Kakaotalk not working 2021 manual#

Popular apps like Snapchat in fact don’t have an encryption option at all : messages are deleted once the message has been read by the recipient, but they are stored for 30 days on servers if unopened. Even the alternative that many Koreans flocked to before the implementation of the Secret Chats option, Telegram, stores messages on its unencrypted servers as a default. The feature is not even available on KakaoTalk’s popular desktop version.Īlthough many messaging apps like WhatsApp, Line, iMessage, and Signal have prioritized security by including end-to-end encryption as a default, encryption implementation isn’t necessarily uniform.įor example, iMessage which is preinstalled on every iPhone isn’t using an encryption protocol that adheres to best practices.

Kakaotalk not working 2021 manual#

This means full privacy is only achievable through manual replacement of all regular chats with Secret Chats. What most users might not realize is that Secret Chat is merely an option, not the default. KakaoTalk’s default chat mode is still not end-to-end encrypted. The storm over the privacy issues has calmed down, but it can be noted that KakaoTalk at its core still lacks privacy. This encryption technology ensures only the intended sender and recipient can read the exchanged message in plain text, keeping private correspondences private without any possibility of third party intrusion. The Secret Chat mode provides users with the option of securing messages with E2EE. Much of the initial criticism died down after Kakao rolled out a Secret Chat feature, seemingly inspired by Telegram, as a reaction to the privacy scandal. Now, almost four years later, KakaoTalk remains the peninsular nation’s dominant choice of the messenger app. With people realizing their private conversations were not exactly private any longer, 1.5 million Koreans reportedly began using Telegram, another chatting app which offered a more secure, end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) chatting option, unlike KakaoTalk at the time. This came as a response to Park expressing concern over how “such conduct hurts the stature of South Korea and its people.” Included in the investigation were messages sent through the country’s leading messaging app KakaoTalk, used by approximately 90 percent of Korean smartphone owners.ĭaum Kakao (now simply Kakao), the corporation behind KakaoTalk, chose to hand over the chat records to the prosecution, stirring up uneasy emotions all across the nation. In October 2014, South Koreans were given a harsh reality check about their instant messaging privacy, when prosecutors launched an investigation into online messages – private or public – that were deemed insulting or defaming to now-former President Park Geun-hye.