LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Facebook has the ability to read through encrypted messages on its Whatsapp messaging platform, according to a new report from the Guardian.
Mark Zuckerberg's social network company claims that it has no capability of accessing personal messages through Whatsapp, but privacy campaigners say the new information proves otherwise.

Guaranteed privacy has been one of the big selling points for the app, which is one of the most-downloaded applications on both iOS and Android software.

The security gap was identified by Tobias Boelter, a cryptography and security researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

"If WhatsApp is asked by a government agency to disclose its messaging records, it can effectively grant access due to the change in keys," Boelter told the Guardian.

Recently passed legislation in the United Kingdom allows the government to intercept bulk data of users held by private companies without suspicion of criminal activity, and with Whatsapp's "end-to-end encryption" technology, it could be used as a way to facilitate government interception.

Whatsapp issued a statement in response to the reports, stating that it would not collaborate with governments in an attempt to read users' messages.

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