The Government Want Access to Whattsapp Now

I read through various online articles today about how the US Government are wanting to access people's private chats, photos and data exchanged through the very popular and widely used app - WhatsApp.

Most people will either have used this app or at least heard of it. It is an app which allows private exchange of conversations, audio files and photographs. It is highly popular.

Encryption of WhatsApp has made the app secure, making it difficult for anybody or any organisation to infiltrate any weak spots and break into the feature to access private data.

Facebook own the app, and have said they added encryption to the app to stop eavesdropping, reading private messages or even wiretapping ordered by judges.

However, the Department of Justice is fighing against the security of WhatssApp, wanting to break into people's private and personal data as and when they deem necessary.


Taken from TOI website:

Some investigators view the WhatsApp issue as even more significant than the one over locked phones because it goes to the heart of the future of wiretapping. They say the justice department should ask a judge to force WhatsApp to help the government get information that has been encrypted. Others are reluctant to escalate the dispute, particularly with senators saying they will soon introduce legislation to help the government get data in a format it can read.

In a twist, the government helped develop the technology behind WhatsApp's encryption. To promote civil rights in countries with repressive governments, the Open Technology Fund, which promotes open societies by supporting technology that allows people to communicate without the fear of surveillance, provided $2.2 million to help develop Open Whisper Systems, the encryption backbone behind WhatsApp.

If you want to read the full article:
TOI Website

You'd be a fool to think the NSA doesn't already have the private encryption keys- but the rest of the government is jealous.

a reply to: AlmostRosey

Facebook own the app

Well there goes "secure" right out the door. If Fakebook owns it, you can bet Big Brother has access. This is just smoke and mirrors, fooling folks in to believing they can say what they like, when govt is listening in.

Agreed David64, this is big Gov't tricking you into giving up all your Freedoms and Rights, even though they've already got the Tech to do it anyways. Now they just want it in Writing.

a reply to: AlmostRosey

What if the government has the tech to enter into a huge digital library of every single moment of your everyday and pull out a convo you had, say, last Sunday at 1:23pm when you were in your home doing whatever you did?

They do.

This concern over WhatsApp is the presidigitation used on humanity.

originally posted by: lordcomac
You'd be a fool to think the NSA doesn't already have the private encryption keys- but the rest of the government is jealous.

No, the "government" does not have the keys. It's end-to-end encryption, so the keys are stored on the devices you use and nowhere else, and actually, if implemented correctly, these keys change per message. But of course, there are some weak implementations, which make keys more predictable, hence a brute force attack might become plausible. Also metadata (whom contacted whom and when) can still be seen on the central servers. Also, not all WhatsApp implementations properly support E2E encryption so on those platforms you still transmit messages unencrypted. And your phone is of course vulnerable to various other types of attacks, the simplest being that you leave your phone behind unlocked, hence allowing others to read your messages.

But E2E encryption is pretty secure, therefore governments find themselves unable to listen in.

(ETA: of course, WhatsApp might simply LIE to you when they say they support E2E, and it's entirely up to you to believe them)

This is yet another red herring to keep "customers" in a comfort zone.

Don't fall for the authoritarian BS that governments shout out.

I just assumed WA was compromised already,like anything else.I never assume any form of comms on this planet is secure,including snailmail,and most especially not any form of comms going through electronic means.I say what i want,and if i don't want the ABC's to know about something,i wait till i can talk to the person face to face-or i just don't say it.

What is "Whatsap" or whatever? I don't know anyone who uses it? Is this something teens use?

Just use iMessage with two iPhones. That's probably as encrypted as whatever this Facebook-owned app offers.

might as well take away all forms of tech... -__-

The government owns whatsapp

Why am i not surprised

Interesting that this has all continued unabated despite Obama not being Bush, no?

a reply to: AlmostRosey

Apple iOS and not Whatsapp.

When will it stop?