Since WhatsApp always highlights its privacy and security, this raises some serious questions for its users.
Enterprises and employees, which use WhatsApp for business purposes, ask themselves if they can rely on WhatsApp’s encryption and platform security? In this article, we discuss WhatsApp encryption and security in full, read on to learn more about this important topic.
Businesses Disclose Much More Information Than it Might Appear
Let’s have a look at the encryption question first. Let’s assume some security experts are right and this is a small vulnerability, which can only be exploited in exceptional cases. Does that mean overall the encryption is still secure for businesses? The answer for most enterprises is clearly no. WhatsApp’s encryption only encrypts the messages, but not the metadata.
For example, WhatsApp keeps track of who you communicate with, how frequently you interact with them, the duration of your interactions, and the individual or group chats you’re involved in. Surprisingly, this metadata, information about your communication habits, is often considered more valuable than the content of your messages.
That’s why intelligence agencies love the metadata. Metadata gives Whatsapp an excellent overview of your social and in this case your business relations and their importance.
In addition, in many cases, the metadata easily gives a clue about the end-to-end encrypted content. For example, when you communicate with a specific supplier, it is clear that you are interested in a certain component. When you intensively exchange with a customer, it is obvious that he is interested in buying your product. When you talk to a certain consultant, you probably look for advice on a topic.
When you consult a specific doctor, you probably need special medical aid. When you regularly connect with a competitor, you might contemplate a merger. And so on…
In summary, it can be said, that by using Whatsapp businesses potentially disclose much more information than it might appear.
And all this data will end up with and be used by Facebook.
Businesses Do Not Meet Their Security, Data Protection and Compliance Requirements.
Now let’s talk about the second part of the question: Does WhatsApp provide security, data protection and compliance for businesses? Again, the answer for most enterprises is clearly no. This can be easily shown by asking a list of questions:
- Does WhatsApp provide strong data protection required by businesses? No.
- Is the privacy policy of WhatsApp made for the requirements of European enterprises? No.
- Does it ensure minimal data usage and not storing address books? No.
- Is it hosted in a European data centre (or ideally in the country of a business)? No.
- Is WhatsApp compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which enterprises have to fulfil? No.
- Does the usage of it ensure legal compliance required by businesses? No.
- Can enterprises using it prevent mixing private and business communications? No.
- Can enterprises using it prevent mixing private and business contacts? No.
- Can businesses using it prevent the distribution of confidential information to external people (e.g. data
theft)? No. - Can an enterprise manage and control the access of its employees to Whatsapp? No.
- Can a business block the access of an employee to WhatsApp in case of a data loss prevention scenario? No.
- Can enterprises configure communication rules for its employees and units for Whatsapp? No.
- Can a business control the data and content shared via WhatsApp? No.
- Can an enterprise configure data protection and compliance policies for Whatsapp? No.
- Can an enterprise archive the chats of WhatsApp for audit reasons? No.
- Does it support mobile device management or enterprise mobility management solutions? No.
- Does it provide mobile application management? No.
Actually, there are even more questions on the security, data protection and compliance of WhatsApp, that businesses could ask.
Is WhatsApp Safe for Business Communication?
Ultimately, whether you should or shouldn’t use WhatsApp for business communications comes down to who you are communicating with. Even though WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, for internal messaging within your organisation, WhatsApp is not an advised method. However, for communications with clients, WhatsApp is a perfect choice.
WhatsApp does not provide the security, encryption, data protection and compliance required by businesses for internal communication.
For secure, private, protected and compliant communication with colleagues and teams, businesses need a dedicated enterprise messaging app like Teamwire.
WhatsApp Encryption and Security with CWSI
If you’re unsure whether the data your employees are sharing with each other through WhatsApp is secure, we recommend speaking to one of our expert advisors. Simply contact us and one of our professionals will be happy to address your concerns.
