WhatsApp has told the BBC it’s supporting Apple in its legal fight against the UK Home Office over user data privacy.
The messaging app’s boss, Will Cathcart, said the case “could set a dangerous precedent” by “emboldening other nations” to seek to break encryption, which is how tech firms keep their users’ data private.
All this brouhaha is because the British government has ordered that Apple give it blanket access to all encrypted user content uploaded to the cloud. The Washington Post (a subscription is required to read the article) said the secret order requires blanket access to protected cloud backups around the world and, if implemented, would undermine Apple’s privacy pledge to users.
Apple went to the courts after receiving a notice from the Home Office earlier this year demanding the right to access the data of its global customers if required in the interests of national security. It and other critics of the government’s position say the request compromises the privacy of millions of users.
And in March two human rights groups filed a legal complaint with the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in an attempt to quash the UK government’s demand for Apple to allow backdoor access to its encrypted data, according to the Financial Times (a subscription is required to read the article).
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