We Will not Open Encrypted Messages to Law Enforcers, Facebook Executives Has Said in a Letter
Facebook executives told the United States Attorney General William. P. Barr On Monday that they will not open encrypted messages that they do have in store to law enforcement agencies. The latest move by Facebook executives is expected to brew war between the firm and the government over privacy and policy.
The executives overseeing Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger, Will Cathcart and Stan Chudnovsky in a letter stated that creating a so-called backdoor into their services would make their users less safe. ‘The backdoor access you are demanding for law enforcement would be a gift to criminals, hackers and repressive regimes, creating a way for them to enter our systems and leaving every person on our platforms more vulnerable to real life harm. It is simply impossible to create such a backdoor for one purpose and not expect others to try and open it,’ they said in a letter.
Mr Barr on his part said that Facebook’s moves towards end-to-end encryption, which shields the content of messages from everyone but the sender and recipient, makes it harder for law enforcement officers to track malicious behavior online. “The technology makes it harder to investigate child predators and terrorists”, he said.
Mr Barr joined by his British and Australian counterparts wrote an open letter to Facebook Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, in October asking that he takes steps to enable law enforcement to obtain lawful access to content in a readable and usable format. They further said that companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content even for preventing or investigating crimes.
Encrypting its messaging products is the central aspect of Facebook’s plan to rebrand itself as privacy focused after being battered for years by revelations that it mishandled data.
