Facebook is planning to put end-to-end encryption on all its messaging services soon. But governments aren’t happy about it, as it could make it harder to catch criminals.
The first internet communication was underwhelming, thanks to a computer crash. But a lot has happened since then – including key decisions that helped build the internet of today.
The broad and ill-defined new powers outlined in the government’s new telecommunications bill are neither necessary nor proportionate – and contain significant scope for abuse.
It is hard to know whether metadata retention has been effective or necessary. We can only hope that the debate over accessing and analysing encrypted services is a little more enlightening.
The FBI and police officials say they need to decrypt secure communications to fight crime. But they have other options, and modern threats make clear the importance of strong encryption.
Governments’ efforts to weaken communications security undermine and distract from the need to protect the real weak points in our online communications.
Cracking down on extremism online won’t solve the problem of extremist violence, will inevitably censor speech that’s important to protect and risks harming political dissidents and democracy itself.
The technical consensus is clear: Adding ‘backdoors’ to encryption algorithms weakens everyone’s security. So what are the police and intelligence agencies to do?