No one else can read your WhatsApp chat as WhatsApp gets end-to-end encryption.

Completely everything on WhatsApp is now encrypted end-to-end irrespective of the operating system you are using. The implication of this now is that even the engineers handling WhatsApp can’t even read your messages neither can they generally have a view of videos sent by its users. And they can’t even provide any data from your chat even if a courts orders them to.

No one else can read your WhatsApp chat as WhatsApp gets end-to-end encryption.

“WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you’re communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp,” going by the explanatory details published WhatsApp’s website.

The user base of WhatsApp now runs into over a billion users therefore enthroning it firmly as the world’s most famous chat app. This end-to-end encryption move was not entirely a bolt from the blue, WhatsApp has been gradually pushing it on board as some hundreds of millions were already having a little taste of this encryption on Android since November 2014; only that the encryption wasn’t covering every message like photos, group chats and videos. Moreover there was no encryption for other systems like Windows Phone or Apple’s iOS.

“Now every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you sends , is end-to-end encrypted by default if you and the people you message use the latest version of our app. Even your group chats and voice calls are encrypted,” WhatsApp co-founder JanKoum explained via means of a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Some signs informing the users that encryption has taken centre stage. There is now the appearance at the top of every new chat a text bubble which confirms that calls as much as calls are currently covered with end-to-end encryption. As a user, you can now also make verifications manually as to the encryption of a chat by making comparison of a 60-unit string of codes which is generated for each and every chat. Another way to know is via making a scan of very distinct QR code.

NCC to start checking the likes of WhatsApp, BBM, Facebook etc. How possible is this?

The debate has been raging on and on for a while now. Social media and IM apps have so eaten the cheese of mobile networks, so much that,they feel they need to be regulated. Can this be ever achieved? More and more people are switching to these platforms daily, as it gets easier and cheaper to use. We wonder, if it can ever be possible to put a check on these guys. That’s exactly what NCC is trying to do.

Going by reports from Guardian, The Regulatory body is seriously considering setting up a licensing regime through a regulatory framework for operations of Over-The-Top (OTT) player's in the Nigerian telecommunications market. You may wonder, “Who are OTT players”?

OTT players are platforms that deliver audio, video, and other media over the Internet without the involvement of a multiple-system operator in the control or distribution of the content. These include Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Blackberry Messenger (BBM), etc. and are prime targets for the impending regulation.

NCC feel they are a threat, and there’s the possibility or “the risk of eroding revenues and profitability,” for telecom operators. The later feel they are entitled to some kind of fees since they are the ones offering data services, which customers use to access the OTT platforms.

Maybe this can spur mobile network to start exploring more innovative and cost effective ways of competing with these OTT service providers.