WhatsApp says it would rather be blocked in the United Kingdom than undermine its encrypted-messaging system, if required to do so under the Online Safety Bill.
- The UK government said it is possible to have both privacy and child safety.
- WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform in the UK, used by more than seven in 10 adults who are online, according to communication regulator Ofcom.
- Critics of the Online Safety Bill say it grants Ofcom the power to require private encrypted-messaging apps and other services to adopt “accredited technology” to identify and remove child-abuse material.
What is End-to-end encryption (E2EE)?
- End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is a method of secure communication that prevents third parties from accessing data while it’s transferred from one end system or device to another.
- In E2EE, the data is encrypted on the sender’s system or device, and only the intended recipient can decrypt it.
- As it travels to its destination, the message cannot be read or tampered with by an internet service provider (ISP), application service provider, hacker or any other entity or service.
- Many popular messaging service providers use end-to-end encryption, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Zoom.
- The technology makes it harder for providers to share user information from their services with authorities and potentially provides private messaging to people involved in illicit activities.
- The cryptographic keys used to encrypt and decrypt the messages are stored on the endpoints.
- This approach uses public key encryption. Public key, or asymmetric, encryption uses a public key that can be shared with others and a private key.
- Once shared, others can use the public key to encrypt a message and send it to the owner of the public key. The message can only be decrypted using the corresponding private key, also called the decryption key.
