Great Britain: WhatsApp jumps to Apple's side in the crypto war
The UK wants to make iOS less secure by law, which also affects users in other countries. Meta subsidiary WhatsApp is taking legal action against this.
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After Apple, WhatsApp now also wants to defend itself against the British government's attempt to forcibly implement backdoors in iOS. Meta manager Will Cathcart, who heads up the messaging app, said that Apple is being supported in its current legal defense against the UK Home Office. He fears that a “dangerous precedent” is being set here, which could also encourage other nations to break encryption, without which users cannot operate securely on the internet and on their devices.
Secret snooping orders
“WhatsApp will fight any law or government order aimed at weakening the encryption of our services and will continue to stand up for people's right to communicate privately online,” Cathcart told the British broadcaster BBC. Whether Meta and/or its subsidiary WhatsApp are already doing this is unclear. One major problem is that the instructions issued by the UK Home Office to digital companies are secret. Apple first had to exert legal pressure to be able to disclose parts of the snooping orders. It is therefore quite possible that other companies have already received corresponding requests.
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The backdoor issue is also a political hot potato: The US government sees it as similar to the Chinese government's spying on the population. President Donald Trump said in an interview with the British political magazine The Spectator in March that this is “familiar from China”. He had told British Prime Minister Keir Stamer that “you can't do that”. The Director of National Security, Tulsi Gabbard, also sharply criticized the project. She said it was an “outrageous violation” of the privacy of US citizens.
British backdoor affects everyone
Should Apple actually be forced to build a backdoor into iOS, users all over the world would be affected. According to media reports, Apple received a secret order under the controversial Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) at the beginning of February. This was not officially confirmed at first, as all parties involved are required by law to maintain confidentiality. Meanwhile, Apple had considered leaving the UK because of the new law.
The Espionage Act empowers the British government to secretly veto technical protection measures, such as improved encryption – with global implications. This is exactly what Apple is said to have done with its Advanced Data Protection (ADP). To circumvent this, the British authorities want direct access to the operating system: it would then not matter whether the information (also not visible to Apple) is stored in the cloud. Incidentally, the EU is also trying a similar approach: here, too, they want access to the data before encryption. There is also a demand for mandatory chat control.
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