The UK government is reportedly planning to issue an injunction against Facebooks' plans of enabling end-to-end encryption across its platforms.
The UK government has not ordered Facebook to provide its law enforcement agencies with 'backdoor access' to end-to-end encrypted messages on , according to a new report from .
While the government could use a legal instrument know as a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) to force the company to provide a backdoor for law enforcement agencies, it decided against the move as "there isn't a reasonable method yet" to bypass the Signal encryption protocol that WhatsApp uses. A former civil servant told Sky News that the second reason was that the UK government isn't sure TCNs will work on American companies.
According to people familiar with the discussions between the UK government and Facebook, a TCN may be issued to stop the social networking giant from adding the same encryption protocol . The notice could potentially force Facebook to use a weaker encryption protocol on its other services, which would allow it to monitor users' messages and also provide decrypted conversations to law enforcement agencies.
Responding to concerns that the company's plans of rolling out end-to-end encryption across all its platforms could put children at risk, a Facebook spokesperson said:
What you need to know
- A new report says the UK government has not ordered Facebook to provide 'backdoor access' to encrypted messages on WhatsApp.
- However, it plans to prevent Facebook from implementing end-to-end encryption on its other services.
- Facebook could still use a weaker form of encryption for its other services.
The UK government has not ordered Facebook to provide its law enforcement agencies with 'backdoor access' to end-to-end encrypted messages on , according to a new report from .
While the government could use a legal instrument know as a Technical Capability Notice (TCN) to force the company to provide a backdoor for law enforcement agencies, it decided against the move as "there isn't a reasonable method yet" to bypass the Signal encryption protocol that WhatsApp uses. A former civil servant told Sky News that the second reason was that the UK government isn't sure TCNs will work on American companies.
According to people familiar with the discussions between the UK government and Facebook, a TCN may be issued to stop the social networking giant from adding the same encryption protocol . The notice could potentially force Facebook to use a weaker encryption protocol on its other services, which would allow it to monitor users' messages and also provide decrypted conversations to law enforcement agencies.
Responding to concerns that the company's plans of rolling out end-to-end encryption across all its platforms could put children at risk, a Facebook spokesperson said: