WhatsApp Introduces Group Chat Mentions, GIFs and more in Latest Update

On social media, many people expressed their discomfort when it came to group chat conversations, especially when using Whatsapp.

The users were very keen in asking for a feature which allows users to scroll directly to the related part with their name being tagged then having to go through the entire conversation to do so.

It seems that Whatsapp has finally granted them their wish. WhatsApp has added a much need option which allows users to tag other group chat members in the latest update (Version 2.16.272).

How to Use @mentions in Group Chats

To tag a group member, all you have to do is use the symbol @ and select them from the drop down list and add them as a mention.

This feature is very similar to the method of tagging people on Twitter and WhatsApp competitor Telegram.

But that’s not the only new feature that Whatsapp is getting in this update.

If you are getting annoyed by increasing number of messages in the group chat but you can not mute the chat either, well, now you can! The new Whatsapp chat allows users to still get notification in muted chats if a member has mentioned him/her using “@”.

Whatsapp previously added the option to quote messages, a welcome change by the messaging giant. By introducing this feature, people might not feel that annoyed with a thousand messages waiting them in group chats.

Future Updates

Telegram may not be competing with WhatsApp in terms of users but it has the world’s most used messaging app beat in terms of features. However, that could soon change as WhatsApp plans to bring in features which have been Telegram exclusive for quite some time.

iOS users can now successfully send, receive and view gifs in conversations. However, Android users still cannot properly do that. Whatsapp is aiming to fix the issue in future updates.

For people who are concerned about their security, Whatsapp has also promised to bring a two step authentication system in the coming versions.

The new service agreement also reports that bots will also feature on Whatsapp for further automated help:

Adblock Plus to sell Ads

The popular browser extension that a lot of people use to block ads, Adblock Plus, will be selling ads too soon.

Yes you heard that right.

Good Ads and Bad Ads?

Instead of removing ads from the websites you visit, Adblock plus will instead replace the “bad” ads with the “good” ones.

Here’s how Adblock will classify the good ad from the bad – the ‘bad’ ones include any ad that are too big and intrusive and ultimately irrelevant to you. While the ‘good’ ones will be the smaller and more subtle ads.

And that’s not all. Adblock is going to be launching a marketplace for ‘good’ ads.

New Ad Marketplace

Adblock Plus will be launching an ad marketplace which will let blogs and publishers choose ads from and run them up on their websites.

Essentially, this means that if you have Adblock Plus installed on your browser you will still get ads on websites who are using the ad marketplace, thus entirely killing the idea of installing the Adblock.

Ben Williams, operations and communications director of Adblock Plus says,

It allows you to treat the two different ecosystems completely differently and monetize each one, and crucially, monetize the ad blockers on on their own terms.

In fairness, Adblock had been running an Acceptable Ads program since 2011 but it was fairly limited in scope.

Whitelisted ads could be displayed on websites but the process of whitelisting was a complex and time consuming process. Not to mention Adblock Plus charged the websites to allow them to display whitelisted ads specifically on their websites.

Extension to “Acceptable ads” Program

Through the new ad marketplace, Adblock Plus is hoping to expand their already existing Acceptable Ads program. The publishers will be able to sign up and start running the whitelisted ads after making small modifications to their website’s code.

Whitelisted ads will not be able to track you from different websites and will adhere to specific site and relevancy guidelines as defined by Adblock Plus.

Toll Charging Gatekeepers

They are aiming to place themselves as the gatekeepers, charging a toll from the publishers to let them have that ad revenue they are missing due to blocked ads.

This move is said to be “publisher-friendly” as 80 percent of the ad revenue will go to the publisher while the remaining 20 percent to third parties involved in serving ads (including Adblock Plus, which will be getting 6 percent of it).

The Ad marketplace launches in beta today while the full version is expected to roll out later this year.

Kali Linux 2016.2 - Ready for Pentesters & Hackers

As promised at the Black Hat and Def Con security and hacking conferences, Offensive Security – the creators of Swiss army knife for researchers, penetration testers, and hackers – has finally released the much awaited Kali Linux 2016.2.

Kali Linux is an open-source Debian-based Linux distribution designed to help ethical hackers and security professionals with a wide range of tools for penetration testing, forensics, hacking and reverse engineering together into a single package.

Earlier the Kali Linux distribution was known as BackTrack.

Kali Linux 2016.2 is an updated Live ISO image of the popular GNU/Linux distribution that includes the latest software versions and enhancements for those who want to deploy the operating system on new systems.

What's new?

Besides bringing the updated Live ISOs of Kali Linux, the Kali Linux team brings multiple variants of the GNU/Linux distribution with various Desktop Environments, specifically KDE, Xfce, MATE, LXDE, and Enlightenment – all available only for 64-bit platforms.

What's even more exciting is that, from Kali Linux 2016.2 onwards, the team promises to release updated Live ISO images of Kali with new software versions and the latest security patches every week.

Since Kali Linux has been the most advanced and widely used distro for penetration testing and forensics, this weekly update has come up as exciting news for those involved in various hacking and security-related projects.

It's been several months since the last update to the official Kali Linux Live ISOs, and there are a few hundred new or updated packages pushed to the Kali repositories.

This means that the packages incorporated in the previous Kali Linux ISOs need bug fixes and OS improvements, which are implemented in the most recent versions of the Linux distro.

