WhatsApp: Case sets dangerous precedent

WhatsApp warned that the case could undermine the security of people’s private communications and expose them to attacks from hackers and hostile nation states.

“We’ve applied to intervene in this case to protect people’s privacy globally. Liberal democracies should want the best security for their citizens. Instead, the UK is doing the opposite through a secret order,” said Cathcart.

“This case could set a dangerous precedent and embolden nations to try to break the encryption that protects people’s private communication,” he added.

WhatsApp’s intervention, if agreed by the tribunal, is likely to raise political tensions between the UK and the US, where the Home Office’s orders against Apple have attracted criticism from US President Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard, director of US National Intelligence.

Last week, US lawmakers on both sides of the political divide called on Congress to suspend US and UK law enforcement agencies’ data-sharing arrangements for 30 days unless the UK withdrew the order against Apple.

Security experts have criticised the UK

The UK’s move has also been criticised by leading cyber security experts and cryptographers, including Phil Zimmerman, inventor of email encryption software PGP; Ronald Rivest, one of the inventors of the RSA encryption algorithm; cyber security author Bruce Schneier; and David R Jefferson, former supercomputer scientist at the US Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

They argued in an open letter published in February – after the existence of the Home Office’s order against Apple was leaked to the Wall Street Journal – that the UK’s move would create a backdoor into personal data that would jeopardise the security and privacy of millions of people.

WhatsApp would challenge any law or government request that seeks to weaken the encryption of our services and will continue to stand up for people’s right to a private conversation online

Apple withdrew its Advanced Data Protection service from UK users, rather than comply with the Home Office’s order. “As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services, and we never will,” Apple said in a statement at the time.

WhatsApp CEO Cathcart said today that the company would stand up against any government attempts to weaken the encryption of WhatsApp’s messaging service.

“WhatsApp would challenge any law or government request that seeks to weaken the encryption of our services and will continue to stand up for people’s right to a private conversation online,” he said.

Caroline Wilson Palow, director and general counsel at Privacy International, said WhatsApp’s intervention in the legal action brought by Privacy International and Liberty would make it harder for the Home Office to ignore opposition to government moves to undermine encryption.

“It demonstrates the breadth of impact of these orders, which could potentially undermine services used by billions of people. And it is remarkable that such different companies and civil society are uniting in opposition. This rising tide of dissent cannot be ignored,” she told Computer Weekly.

Home Office: We can have privacy and security

The Home Office has not commented on WhatsApp’s move to intervene in the case. However, a spokesperson previously told Computer Weekly that “the suggestion that privacy and security are at odds is not correct – we can and must have both”.

“Privacy is only impacted on an exceptional basis, in relation to the most serious crimes, and only when it is necessary and proportionate to do so,” the spokesperson said.

The Home Office said it would not comment on “operational matters”, including confirming or denying the existence of TCNs.