If you often use WhatsApp Web, we have good news for you. You can now secure your chats better than ever. All you need is a recently launched, open source browser extension. The extension is called Code Verify and was launched together with infrastructure partner Cloudfare.
By partnering with a third party like Cloudfare, WhatsApp can guarantee that you won’t receive codes that have been tampered with. Despite the fact that the chat service encrypts all chats by default, browser security can sometimes play tricks. That’s why it’s good that the company offers Code Verify.
WhatsApp presents Code Verify
That doesn’t mean that browser makers are putting security up for grabs. For example, browsers have subresource integrity. With this, they check that the resources they bring in are unaffected. Usually this refers to a single file; but Code Verify actually does this for an entire web page.
WhatsApp Web
Cloudfare gets this done because the company received a cryptographic hash source of truth from WhatsApp. That works with the chat service’s JavaScript code. When someone then uses Web, both sources are compared. If everything is correct, then the use is completely secure.
Available for many browsers
Code Verify is offered by Meta Open Source. You can find the extension in the web store of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox. WhatsApp emphasizes that the brand new extension does not collect any data and therefore no data is shared with the company.
The messages you send through WhatsApp (Web) are – as always – encrypted from user to user. Meta, its subsidiaries and its partners cannot read your messages. In addition, it is also not clear to them when specific users download the extension for their browser at all.
After installing, the extension runs in the background and acts as a system that monitors in real-time. Should something be going on, you will automatically be notified.