According to the website, the new feature called “Scam Alert” aims to warn users of suspicious messages issued by unknown parties, while ensuring that the principle of full encryption (end-to-end encryption) is not violated, and without sending the content of the conversations to the servers of the company that runs the application.
This feature relies on the principle of analyzing messages directly on the user’s device, similar to the currently existing feature of converting voice messages to text, which also works without the need to send data to cloud services, so WhatsApp can detect messages that may be fraudulent without seeing the content of the conversations.
The “Scam Alert” feature will be activated automatically when communicating with unknown senders. If the feature’s algorithms consider the message suspicious, a warning will appear within the chat that reads: “This may be a scam,” with two options for the user: block the sender and report him, or continue the conversation if he does not see any danger.
Experts confirm that the feature does not automatically restrict communication and does not make decisions on behalf of the user, but rather aims to provide additional information to help him evaluate the risks before starting a conversation with a stranger.
It is expected that this feature will become available to participants in WhatsApp’s feature testing program first, and then appear in the stable version of the application, and the date of its official launch has not been officially revealed. (Russia Today)
