What is Encryption & Why It Lies the Heart of WhatsApp's Legal Battle | The Quint

The Madras High Court has recently asked WhatsApp if it is possible to trace the originator of a forwarded message? This loaded question is not a new one but strikes at the heart of WhatsApp's design which relies on end-to-end encryption to secure it personal messaging.

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[vegetassj]

We citizens should also need cell phone calls and chat of all politicians to check if there is any corruption

[tumu_bandit]

ENCRYPTION is a fundamental right of us citizens.

[shinobi]

The govt must not have a free hand in every thing for the sake of the country.

[akashzz]

Giving a key to government agencies is a slippery slope...it is no longer if it will, but only a matter of time before we find ourselves in surveillance state.

[stealth]

As a citizens of india, its constitution give us fundamental right for privacy. So no Govt need to interfere in this matter. If you have a problem with terrorism, that is because of the act that committed by you itself, Not by common people. Terrorism is the tool of politicians for the purpose of politics, so ministers and politicians are behind every single terrorism in the country and world wide. Just take the politicians and torchure them. then we will get every single terrorist of india.

[deepakgoyal]

Don't put Citizens/Tech Companies in same column. They can never be. Organizations of all sort have always tried to control the customers and markets. This is only the magic of their marketing teams who successfully manage to put the bad guy as good in front of people.

[creativezebra]

every knife has 2 edges...thats why goverments should put all defence money into education and have healthy and happy and empowered citizens....so that crime dies before its born....put all defence money for 1 year into education for 25 years. end of crime in one generation

[neelmanishrivastava]

You guys are doing great job... Making the real content and providing the in-depth insights... Thankyou so much :)

[shrikantjadhav]

Encryption is necessary, the government does not want to see what terrorist are doing, they want to see who is talking against the government on whats app. Bjp government wants each and every data of the Indian citizen to uphold the people to talk in favour of them.

[sasankde]

"Patriotism is not the sole proprietorship of politicians" by Vikram sood....please watch the Netflix movie "the great hack"

[chiggywiggy]

Government has no right to interfere in our privacy or peep into our personal talks.

[srirammishra]

Data privacy and freedom is of Paramount necessary . Data security is more vital than physical security

[ayushgupta]

Privacy is important. Not even government should be allowed to tamper with that. We can't believe those guys...

[malcolm]

This is become an example of moral conundrum, where taking a step (access to encryption) can help save lives in an hypothetical situation but in doing so it betrays the rights of citizens of their personal information.... Only when such a situation arises is where a profound conclusion can be found..

[VinayanHari]

The thing to note is that, entities who wish to stay hidden will just opt for other methods of communication (say Signal or OTR), and the common users end up having compromised security.

[Zlnfgz]

Life was so much simpler without mobiles....

[madadisairam]

I appreciate the effort he put in trying to explain the debate but it must be made clear that encryption is not like lock. A lock requires a physical key to open. So if you only give one key to law enforcement that will be enough. Also it is easier to protect that one physical key. This is the reason why people ask “why would you be concerned by law enforcement having the key, if you have done nothing wrong?”. Problem is that having a backdoor means leaving a loophole in the encryption. This means for the millions of hackers working around the world finding this backdoor isn’t that far fetched. So it could be some boy sitting in his bedroom or a state sponsored hacker who can find the backdoor with enough effort. Now the entire encryption is itself compromised. This opens everyone’s messages to be read by those who have found the backdoor. Immediately you will have a situation around the world where people are getting blackmailed or company secrets being leaked or critical information for security ending up in the hands of enemy.

[istream]

Technology has the capability to decentralize the State, shifting power dynamics to citizens, and even Marx has said that existence of the State is a process not the end product of an ideal State which human civilization longs for.
Being said that in current scenario neither the tech companies, the State or citizens are wrong in their point of view, we should all find a safe and rational way to cope with terrorism and extremism.

[whythiskolaveridi]

Law enforcement agencies want access to social media data. But law enforcement agencies can be used to achieve political goals of ruling party

[nidaa]

Surveillance is the last thing that a citizen wants. The security agencies should instead find a way to get around a terrorist. Surveillance would definitely be misused by governments.