WhatsApp is in trouble it seems! The end-to-end encryption or E2E of the popular messaging app is impossible to intercept and this may be misused by miscreants and terrorists. The country’s security stands threatened, fears the activists. The fate of WhatsApp in India will be decided after the Supreme Court hears the petition on June 29th.
SC is all ready to hear the petition seeking a ban on WhatsApp on the June 29th because of its end-to end encryption. This E2E was introduced by WhatsApp to protect the privacy of its users. There are nearly one billion active users of WhatsApp, and almost all used to fear that their conversations and exchange of data could be read anytime. This time the country’s security stands compromised fear the intelligence agencies.
WhatsApp had decided on 256-bit encryption after a locked iPhone of an alleged terrorist had been broken into by the FBI. This had led to a judicial conflict between Apple and the FBI. Encrypting the messages was a great way to stop the Government and hackers from snooping into the private lives of the user, but what happens if the safety of the citizens is involved? Will the police be unable to break into these threatening messages that are passed on, with the help of this messaging channel?
The encryption feature of WhatsApp is feared as a potential threat to the security of the nation, say activists. Reports confirm that “In India, an encryption of up to 40-bit is considered legal and services that are implementing this type of encryption have to register with the government. Those who are using higher encryption are presently in the gray area.” and so this declares WhatsApp as illegal in India, but at the moment there is no ban anticipated as no guidelines are specified.
Sudhir Yadav, an RTI activist from Gurgaon had approached the Supreme Court for a ban on WhatsApp and for this he filed a petition with the registration ID: DOTEL/R/2016/50413. Sudhir states “that any terrorist can safely chat on WhatsApp and make plans to harm the country and the Indian intelligence agencies would not be able to tap them to take necessary actions.”
This scare leaves the WhatsApp lovers in a tizzy. Should WhatsApp be banned? Will the users be forced to shift to other messaging apps like Hike, Messenger etc? Let’s wait for June 29th and watch out for the decision made by Supreme Court regarding this.
