WhatsApp encryption: Privacy for 'all', boon or bane?

Investigators of Paris attacks have found evidence of terrorists using encrypted applications to plot the attacks

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

In wake of the FBI’s fight with Apple over unlocking San Bernardino’s gunman's iPhone, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has expanded the default end-to-end encryption system to its one billion users, including 70 million users in India.

This means, no third party, including the parent company can access customers’ messages even if approached by law enforcement agencies for national security — messages will only be readable between the sender and the recipient.

While WhatsApp’s blog post says this will lock out cyber criminals, hackers and oppressive regimes, it fails to mention that it might also be providing a platform to people who intend to misuse it.

Investigators of Paris attacks have found evidence of terrorists using encrypted applications to plot for the attacks and hence could not be foiled, CNN reported.

However, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to see what was in 109 messages that the terrorists exchanged with ISIS operatives in Syria, before shooting at a Prophet Mohammad drawing contest in Garland, Texas, the report added.

When WhatApp co-founder Jan Koum was asked on the dangers of encryption, he said, “I think this is politicians, in some ways, using these terrible acts to advance their agendas,” Wired reported.

While encryption undeniably provides security in this new digital era, one cannot ignore the risks we are now exposed to. There is literally no barrier to hinder any mischief one might be up to—setback law authorities now face.

The US justice department, in recent months, considered charging a legal suit against WhatsApp’s encryption efforts, The New York Times reported. The messaging app begun adding encryption setting since 2013 with its Open Whisper Systems, but it has finally been encoded now.

Other messaging apps with end-to-end encryption include Telegram, which is known to be used by Islamic State to share information, BBC reported.

Koum’s core belief of protecting peoples’ private communication stands correct, but hackers claim creating encryption only puts users at greater risk from malicious hackers and hostile governments as any encryption can be decrypted as well.

Whether, end-to-end encryption can be hacked is still unknown, it is safe to say for now that WhatsApp serves as a haven for secure confidential information, irrespective of the designs its 1 billion users have.