Silicon Valleys leading companies including Facebook, Google and Snapchat are working on their own increased privacy technology as Apple fights the US government over encryption, the Guardian has learned.
The projects could antagonize authorities just as much as Apples more secure iPhones, which are currently at the center of the San Bernardino shooting investigation. They also indicate the industry may be willing to back up their public support for Apple with concrete action.
Within weeks, Facebooks messaging service WhatsApp plans to expand its secure messaging service so that voice calls are also encrypted, in addition to its existing privacy features. The service has some one billion monthly users. Facebook is also considering beefing up security of its own Messenger tool.
Snapchat, the popular ephemeral messaging service, is also working on a secure messaging system and Google is exploring extra uses for the technology behind a long-in-the-works encrypted email project.
Engineers at major technology firms, including Twitter, have explored encrypted messaging products before only to see them never be released because the products can be hard to use or the companies prioritized more consumer-friendly projects. But they now hope the increased emphasis on encryption means that technology executives view strong privacy tools as a business advantage not just a marketing pitch.
These new projects began before Apple entered a court battle with the Department of Justice over whether it should help authorities hack into a suspected terrorists iPhone. Apple is due to appear in a federal court in California later this month to fight the order.
Polling has shown public opinion is divided over the case. And any new encyrption efforts by tech firms put them on a collision course with Washington. Two US senators, the Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California and the Republican Richard Burr of North Carolina, say they have written draft legislation that would create penalties for companies that arent able to provide readable user data to authorities. Barack Obama has also made it clear he thinks some technology companies are going too far. If government cant get in, then everyones walking around with a Swiss bank account in their pocket, right? he said 11 March at the SXSW technology conference in Austin, Texas.
WhatsApp has been rolling out strong encryption to portions of its users since 2014, making it increasingly difficult for authorities to tap the services messages. The issue is personal for founder Jan Koum, who was born in Soviet-era Ukraine. When Apple CEO Tim Cook announced in February that his company would fight the government in court, Koum posted on his Facebook account: Our freedom and our liberty are at stake.
His efforts to go further still are striking as the app is in open confrontation with governments. Brazil authorities arrested a Facebook executive on 1 March after WhatsApp told investigators it lacked the technical ability to provide the messages of drug traffickers. Facebook called the arrest extreme and disproportionate.
WhatsApp already offers Android and iPhone users encrypted messaging. In the coming weeks, it plans to offer users encrypted voice calls and encrypted group messages, two people familiar with the matter said. That would make WhatsApp, which is free to download, very difficult for authorities to tap.
Unlike many encrypted messaging apps, WhatsApp hasnt pushed the security functions of the service as a selling point to users. Koum, its founder, has said users should be able to expect that security is a given, not a bonus feature.
Its unclear if that will change. In the coming weeks, WhatsApp plans to make a formal announcement about its expanded encryption offerings, sources said.
The efforts come at a crossroads for Silicon Valley. Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter have all signed on to legal briefs supporting Apple in its court case. At the same time, some of the companies have shown an increased willingness to help the government in its efforts to fight the spread of Islamic extremist propaganda online often using their services.
Facebooks chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, has talked publicly about how tech companies can help the west combat Isis online and Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Googles parent company, Alphabet, recently joined a Defense Department advisory group on how tech can aid in future battles.
Those matters may seem separate, but US national security officials view the increasing availability of encryption technology as a major aid to Islamic States online recruitment efforts. At some point, tech firms may have to choose whether they care more about being seen as helping the west to fight terrorism or standing as privacy advocates.
Some technology executives think one middle path would be to encourage the use of encryption for the content of messages while maintaining the ability to hand over metadata, which reveals who is speaking to whom, how often and when. That is why the specifics of the new products will be key to determining both their security and Washingtons reaction to them.
The Guardian couldnt immediately determine the specific details of Snapchats and Facebooks projects. All the companies declined to comment.
In 2014, Google announced a project called End to End, which would make it easier to send encrypted emails in such a way that only the sender and recipient could decode them. The project, once a collaboration with Yahoo, has been slow-going.
That appears to have changed in recent months, though, sources familiar with the project said, and other Google employees have shown in renewed interest in the idea. At a February internal town hall at Google, one engineer stood up and asked vice-president of security and privacy engineering Gerhard Eschelbeck why Google wasnt doing more to support encrypted communications, according to two people familiar with the exchange.
Gerhard countered the company increasingly was putting effort behind such projects. Some Google employees are discussing whether the technology behind End to End can be applied to other products, though no final determinations have been made.
This has been an ongoing effort for a long time at Google, one person briefed on the project said. One of the challenges for the search giant is that there are some types of data for which it remains challenging to offer end-to-end security, both for usability and business model reasons.
Google sells targeted ads by scanning users email, a process that gets tricky if the contents remain encrypted. Many consumers also use Gmail accounts, which include large amounts of free storage, as a sort of online file system, sometimes dating back more than a decade.
There are lots of difficulties at Google that arent same at Apple, the person briefed on the project said. The business models are just different.
