Google, WhatsApp And Facebook Message Encryption Under Threat From Intelligence Agencies

Jun 1, 2015 By Reema C'verty 0 Comments

  

Users of Google, WhatsApp and Facebook are a trifle disconcerted by the probable enforcement of laws in the UK that would require these social network giants to enable the intelligence agencies to have access to encrypted messages.
This law, proposed by the Conservatives, is a necessary evil that will make it a lot easier for Intelligence Agencies to apprehend criminals by learning about plans and help them prevent many crimes.
The prime suspects of any case, suspected terrorists, pedophiles, killers and other anti social elements can be better tracked and crimes can be averted, as per notable agencies like MI5, MI6 and the GCHQ, who are expected to be in charge of this analysis.

  

Eyes are now stuck to the new developments in the investigatory powers bill that is expected to be in place soon.
This new bill would force the social networking companies to hand over the encrypted messages of suspects, so that their online messaging and SNP could be well assessed to see if they are linked with any upcoming crime. This could mean that the Snooper’s Charter would be killed off.
Of course, the bill faced major blockade, both from users and from the social networks themselves, who are more concerned about maintaining the privacy of their users.
The networks have refused to hand these messages over and the users have expressed their discontent over their private lives being taken apart and analysed by total strangers.
This refusal to hand over messages has been criticized strongly by Robert Hannigan, Director of GHCQ, who believes that this measure will not just prevent crimes, but will also help schools to identify if the candidate applies for a post in the school staff has a clean background, further contributing to the safety of kids in school. But the bill was already announced in the queen’s speech and it actually might be too late to prevent the same from being enforced.

  

The agencies would nevertheless take a lot of time to be able to decipher the messages as they are far more sophisticated than usual encryptions.