Nat Cardozo writes in The Next Front in the New Crypto Wars: WhatsApp:
From the post:
In Saturday’s edition of the New York Times, Matt Apuzzo reports that the Department of Justice is locked in a “prolonged standoff” with WhatsApp. The government is frustrated by its lack of real-time access to messages protected by the company’s end-to-end encryption. The story may represent a disturbing preview of the next front in the FBI’s war against encryption.
…
I’m sure the government is “frustrated” by it lack of access to messages but that has been possible long before WhatsApp. Anyone using PGP with email has been able to achieve end-to-end encryption for years.
The real difference: WhatsApp makes encryption is convenient for users.
If you want to fight on the side of privacy, make encryption for your app as secure and convenient as possible.
Inconvenient encryption will not be used and result in clear text streams and speech.
You can increase the level of frustration in governments around the world by engineering convenient and strong encryption.
Opportunities to afflict governments around the globe don’t come up very often.
Step up and take this one.