The fight over encrypted messaging is just beginning
0Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/12/11/21004135/encrypted-messaging-facebook-hearing-senate-whatsapp-messenger
Reported today in The Verge.
The fight over encrypted messaging is just beginning
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In October, a group of top elected officials in western democracies wrote to Facebook expressing concern about the company's plans to incorporate end-to-end encryption in all of its messaging products. US Attorney General Bill Barr, along with his rough equivalents in the United Kingdom and Australia, wrote that encryption would make it difficult or impossible for them to uncover instances where messaging was used to facilitate terrorism, child exploitation, and other crimes. They asked Facebook to reconsider its plans.
Anyway, the company thought about it and the answer is no. Here are WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart and Messenger honcho Stan Chudnovsky (in a PDF! sorry):
Cybersecurity experts have repeatedly proven that when you weaken any part of an encrypted system, you weaken it for everyone, everywhere. The 'backdoor' access you are demanding for law enforcement would be a gift to criminals, hackers and repressive regimes, creating a way for them to enter our systems and leaving every person on our platforms more vulnerable to real-life harm. It is simply impossible to create such a backdoor for one purpose and not expect others to try and open it. People's private messages would be less secure and the real winners would be anyone seeking to take advantage of that weakened security. That is not something we are prepared to do.
The letter goes on to note ways in which Facebook does work with law enforcement, and says it continues to develop ways to detect and monitor bad actors on Facebook products without breaking encryption.
This is the right approach to take