"Since our last release several months ago, there's a few hundred new or updated packages which have been pushed to the Kali reports," the Kali Linux team's announcement reads. "This means that anyone downloading an ISO even 3 months old has somewhat of a long 'apt-get dist-upgrade' ahead of them."

You can download the latest Kali Linux 2016.2 ISOs from its official website now. The Kali Linux team has also promised to bring a lot of exciting announcements in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on its announcements for the latest updates

Future iPhones Could Record, Fingerprints & Photos of Thieves

Apple is reportedly working on a new anti-theft measure which will record the fingerprints and snap photos of a phone-thief.

Patent filed by Apple

An application for a patent filed by Apple details this security mechanism. According to the patent, the mechanism will be incorporated in future iPhone and iPad devices. The patent details a trigger mechanism which will cause the phone to record the biometric information of whoever is using the phone at the triggered moment via the Touch ID button.

How it could work

These trigger conditions could be either when someone is trying to bypass the security of the phone or trying to gain unauthorized access to the phone via a third party device.

Information recorded by the phone can be either one or multiple fingerprints. It can also be one or more photographs of the thief, video recording of the thief, audio of the surrounding environment etc. The patent details:

The computing device may then provide the stored biometric information for identification of one or more unauthorized users

Of course, it’s not as easy as just setting up simple triggers in iOS and that’s that. There are some technical problems with implementing this system.

Problems with the system

Firstly, Touch ID requires you to press your finger several times on to the sensor for it to register it. The fingerprint sensor can only recognise a part of the fingerprint in one go. What’s more, you need to press your finger on it in multiple angles as well. The thief wouldn’t just press his finger on the home button repeatedly in an attempt to unlock the device.

This can be fixed in the future if Apple implements better fingerprint sensors and an improved Touch ID system. Next, a covert way of taking photos or recording video needs to be implemented. This won’t be much of a problem considering that there are already apps like Lookout which do that.

Legal and Privacy Issues

It also raises privacy and security concerns about the new system. If your iPhone can snap photos and record and save a thief’s fingerprints in the company’s database, it is recording yours as well. What’s there to say if the company stores your info on their servers as well?

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has used the company’s record on privacy and its stance on not storing any unencrypted information to market Apple products and services. However, limitations in these new anti-theft measures means that these features wouldn’t make it into the iPhones and other igadgets any time soon

WhatsApp to share User data with Facebook - 30 Days Left to stop it

Nothing comes for Free, as "Free" is just a relative term used by companies to develop a strong user base and then use it for their own benefits.

The same has been done by the secure messaging app WhatsApp, which has now made it crystal clearthat the popular messaging service will begin sharing its users’ data with its parent company, Facebook.

However, WhatsApp is offering a partial opt-out for Facebook targeted ads and product related purposes, which I will let you know later in this article, but completely opting out of the data-sharing does not seem to be possible.

Let's know what the company has decided to do with your data.

Of course, Facebook is willing to use your data to sell more targeted advertisements.

WhatsApp introduced some significant changes to its privacy policy and T&Cs today which, if accepted once, gives it permission to connect users' Facebook accounts to WhatsApp accounts for the first time, giving Facebook more data about users for delivering more relevant ads on the social network.

The messaging service will also begin pushing users to share some of their account details, including phone numbers, with Facebook, allowing the social network to suggest phone contacts as friends.

When Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 Billion in 2014, users were worried about the company's commitment to protecting its users' privacy. But, WhatsApp reassured them that their privacy would not be compromised in any way.

"Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible," said WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum in a blog post published at that time.

Now the WhatsApp users are feeling betrayed by the company's latest move.

However, you need not to worry about the contents of your WhatsApp messages, like words and images, as they are end-to-end encrypted, meaning that even the company cannot read them.

Ultimately, the two companies will be sharing, what they called, a limited amount of user data, which includes phone numbers and other information about users.

No Option to Completely Opt-Out of Data Sharing

If you think WhatsApp is more privacy conscious than Facebook’s Messenger, it is not anymore.

WhatsApp is offering a solution partially to opt out the data sharing, specifically for Facebook ad targeting and product-related purposes.

However, the company notes that data will still be shared "for other purposes such as improving infrastructure and delivery systems, understanding how our services or theirs are used, securing systems, and fighting spam, abuse, or infringement activities."

So, those who are thinking to opt out of the data-sharing entirely: There's no possible way to opt totally out.

Though one short solution is to stop using WhatsApp.

Here's How to opt -out of sharing data for Facebook ad-targeting purpose:

The company has outlined two ways to opt out of the exchange of information with Facebook on its blog.

One way is for those users who have not yet agreed to the new terms of service and privacy policy, so before agreeing to the new terms, follow these simple steps:

• When prompted to accept the updated T&Cs, tap Read to expand the full text.
• A checkbox option at the bottom of the policy for sharing your data on Facebook will appear.
• Untick this option before hitting Agree. This will let you opt out of the data-sharing.

The second option is for those who have already accepted the new T&Cs without unchecking the box to share their information with Facebook.

WhatsApp is also offering a thirty-day window for users to make the same choice via the settings page in the app. To exercise your opt-out in this scenario you need to follow these steps:

• Go to Settings → Account → Share my account info in the WhatsApp app
• Uncheck the box displayed there within 30 days, as after that this partial opt-out window will expire.

However, WhatsApp states Facebook will still receive your data in some situations.

After introducing end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp has become one of the most popular secure messaging apps, but this sudden shift in its privacy policy may force some users to switch to other secure apps like Telegram and Signal.