The Totalitarian West

New post on Apokalyps Nu!

‘Nuclear weapon of bad ideas’: US, UK & Australia demand Facebook give backdoor access to WhatsApp & other encrypted messengers by EN-AG 04-10-19 08:01:00,  US Attorney General William Barr and other western officials are calling on Facebook to provide authorities backdoor access to its encrypted messenger platforms, used by hundreds of millions of people around the world every day. In an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Barr and his British and Australian counterparts will argue that law enforcement requires access to encrypted applications, effectively asking the company to hand over the keys to the private communications of 300 million daily WhatsApp users, as well as 1.5 billion who log into Facebook every day. The letter is dated Friday, but An advance copy was seen by the New York Times. “Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content, even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes,” the officials wrote. Though the Facebook-owned messenger WhatsApp is already protected by end-to-end encryption, the open letter will also urge the company to delay rolling out similar features for its other chat platforms, Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct, asking for access akin to a phone wiretap. Also on rt.com US-led ‘Five Eyes’ intel alliance says end-to-end encryption creates terrorism & child abuse threats The officials argued the request on the grounds of fighting crime and terrorism, but privacy advocates warned the move could seriously damage, or even “destroy,” the ability to communicate privately online, and empower governments with vast, easily abusable spying powers. National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden – who leaked classified material on the agency’s sweeping mass surveillance programs in 2013 – slammed the officials for what he said “may be the largest overnight violation of privacy in history.” Oh hey, turns out it’s even worse; it’s more than just #WhatsApp, it’s all FB-owned messaging: “Attorney General William P. Barr is set to press @Facebook on Friday to create a so-called back door to its end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp ***AND OTHER MESSAGING PLATFORMS***” — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 3, 2019 Any politician asking for backdoor access to your private information is a politician that doesn’t give a damn about you or your safety.  » Lees verder