US authorities want to access WhatsApp user data. Messenger introduces voice traffic encryption

Image: Credit Andrew Sondern / The New York Times The case with access to encrypted information for iPhone smartphone users has

not yet been completed , as the US began to discuss the possibility of gaining access to WhatsApp users correspondence. US government officials are now trying to find a solution to another problem - gaining access to the correspondence of the criminal (or suspected of committing a crime) who is a WhatsApp user. Recall that now this messenger belongs to Facebook. The US court in the consideration of the case (what kind of case is not described in detail) allowed

law enforcement officers read information from the phones of suspected criminals. Whatsapp turned out to be one of the most important sources of information. But due to the encryption function of the data of the messenger users, law enforcement officers were unable to obtain the necessary data. After that, officials raised the question of the need to access data without encryption, which the messenger introduced in 2015 (this was partially done back in 2014).

There is no concrete solution yet, but the situation is rather complicated - after all, there is already a conflict between Apple and the FBI, now it seems that a similar conflict is brewing between Facebook and the police. If the first conflict, at the suggestion of Apple, can be compared with the need to provide the FBI with access to his house for a search at any time of the day, then the second conflict is already compared to wiretapping in this house.



The emergence of this kind of problem has long been predicted by both information security experts and some officials. Indeed, in the same US legislation, that part of it that concerns the receipt of personal data of citizens was updated a very long time ago, even when people simply talked to each other on a landline phone. State

access issuelaw enforcement officers to correspondence user data on their mobile phones is relevant not only for the United States. For example, in Brazil, because of the refusal of Facebook to provide the personal data of a user suspected of drug trafficking, they even arrested the company's vice president. Then they released it, but the fact remains - the authorities want to access the data of users of various services in different countries.

Be that as it may, technology companies plan to defend their interests to the end. Facebook, Google and WhatsApp have already announcedabout the intention to strengthen encryption of user data. Whatsapp, for example, will now encrypt users' voice calls, this feature will be added to the main set in the next few weeks. Naturally, this will not please officials, and they can move from words to deeds - for example, file lawsuits in courts, the decisions of which American companies will have to execute (although after repeated appeals / counterclaims).

How will this end? It's not clear yet. But this whole conflict situation is clearly far from over.