Facebook and several governments continue to argue about the planned expansion of encryption in Facebook's apps. In October, high-ranking politicians from the United States, Britain and Australia urged the US company not to carry out this expansion, if at all, without installing a backdoor for law enforcement agencies. This was important to protect children from violence and sexual abuse, they argued in a joint letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Now Facebook has publicly responded to the letter. The task of explaining the strategy of the group is taken over by the managers Will Cathcart and Stan Chudnovsky, who are responsible for the chat services WhatsApp and Messenger.
In their answer, Cathcart and Chudnovsky first explain the principle of end-to-end encryption. They emphasize that no one except the sender and receiver can read the news: "Not us, not governments, not hackers or criminals."
Then the two managers make it clear: "We believe that people have a right to expect that level of security wherever they live." As a company with 2.7 billion users around the world, Facebook has a responsibility to use the best available technology to protect users' privacy.
A backdoor is always a weak spot
Subsequently, the managers explain that the idea of a backdoor for prosecutors poses a risk - because in principle it could also be used by criminals, hackers or repressive regimes. "It's simply impossible to create such a backdoor for a purpose," Cathcart and Chudnovsky say, "and not expect others to try to open it."
Cybersecurity experts have repeatedly demonstrated that weakening an encrypted system would weaken the system for everyone and everywhere: "People's private messages would be less secure, and the real winners would be anyone who seeks to benefit from this weakened security to draw. "
For politicians, Facebook's argument is unlikely to be dismissed - especially as the company points out that more than 100 organizations, including Amnesty International, also warned against compliance with the government's request.
"We are not alone", it says in the reply, in which Facebook also emphasizes that it wants to help law enforcement in principle, "as long as it does not undermine the safety of our users." It would continue to meet "monthly" with government officials who wrote the letter for counseling sessions.
With technology against abuse
The three governments had expressed concern in their letter that their actions against possible child molestation and terrorism would be made more difficult if Facebook encrypts more content than before end-to-end - because that would mean that not even Facebook has access to it have this content.
On Tuesday, it was in the US Senate on this issue: Both Democrats and Republicans were Facebook's plans to offer his users more privacy in the future, critical of.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced in the spring that his company wants to expand the use of encryption strong. For example, Facebook's chat services WhatsApp and Messenger as well as the communication function of the photo service Instagram are to be switched to a common technical platform with so-called end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp already comes with end-to-end encryption as standard, but it can be used by the messenger for confidential chats.
In their letter, the Facebook managers now write that the group has technical means to determine whether users on Facebook or Instagram showed problematic behavior. Likewise, on WhatsApp unencrypted information such as profile and group information would be examined. "So if we know someone's doing something bad on Facebook or Instagram, we often go into their Messenger or WhatsApp account and vice versa."
At the US Senate hearings, the tech magazine "The Verge" said another argument: Jay Sullivan, responsible for messaging privacy on Facebook, told the senators that it was crucial that American companies in the area of secure and encrypted messaging in the front. If not, providers from other countries would offer such services. Such providers would then be out of reach of the US authorities and would not cooperate with US law enforcement.