Why a WhatsApp Backdoor may not be a typical invasion of pivacy

Amidst discussions for the UK government to gain access to digital encryption in the interest of security, fears have arisen regarding its potential violation of privacy and why it is not as simple as allowing the government to read our messages…

Following the recent terrorist incidents in the UK, the government has been looking into ways to intercept terrorist communications. With WhatsApp allowing end-to-end user encrypted messages, concerns have been raised about its potential use as a secure communications channel within terrorist groups due to its effective end-to-end encryption. Essentially, this means there is no risk of messages, documents, or calls falling into the wrong hands; only the sender and the intended recipient can read what is sent, not even WhatsApp can read what is sent.

Under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, the government already has the power to force technology companies to remove any protection applied to communication or data to allow access. However, because of the way WhatsApp is set up, the implication of this law is not as straightforward as telephone tapping or looking at people’s emails where communication is looked at in a smaller scope of time. Providing a backdoor to a service like WhatsApp  would not only mean giving access to people’s messages but, because of the way end-to end- user encryption works, would allow complete access to everything they have ever sent in history using the service.

Even in the case where individuals have nothing to hide, there is the risk of such powers being abused. A report found that police officers in the US had been misusing confidential law enforcement databases to get information unrelated to their line of duty; this included information on romantic partners, neighbours, journalists and more. Allowing complete access to people’s entire messaging history only opens up a wider possibility for anyone with a personal agenda to ruin a life.

Giving the government access to our messages may not even be a viable strategy to catch potential terrorists; if they wanted to they could find other means of secure communication using services which have not already caught the attention of the government or even create their own. Focusing on WhatsApp because of its popularity may only serve to do more harm to innocent users than wanted individuals.

Providing an encryption backdoor to the government may sound like a good idea to gain the information they need regarding national threats, but allowing complete access to everything anyone has ever said is a huge price to pay for the sake of potentially increasing national security.