It\u2019s that time of the year when we grab our\npopcorn and witness another chapter in the age-old battle between governments\nand tech companies. Once again, governments are attacking tech companies for\ngiving criminals a “safe place” for their communication, while the\ncompanies say they are protecting privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Apple and WhatsApp, Facebook is the latest platform to make the headlines in the ongoing encryption debate \u2014 end-to-end encryption to be precise. In an open letter<\/a> addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder & CEO of Facebook, the governments of the U.S., U.K. and Australia have asked the social networking giant not to proceed with its plans to implement end-to-end encryption across Facebook\u2019s messaging services. And not only that, they\u2019ve also reaffirmed their request for a backdoor in the encryption of messaging services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But before you form any opinions on this situation, it’s essential to know what end-to-end encryption is and what it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s hash it out.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ll get to \u201cend-to-end\u201d encryption in a\nbit \u2014 but before that, let\u2019s first understand what encryption is and what it\ndoes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Consciously or unconsciously, we all send and receive a lot of information when we use the internet through our devices. And some of this information is confidential (passwords, financial information, personal photographs, etc.) and could cause a lot of damage if someone steals or tampers with it. So, how do we make sure that no one does that? Well, this is where encryption comes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Encryption is the technique that turns our\ndata into an undecipherable format so that no third party can read or alter it.\nIt’s what keeps us safe in the ocean of the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s an example of a phrase of text\nthat\u2019s been encrypted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you can see, there\u2019s no way to figure\nout what the encrypted text means \u2014 unless, of course, you have the private key\nto decrypt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Facebook Messenger already uses encryption \u2014\njust not end-to-end encryption. \u201cNormal\u201d encryption (a.k.a. link encryption)\nworks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that in this scenario, Facebook\ncontrols the encryption\/decryption, and Facebook has access to the decrypted\nmessage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, let\u2019s get to end-to-end encryption. It\u2019s precisely what it sounds like \u2014 end-to-end encryption facilitates the type of encrypted communication that only the sender and receiver can read\/see. No one in the middle \u2014 including Facebook, the government, or another messaging service provider \u2014 can read\/decrypt messages being sent from one device to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, the messages you send are\ndecrypted at the endpoint of the communication \u2014 the device you’re sending\nmessages to. The server you\u2019re sending the data through (i.e. Facebook) won’t\nbe able to decrypt or view your messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The distinction between the two is that while normal or link encryption encrypts the data, the server transmitting information between two devices has the ability to decrypt the encrypted data. End-to-end encryption, on the other hand, uses the server to transmit the data (how else would the data transfer take place?), but it doesn’t allow the server to decrypt the data. Therefore, the server is just a medium that facilitates data transfer of encrypted information. Hence, WhatsApp or any other end-to-end encrypted app won\u2019t be able to read your information (even if they want to).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Security professionals and privacy experts largely\nsupport the idea of end-to-end encryption because it better protects your data\nfrom hackers and other parties who may want spy on you. When you allow the data\ntransmitter (the messaging service provider in this case) to decrypt your\nmessages, you’re leaving a significant potential security hole that could cause\nproblems if the server is compromised, hacked, or surveilled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If the information is protected end to end,\nthough, there\u2019s no point in intercepting information halfway down the line as\nit’s in an encrypted format. Thus, it protects the privacy of millions of\npeople and assures them that no one \u2014 not even the messaging service itself \u2014\ncould read their private information. For this reason, experts (including\norganizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for\nDemocracy & Technology, and others) are advocating for the use of\nend-to-end encryption in messaging apps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main argument against end-to-end\nencryption (and in favor of link encryption) is that end-to-end encryption creates\na “safe space” for criminals to communicate where there’s no third\nparty who can read and perform security checks on their messages. In other\nwords, the technology that’s supposed to protect the privacy of millions of\npeople and businesses protects the confidentiality of criminals as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m not saying that I’m in favor of this\nargument, but it undeniably does hold some water. If the server was able to decrypt\nthe data, we can have a system that would help in catching the bad guys. In the\ncase of end-to-end encryption, this option is gone. I don’t know what other\nmotives they may have, but this is the argument that the governments of the U.S.,\nU.K., and Australia are using to do away with end-to-end encryption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the argument made by various\ngovernments might make sense to a certain extent, there’s always