from a hacker posing as a tion as a defense against
plying “end-to-end” en- “rogue” governments that tion to protect emails and friend. repressive regimes.q
cryption to standard mes- spy on their own citizens. messages while they’re in
sages sent on Android WhatsApp’s use of encryp- transit, to prevent outsid-
smartphones in 2014. After tion has already caused ers from eavesdropping.
gradually expanding to friction in Brazil, where au- But those companies retain
other formats, WhatsApp thorities recently arrested the ability to scan mes-
confirmed Tuesday that its and then released a Face- sages at certain points and
encryption now works with book Inc. executive after can unlock them under a
all forms of communica- the company said it was court order.
tion on its app for Android unable to unscramble a us- Apple uses end-to-end en-

Facebook programs computers to describe photos for the blind

MICHAEL LIEDTKE a person had shared a This Feb. 19, 2014, file photo shows the Facebook app icon on Facebook also plans to
AP Technology Writer photo without any elabo- an iPhone in New York. turn on the technology for
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) ration. its Android app and make
— Facebook is training The photo descriptions ini- (Associated Press it available through Web
its computers to become tially will be confined to a browsers visiting its site.
seeing-eye guides for blind vocabulary of 100 words ture in its Photos app la- tions and even answers The Menlo Park, California,
and visually impaired peo- in a restriction that will pre- beled a black couple as questions that a user might company is trying to ensure
ple as they scroll through vent the computer from gorillas, prompting the pose about a picture. the world’s nearly 300 mil-
the pictures posted on the providing a lot of details. company to issue an apol- The vocabulary of Face- lion blind and visually im-
world’s largest online social For instance, the automat- ogy. book’s photo-recognition paired people remain inter-
network. ed voice may only tell a Eventually, though, Face- program includes “car,” ested in its social network
The feature rolling out Tues- user that a photo features book hopes to refine ‘’sky,” ‘’dessert,” ‘’baby,” as a steadily increasing
day on Facebook’s iPhone three people smiling out- the technology so it pro- ‘’shoes,” and, of course, number of photos appear
and iPad apps interprets doors without adding that vides more precise descrip- “selfie.” on its service. On an aver-
what’s in a picture using the trio also has drinks in age day, Facebook says
a form of artificial intelli- their hands. Or it may say more than 2 billion photos
gence that recognizes fac- the photo is of pizza without are posted on its social net-
es and objects. VoiceOver, adding that there’s pep- work and other apps that
a screen reader built into peroni and olives on top of it owns, a list that includes
the software powering the it. Messenger, Instagram and
iPhone and iPad, must be Facebook is being care- WhatsApp.
turned on for Facebook’s ful with the technology, In a Tuesday post, Face-
photo descriptions to be called “automatic alterna- book CEO Mark Zuckerberg
read. For now, the feature tive text,” in an attempt to hailed the photo descrip-
will only be available in avoid making a mistake tion tool as “an important
English. that offends its audience. step towards making sure
Until now, people relying Google learned the risks of everyone has equal access
on screen readers on Face- automation last year when to information and is includ-
book would only hear that an image recognition fea- ed in the conversation.”q