The US government is reportedly about to press Facebook this weekend; requesting it to build in a back-door to its end to end encryption so investigators can snoop on communications.
The letter, obtained by Buzzfeed News ahead of time, is set to come from beleaguered US Attorney General William Barr, jointly signed by Australian and UK counterparts this Friday.
“Security enhancements to the virtual world should not make us more vulnerable in the physical world. Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content, even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes.” The letter said.”Risks to public safety from Facebook’s proposals are exacerbated in the context of a single platform that would combine inaccessible messaging services with open profiles, providing unique routes for prospective offenders to identify and groom our children.”
A Facebook spokesperson gave MSPoweruser the following statement on a related story earlier this week (full statement here):
We believe in the right for people to have a private conversation online. End-to-end encryption helps protect that right and is fundamental to the value we provide to over a billion people every day. We oppose government attempts to build backdoors because they would undermine the privacy and security of our users everywhere.
It’s likely the firm would have the same response to this demand, and chafe against government attempts to curtail what it sees as a value add to its products.
Source: Buzzfeed News