2 days ago
WhatsApp backs Apple in its legal row with the UK over user data
WhatsApp is planning to support Apple in its legal action against the UK Home Office over user data privacy, BBC News has messaging app's boss, Will Cathcart, said the case "could set a dangerous precedent" by "emboldening other nations" to seek to break encryption, which is how tech firms keep their users' data private."WhatsApp would challenge any law or government request that seeks to weaken the encryption of our services and will continue to stand up for people's right to a private conversation online," he BBC has approached the Home Office for comment.
It has previously declined to comment directly on the Apple it has previously told the BBC the government's "first priority" was "to keep people safe" and the UK had a "longstanding position of protecting our citizens from the very worst crimes, such as child sex abuse and terrorism, at the same time as protecting people's privacy.
WhatsApp's intervention represents a major escalation in what was an already extremely high-profile - and awkward - dispute between the UK and the row with the UK government erupted in February, when it emerged ministers were seeking the right to be able to access information secured by its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) argument intensified in the weeks that followed, with Apple first pulling ADP in the UK, and then taking legal action against the Home also sparked outrage among US politicians, with some saying it was a "dangerous attack on US cybersecurity" and urging the US government to rethink its intelligence-sharing arrangements with the UK if the notice was not Gabbard, the director of US National Intelligence, described it as an "egregious violation" of US citizens' liberties groups also attacked the UK government, saying what it was demanding had privacy and security implications for people around the world.
Privacy versus national security
Apple's ADP applies end-to-encryption (E2EE) to files such as photos and notes stored on the iCloud, meaning only the user has the "key" required to view same technology protects a number of messaging services - including makes them very secure - but poses a problem for law enforcement can ask to see data with lower levels of protection - if they have a court warrant - but tech firms currently have no way to provide access to E2EE files, because no such mechanism currently companies have traditionally resisted creating such a mechanism not just because they say it would compromise users' privacy but because there would be no way of preventing it eventually being exploited by 2023, WhatsApp said it would rather be blocked as a service than weaken Apple pulled ADP in the UK it said it did not want to create a "backdoor" that "bad actors" could take advantage complicating the argument around the Home Office's request is that it is made under the Investigatory Powers Act, the provisions of which are often the matter came to court, government lawyers argued that the case should not be made in public in any way for national security in April, a judge agreed with a number of news organisations, including the BBC, and said certain details should be made public."It would have been a truly extraordinary step to conduct a hearing entirely in secret without any public revelation of the fact that a hearing was taking place," his ruling the time, the government declined to comment on the proceedings but said: "The UK has robust safeguards and independent oversight to protect privacy and privacy is only impacted on an exceptional basis, in relation to the most serious crimes and only when it is necessary and proportionate to do so."
Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