In the meantime, WhatsApps encryption is based on code developed by a well-known privacy evangelist, Moxie Marlinspike, whose secure messaging app Signal is used by security hawks. One advantage of Marlinspikes encryption tools is that they have been tested repeatedly by outside security experts.
Apple, the company behind the two-year debate over encryption, is also taking steps to beef up privacy. The company has been in discussions with outside security experts about ways to make it technically harder still for investigators to force the company to hand over data from customers iPhones, according to sources. The New York Times earlier reported on those conversations.
Last month, Frederic Jacobs, an accomplished cryptographer and one of the coders behind Signal, announced he had accepted a job at Apple. Its a summer internship with the security team for the iPhones core software.
Read the original:
Facebook, Google and WhatsApp plan to increase encryption ...
- Elon Musk weighs in on the encryption wars between Telegram and Signal - Business Insider - May 15th, 2024
- Microsoft to Make BitLocker Encryption the Default in Next Windows 11 Build - ExtremeTech - May 15th, 2024
- Encryption toolkit for media makers: An introduction - Freedom of the Press Foundation - May 15th, 2024
- Which is it, RPD? Shooting, Disorderly, Or Encryption and Lies? - Rockford Scanner - May 15th, 2024
- Windows 11 Will Enable Encryption by Default During Installation - 80.lv - May 15th, 2024
- Apple and encryption services Wire and Proton have provided information on activists at the request of police - GIGAZINE - May 15th, 2024
- End-to-end encryption may be the bane of cops, but they can't close that Pandora's Box - The Register - May 6th, 2024
- Microsoft breaks VPN encryption in Windows 11 and Windows 10 - GB News - May 6th, 2024
- Marriott admits it falsely claimed for five years it was using encryption during 2018 breach - CSO Online - May 6th, 2024
- Marriott admits it wasn't using encryption before major 2018 hack - TechRadar - May 6th, 2024
- WhatsApp could leave India over encryption battle - Rest of World - May 6th, 2024
- Encryption: The Cornerstone Of Cryptocurrencies | MENAFN.COM - MENAFN.COM - May 6th, 2024
- Quantum-proofing passwords and artwork with DNA encryption - Advanced Science News - May 6th, 2024
- News: Encryption and encrypted passwords in the world of blockchain and crypto - Bitfinex - May 6th, 2024
- Banking Encryption Software Market to Reach USD 11.50 Bn by 2029, at a CAGR of 9.2 percent As Revealed In N... - WhaTech - May 6th, 2024
- ETtech Explainer: WhatsApp's standoff with Centre over end-to-end encryption - The Economic Times - May 6th, 2024
- Explained: Why WhatsApp is willing to leave India over encryption - MSN - May 6th, 2024
- The Future of End-to-End Encryption May Get Decided This Week in Nevada | TechPolicy.Press - Tech Policy Press - March 13th, 2024
- What is fully homomorphic encryption and how will it change blockchain? - Blockworks - March 13th, 2024
- Zamas homomorphic encryption tech lands it $73M on a valuation of nearly $400M - TechCrunch - March 13th, 2024
- WhatsApp encryption status might appear at the top of chats - BGR - March 13th, 2024
- TELCLOUD Teams With CyberProtonics to Add Quantum Encryption Security Technology on All POTS Line Phone ... - Business Wire - March 13th, 2024
- WhatsApp Clears Up Confusion Over Encryption With A Handy New Chat Label - Hot Hardware - March 13th, 2024
- WhatsApp Now Offers Encryption Label At The Top Of Your Chat Window: What It Means - News18 - March 13th, 2024
- WhatsApp update: An encryption indicator for chats is in the works, says report - HT Tech - March 13th, 2024
- Navigating an evolving landscape of threats and the rise of the encryption-less data breach - iTWire - March 13th, 2024
- Quantum Cryptography and Encryption Market Size, Growing Demand and Trends 2023 to 2030 - WhaTech - March 13th, 2024
- WhatsApp wants to 'show off' its end-to-end encryption feature to users - The Times of India - March 13th, 2024
- Disk Encryption Software Market Report Probes the Size, Share, Competitive Landscape and Trend Analysis - WhaTech - March 13th, 2024
- Signal President Meredith Whittaker Warns Against Encryption Threats and Tech Accountability Misuse - BNN Breaking - March 5th, 2024
- Shiba Inu Implements State-of-the-Art Encryption to Enhance Privacy & Security for Users and Developers - The Defiant - DeFi News - March 5th, 2024
- NYPD shows no sign of reversing Staten Island police radio encryption, but state legislation could change that - SILive.com - March 5th, 2024
- BitLocker encryption broken in 43 seconds with sub-$10 Raspberry Pi Pico key can be sniffed when using an ... - Tom's Hardware - February 9th, 2024
- BitLocker's Encryption Is Broken, But It's Still Not Time to Switch - MUO - MakeUseOf - February 9th, 2024
