WhatsApp to Share your Personal Data With Facebook

 

Recently the Facebook-owned messaging app dropped its $1 annual subscription fee to make WhatsApp Free for Lifetime.

Now, WhatsApp has plans to introduce a new feature that would allow its users to integrate their Facebook accounts with the most widely used messaging app.

So far, the social media giant has been focusing on its own messaging platform, Messenger and both WhatsApp and Facebook have been working separately in terms of adding new features.

WhatsApp to Share User Data With Facebook

Android developer Javier Santos spotted a new feature in the latest beta build of WhatsApp, which indicates that soon you’ll start seeing some features interconnected between WhatsApp and Facebook.

 

The feature (optional, for now), dubbed "Share my account info," when selected will share your personal WhatsApp account information with Facebook in order "to improve your Facebook experience," according to the description.

Although it's unclear how exactly the new feature works, it is believed that the feature may help you share photos to your timeline and create an album shortcut via WhatsApp or vice versa.

Facebook-WhatsApp Deeper Integration

From past two years, we haven't noticed any Facebook and WhatsApp integration, but this minor change made by WhatsApp raised doubt in our minds that Why the social media giant is merging WhatsApp with Facebook.

When Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for over $20 Billion, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that Facebook and Whatsapp would continue to co-exist as separate platforms.

At that time, WhatsApp team also assured its users that nothing would change and that the popular messaging app would operate independently.

However, this recent update considered being the first step towards merging the two popular platforms in an effort to take control of the popular messaging market and sustain growth together.

WhatsApp to Offer End-to-End Encryption

Moreover, The beta build of WhatsApp also includes a new section completely focused on users' privacy, indicating that the popular messaging service is looking to bolster security in order to make its user conversations more secure.

The new feature, dubbed "Show Security Indicators," will be imbibed in WhatsApp in an impending update. The feature is similar to the one Apple uses in its iMessage.

When enabled, the feature will encrypt all your chats and calls with End-to-End encryption, meaning users' conversations cannot be spied on; not even by WhatsApp itself.

This could be just a start, and we could see a deeper Facebook-WhatsApp integration in future that could even allow users to send messages between WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

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Microsoft Collecting More Data of Windows 10 Users than Initially Thought

After several controversial data mining and privacy invasion features within Microsoft's newest operating system, Microsoft continued convincing its users that Windows 10 is not spying on anyone and that the company is not collecting more data than it needs.

In addition, Microsoft also updated its privacy policy in order to clear how and when Windows 10 utilizes users' data.

But wait, before you convinced yourself by this statement, just have a look on the milestones (listed below) that Microsoft recently announced, revealing that Windows 10 is now actively running on 200 Million devices.

Microsoft Tracks Your Every Move

Here's the list of milestones that Microsoft just achieved:

• People spent over 11 Billion hours on Windows 10 in December 2015.
• More than 44.5 Billion minutes were spent in Microsoft Edge across Windows 10 devices in December alone.
• Windows 10 users asked Cortana over 2.5 Billion questions since launch.
• About 30 percent more Bing search queries per Windows 10 device compared to prior versions of Windows.
• Over 82 Billion photographs were viewed in the Windows 10 Photo application.
• Gamers spent more than 4 Billion hours playing PC games on Windows 10 OS.
• Gamers streamed more than 6.6 Million hours of Xbox One games to Windows 10 PCs.

Maybe Microsoft listed these statistics in order to illustrate just how popular its newest operating system has become, but what the company missed is:

Microsoft itself admitted that how deeply it is tracking Windows 10 users.

First noticed by Martin Brinkmann of gHacks, these statistics clearly indicate that Microsoft is not only keeping itself updated about the Windows 10 installation on different devices but is also tracking every single activity of its users by collecting more data than initially thought.

Playing a game? Microsoft tracks it. 

Asking Cortana a question? Microsoft tracks it. 

Opening Edge browser? Microsoft tracks it, too.

"While it is unclear what data is exactly collected," Brinkmann says, "it is clear that the company is collecting information about the use of individual applications and programs on Windows at the very least."

This is the actual dirty side of the free Windows 10 upgrade that we many times talk about, and with time, it will be more shocking to you because the most worrisome part of Windows 10 is that there's no easy way to turn this data collection off.

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Microsoft Keeps Backup of Your Encryption Key on its Server — Here's How to Delete it

Have you recently purchased a Windows computer?

Congratulations! As your new Windows computer has inbuilt disk encryption feature that is turned on by default in order to protect your data in case your device is lost or stolen.

Moreover, In case you lost your encryption keys then don't worry, Microsoft has a copy of your Recovery Key.

But Wait! If Microsoft already has your Disk Encryption Keys then what’s the use of using disk encryption feature? Doesn't Encryption mean Only you can unlock your disk?

Microsoft Probably Holds your Encryption Keys

Since the launch of Windows 8.1, Microsoft is offering disk encryption as a built-in feature for Windows laptops, Windows phones and other devices.

However, there is a little-known fact, highlighted by The Intercept, that if you have logged into Windows 10 using your Microsoft account, your system had automatically uploaded a copy of your recovery key to Microsoft’s servers secretly, and you can't prevent device encryption from sending your recovery key.

Note: Do not get confuse device encryption with BitLocker. Both works same but have different configuration options. BitLocker offers users a choice whether or not they want to backup their Recovery keys on Windows server.

Why Should You Worry?

• If a hacker hacks your Microsoft account, he can make a copy of your recovery key before you delete it (method described below).
• Any Rogue employee at Microsoft with access to user data can access your recovery key.
• If Microsoft itself get hacked, the hacker can have their hands on your recovery key.
• Even Law Enforcement or Spy agencies could also request Microsoft to hand over your recovery key.

"Your computer is now only as secure as that database of keys held by Microsoft, which means it may be vulnerable to hackers, foreign governments, and people who can extort Microsoft employees," said Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins University.

How to Delete your Recovery Key from your Microsoft Account?

Although there's no way to prevent a new Windows computer from uploading the recovery key at the very first time you log into your Microsoft account, you can delete the existing recovery key from your Microsoft account and generate a new one.

Follow these simple steps in order to remove your recovery key from your Microsoft account:

Step 1: Open this website and log in with your Microsoft Account

Step 2: You will find list of recovery keys backed up to your Microsoft Account

Step 3: Take a back of your recovery Keys locally

Step 4: Go ahead and delete your recovery key from Microsoft Account.

Important Fact: Green also pointed out that even after deleting the recovery key from your Microsoft account, there is no guarantee that the key has been removed from the company's server.

Instant Solution: To solve this issue, Windows users are recommended to stop using their old encryption keys and generate a new one without sharing it with Microsoft.

How to Generate a New Encryption key (Without Sending a copy to Microsoft)?

Sorry for Windows Home Edition users, but Windows Pro or Enterprise users can create new key by decrypting whole hard disk and then re-encrypt the disk, and this time in such a way that you will actually get asked how you want to backup your Recovery Key.

Step 1: Go to Start, type "Bitlocker," and click "Manage BitLocker."

Step 2: Click "Turn off BitLocker" and it will decrypt your disk.

Step 3: Once done, Click "Turn on BitLocker" again.

Step 4: Then Windows will ask you: How you want to backup your Recovery Key. Make sure to DO NOT SELECT "Save to your Microsoft Account." That's it.

Congratulations! 

Finally, the new Windows device you purchased specially for disk encryption feature has now enabled the feature, and Microsoft no longer can unlock it.

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