Facebook, WhatsApp Will Have to Share Messages With U.K.?

Post by lone_haxx0r » Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 8:55 PM UTC

brenden2 wrote: post #104

deogeo wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the source code isn't available for audit by 3rd parties (or yourself), and you can't build it from source, then it was never really "secure" anyway. What lawmakers do or don't say is just noise. Careful - you're right that WhatsApp is untrustworthy, but laws that force them to add backdoors could well be applied to open-source code as well. Or make possession of non-backdoored software, open or not, illegal. Or…

If I can compile audited code from source myself, without any backdoors, then I can be reasonably assured there aren't any backdoors (excluding perhaps hardware level backdoors--but that's why we do the encryption in software). Implementing hardware backdoors that are opaque to end users is theoretically possible, but more difficult in practice. You could, for example, build a screen/monitor that just captures everyt…

Post by SomeOldThrow » Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 8:58 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #220

The idea that moves like this will "keep us safe" is utterly preposterous; there are a multitude of other ways in which terrorists (or the boogeyman de jour ) could communicate - are the UK and US governments going to insist on backdooring IRC, Slack and face-to-face conversations? Are they going to outlaw encryption libraries? I truely fear for the future that western governments, in particular the 5 eyes members, a…

Post by kevinmchugh » Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:00 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #220

The idea that moves like this will "keep us safe" is utterly preposterous; there are a multitude of other ways in which terrorists (or the boogeyman de jour ) could communicate - are the UK and US governments going to insist on backdooring IRC, Slack and face-to-face conversations? Are they going to outlaw encryption libraries? I truely fear for the future that western governments, in particular the 5 eyes members, a…

Post by marmaduke » Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:01 PM UTC

wcathcart wrote: post #395

We were surprised to read this story and are not aware of discussions that would force us to change our product. We believe people have a fundamental right to have private conversations. End-to-end encryption protects that right for over a billion people every day. We will always oppose government attempts to build backdoors because they would weaken the security of everyone who uses WhatsApp including governments th…

Post by mytailorisrich » Sat, Sep 28, 2019, 9:07 PM UTC

GordonS wrote: post #404

mytailorisrich wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is reasonable for governments to want to be able to wiretap communications. They can wiretap telephones, including mobile/cell phones, for example as this is built into those systems. There is no problem with that and it is actually welcome. Those apps that provide end-to-end encryption are a problem and they are working on solving it. Claiming that they should not be able to wiretap lawfully (or even otherwise) i…

> Those apps that provide end-to-end encryption are a problem Are they though? There will always be a means to communicate without surveillance. Backdooring encryption is fundamentally incompatible with privacy, and will be abused - at scale. For any real cases, the security services have a multitude of other ways of getting the information they need regardless - for example, they could gaining physical access to the…