- Breaking Bitlocker: Watch Microsoft's Windows disk encryption being bypassed in just 43 seconds - BetaNews - February 9th, 2024
- Microsoft BitLocker encryption hacked by a cheap off-the-shelf Raspberry Pi Pico - ReadWrite - February 9th, 2024
- Web3 Foundation Announces Grant Funding for Creation of On-Chain Randomness and Timelock Encryption ... - StartupHub.ai - February 9th, 2024
- BitLocker Gets Pi All Over It's Face As A Pico Cracks The Encryption Key - PC Perspective - February 9th, 2024
- The Dawn Of Quantum Computing In Finance: Revolutionizing Data Analysis And Encryption, According To Investor ... - Global Banking And Finance Review - February 9th, 2024
- Cryptographic storage is a secure way to store data using encryption and other security measures. - Medium - February 1st, 2024
- Senator proposes new encryption provision in bill against online child exploitation - The Record from Recorded Future News - February 1st, 2024
- Email Encryption Market is Expected to Reach US$ 20.7 Billion by 2032: IMARC Group - EIN News - February 1st, 2024
- EU: Open letter on security-cloaked threats to encryption - ARTICLE 19 - Article 19 - January 15th, 2024
- Mind Network: Revolutionizing Web3 Security and Privacy with Fully Homomorphic Encryption - BSC NEWS - January 15th, 2024
- What Is Encryption? Definition, How it Works, & Examples - eSecurityPlanet - January 7th, 2024
- What Is Encryption? - Definition, Types & More | Proofpoint US - January 7th, 2024
- Encryption, Its Algorithms And Its Future - GeeksforGeeks - January 7th, 2024
- End-to-end encryption: What it is, how it works, and why you need it - The Indian Express - January 7th, 2024
- What Is Encryption and Why It's Important for Cybersecurity - devmio - January 7th, 2024
- Quantum Quandary: Navigating the Path to Unbreakable Encryption - Security Boulevard - January 7th, 2024
- What is Encryption and how does it work? | OpenText - December 20th, 2023
- The police scanner is fading away due to the move to encryption communication - Kankakee Daily Journal - December 20th, 2023
- EAGLYS, Mitsui, and Quantinuum Partner on Hardened Encryption Keys Using Quantum Computing - Quantum Computing Report - December 20th, 2023
- Meta rolls out default end-to-end encryption for its 1 billion users. Here's what to know - The European Sting - December 20th, 2023
- Messenger finally gets end-to-end encryption by default - The Verge - December 11th, 2023
- Meta Announces End-to-End Encryption by Default in Messenger - EFF - December 11th, 2023
- Why It Took Meta 7 Years to Turn on End-to-End Encryption for All Chats - WIRED - December 11th, 2023
- Meta to expand encryption on Messenger making it similar to WhatsApp - CNBC - December 11th, 2023
- Default end-to-end encryption introduced in Messenger - SC Media - December 11th, 2023
- Meta Launches Default End-to-End Encryption for Chats and Calls on Messenger - The Hacker News - December 11th, 2023
- Encryption: It's Not About Good and Bad Guys, It's About All of Us - Center for European Policy Analysis - December 11th, 2023
- Default end-to-end encryption is finally coming to Messenger and Facebook - Popular Science - December 11th, 2023
- Lack of Encryption the Primary Reason for Sensitive Data Loss - Business Wire - December 11th, 2023
- Facebook Messenger end-to-end encryption is finally here - BGR - December 11th, 2023
- Facebook Messenger Now Uses End-to-End Encryption by Default - How-To Geek - December 11th, 2023
- What does end-to-end encryption on Facebook and Messenger mean for users? - The National - December 11th, 2023
- Meta starts adding controversial encryption to Facebook and Messenger chats - The Independent - December 11th, 2023
- The Quantum Computing Threat to Encryption and Cybersecurity - Medium - December 11th, 2023
- Meta adds end-to-end encryption to Messenger and Facebook. Details here | Mint - Mint - December 11th, 2023
- AI and Quantum Computing Threaten Encryption and Data Security - Security Boulevard - December 11th, 2023
- End-to-end encryption in Facebook Messenger will now work by default - Mezha.Media - December 11th, 2023
- Equiniti Announces Partnership with Beyond Encryption to Strengthen its Secure Digital Communications - Global Banking And Finance Review - November 17th, 2023
- Bluefin, The Payments Fintech Focused On PCI-Validated Encryption And Tokenization Technologies, Partners - Crowdfund Insider - October 27th, 2023
- Cryptography | NIST - National Institute of Standards and Technology - October 16th, 2023
- What Is Encryption? - Internet Society - October 16th, 2023
- How to Encrypt Files, Folders and Drives on Windows | TechSpot - May 3rd, 2023
- What Is Encryption, and How Does It Work? - How-To Geek - May 3rd, 2023
- What Is Encryption? | Definition + How It Works | Norton - January 30th, 2023
- What is PGP Encryption and How Does It Work? - Varonis - January 30th, 2023
- What is Encryption and How Does it Work? - TechTarget - January 22nd, 2023