Look Whatsappburgess Wired: There has been a recent increase in the number of cases where children from across Europe have been sexually exploited via chat apps like WhatsApp. While WhatsApp has taken steps to protect its 1 billion users, it’s critical that the law enforcement be given a way to investigate these crimes. In response, experts and officials are worried about how much more difficult it will be to apprehend these predators with increased use of end-to-end encryption.
The law enforcement have been pushing for the creation of features that allow to law enforcement to keep tabs on the users. The authorities in France have been pushing for end-to-end encryption to be made optional, while experts and privacy advocates have been arguing that WhatsApp should offer a series of security options, “so that law enforcers would still be able to access content on request. Although, it is also true that end-to-end encryption would make it harder for the law enforcement to intercept chats and read messages when offenders are using a clean version of WhatsApp.”
In an interview with Reuters, Keith Bristow, director of the UK’s National Crime Agency admitted that it would be hard for police to get access to people’s encrypted messages if the security feature does not allow access from the authorities.
“The difficulty we’ve found is that until you get a warrant, then there’s nothing you can do to force it,” Bristow said. “So if WhatsApp doesn’t offer the ability to access messages, then we’re not going to be able to intercept those messages, which means we’re not going to be able to mount a prosecution. It would have an immediate effect.”
“We’ve asked [WhatsApp] to give us access. They haven’t come back to us, so that’s not a conversation we can have had,” Bristow said. “I think those discussions are going on all around the world at the moment, by law enforcement and others, about how you get access, even to encrypted material. But I think it’s probably going to determine what way people go in terms of encryption.
