Daum Kakao, the new entity behind the messaging app Kakao Talk, has released a brand new end-to-end encrypted feature on the app after the scandal related to the user data in few months. The company is working on bringing in the new Secret Chat option, which will be available on Android devices and iOS to be set on this very soon. This new feature is active in two forms: through a drop down window in the present chats or a sensitive button which starts the new Secret Chat.
The feature is started for live conversations in which one-to-one communication is done, but Duam Kakao stated that it would be available for the group chats too within the first trimester of 2017. The company has also made a privacy tweak to allows users to leave the group chats for avoiding the unwanted stuff and prevent other users from reading them.
Kakao app has got more than 150 million users, but the quantity is highest in Korea where it is installed on 95% of the total smartphones. This successive dominance was checked in October 2016 when media reported that the Presidential Park was preparing for crack down on the messaging app and got control over the user data from its parent firm.
This sent the necessary number of the Kakao users to flee away towards the much safer app. The security noticed Telegram appeared to get more profit, mapping in a report up to 1.5 million new users in Korea within few days.
Eventually, Duam denied that it sent info and pledged to introduce the steps for making users well-aware of the data. This included the entry of a Google type report of relaying all the information requests in Korea, and this encryption mechanism is working out presently.
We recently hit 200 million users! Thanks to all our awesome users, we love you! pic.twitter.com/3BuTT5NXU6
— KakaoTalk (@kakaotalk) December 3, 2015
The company said that the encryption mechanism is stored on the user’s devices which make the Secret Chat unattainable, even to Duam.
The storm of privacy concerns has been settled down, but it is worth noticing that Kakao Talk is not the only messaging app which took it seriously to make the user data safe.
WhatsApp, being the world’s top messaging app that is widely used, introduced an unparalleled mandatory end-to-end encryption feature, having WhisperSystems as a partner recently. While Line, a competent from Japan, introduced an opt-in feature for its famous messaging app in July 2016.
