The news of U.S. authorities asking Facebook to access encrypted messages of Messenger and Whatsapp is viral these days. It was just recently that William Barr, the U.S attorney general along with other country’s authorities wrote an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg. The letter requested the CEO of Facebook to delay their deployment of end-to-end encrypting of messages. Today’s blog of Talepost will give you all the information on this issue.
Happy Reading!
Why do authorities want to access encrypted messages?
The major motive quoted by the politicians is that having access to encrypted messages will make it easier for the crime department to confront all the illegal activities on various social media platforms such as Facebook. This issue was raised in the month of July 2019. In order to support their request for access, the attorney general also said that having access will help to overcome the sexual exploitation of children.
What was the response of this open letter?
The company officials said;
“We believe people have the right to have a private conversation online, wherever they are in the world.” They added: “We strongly oppose government attempts to build back doors because they would undermine the privacy and security of people everywhere.”
Talepost opinion
We strongly agree with the voice of Facebook. If back doors are created to access encrypted messages, then there are several risks attached to them. We understand the motive for accessing such messages is good but it does come with attached bad motives. The access to encrypted messages will interfere with the people’s right to privacy. Many times, there would be cases in which corrupt politicians and departments will use this information for their bad motives.
What is the reason behind asking to access to encrypted messages suddenly?
Everything happens for a reason. The reason behind asking for access to encrypted messages is that Facebook was planning to expand its end-to-end encryption to various platforms. At present end-to-end encryption is only on Whatsapp. However, Facebook now wants to extend it to Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct. The main aim of doing this is to protect the privacy of its users fully.
Take away
Every day is a new battle! All we have to see is whether Facebook will give access or not. Stay tuned for more updates on this issue only with Talepost.com.