a question\nmark regarding their full intentions. Do they care about the crimes that may be\nhidden because of end-to-end encryption, or are they crying foul in order to\nserve a bigger agenda: having the power to easily spy on people? <\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, seeing the evidence that\u2019s\navailable to us, both seem likely to be true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s worth noting here that Edward\nSnowden, the famous National Security Agency whistle-blower, previously\nrevealed that the intelligence services in the U.K. and U.S. had been\nintercepting communications through various channels for many years on a mass\nscale. So, where do you draw the line as far as governments’ interference is\nconcerned? Encryption can be used for good and for bad, but so can\nsurveillance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve been following this entire encryption saga, you must have stumbled across the term \u201cbackdoor.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, a backdoor<\/a> is a mathematical feature of the encryption key exchange that could decrypt the end-to-end encryption, and no one knows about this except the ones who made it (the messaging service). In popular words, it\u2019s like a secret key. So when, let’s say, a judge orders a warrant to hand over certain information in a decrypted format to the government, the messaging app (or the government agency) could use this \u201cbackdoor\u201d to give your decrypted information to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, again, this comes with a danger \u2014 a massive one. What if this powerful tool falls into the wrong hands? If a cybercriminal somehow gets hold of this \u201csecret key,\u201d they could have access to all of your private pictures, messages, etc. and do who knows what<\/em> with them! And that’s why creating a backdoor could be even more dangerous than concerns about standard encryption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Implementing end-to-end encryption would\nmean that even Facebook itself won\u2019t have access to the information being\nshared through its messaging service. This seems quite contrary to the business\nmodel that Facebook has built around data monetization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, why doesn\u2019t Facebook want the data? Does\nit really care about privacy, or is there something else hiding behind the\ncurtain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n One possible reason why Facebook plans to implement end-to-end encryption is to simply move away from the pressure of law enforcement, court orders, warrants, and controversies. Currently, Facebook uses artificial intelligence (AI) and a team of human moderators to monitor the content and messages sent via its platform. They then report suspicious communication\/content to authorities. This content moderation system is the source of a lot of expense, negative news coverage and even lawsuits<\/a> for Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With end-to-end encryption in place, this could\nall go away because Facebook won’t be able to decipher the communication. They\ncan simply say \u201csorry, we can’t access the content even if we want to.\u201d That\ncould save Facebook a lot of time, money, and hassle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Considering that Facebook has already implemented end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp, the most extensively used messaging service that it owns, it seems likely that end-to-end encryption will be implemented in Facebook\u2019s other services as well. The question is \u2014 what happens next? I expect the governments championing the call to eliminate end-to-end encryption to shift gears and attack the tech companies with more ferocity. Further down the road, this never-ending battle could spark into a fire, and ordinary users could be its witnesses or become engulfed in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As always, leave any comments or questions below\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Updated on April 29, 2021<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s what you need to know about the debate over end-to-end encryption Note: This article, which was originally published in 2019, has been updated to include related news & media…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[130,10200,13114],"tags":[7625],"class_list":["post-11731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everything-encryption","category-monthly-digest","category-updated","tag-end-to-end-encryption","post-with-tags"],"views":32135,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/End-to-End-Encryption.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is End-to-End Encryption? How is it Different from\nOther Encryption?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How Encryption Works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Facebook Messenger Is Already Encrypted \u2014 Here\u2019s How It\nWorks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Graphic:](\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/1.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHow End-to-End Encryption Works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Graphic:](\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nFacebook Can\u2019t See Your Messages When They\u2019re End-to-End\nEncrypted<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
End-to-End Encryption: The Good<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
End-to-End Encryption: The Bad<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
End-to-End Encryption: The Politics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
An Encryption Backdoor Is Not the Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why Does Facebook Want to Implement End-to-End Encryption?\n(Is Facebook Running Away from Its Responsibility?)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A Not-So-Final Word<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Recent Related News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n