Back door for British Lauscher: WhatsApp wants to help Apple

According to Apple, WhatsApp now wants to defend itself against the fact that the British government is trying to implement back doors in iOS. Meta manager wants Cathcart, who is heading the messaging app, said Apple is supported in his current legal defense against the British Interior Ministry (UK Home Office). He is afraid that a “dangerous precedent” is created here, which can also encourage other nations to break encryption without being able to act safely online and on their devices.

Secret sniffing commands

“WhatsApp will be against any law and official arrangement that aims to weaken the encryption of our services, proceed and continue to work for people’s law,” said Cathcart the British broadcaster BBC. It is unclear whether Meta and/or his daughter Whatsapp already do this. A big problem is that the instructions that the UK Home Office granted digital companies are secret. Apple first had to put legal pressure in order to be able to disclose parts of the sniffing commands. Accordingly, it is quite possible that other companies have already received corresponding requests.

The topic of back door is also a politically hot iron: the US government sees it as a similar acting as that of the Chinese government when spying on the population. Something like this “is known from China”, President Donald Trump said in an interview with the British political magazine The Spectator in an interview with the British political magazine. He told the British Prime Minister Keir Stamer that he could “not” do that. The director of national security, Tulsi Gabbard, also sharply criticized the project. It is a “outrageous violation” against the privacy of the US citizens.

British back door affects all

If Apple is actually forced to incorporate a back door in iOS, users all over the world would be affected. According to media reports, Apple received a secret instruction according to the controversial investigatory Powers Act (IPA) in early February. Officially, this was not confirmed at first, since everyone involved also has to maintain it by law because of the disclosure. In the meantime, Apple had considered leaving Great Britain because of the new law.

The British government authorizes the spy law to make a veto against technical protective measures in secret, such as improved encryption – and with global effects. This is exactly what Apple is said to have met with its Advanced Data Protection (ADP). In order to avoid this, the British authorities want direct access to the operating system: Then it would not matter whether the information (also not visible to Apple) is in the cloud. Incidentally, the EU also tries similar approaches: here you also want to go to the data before encryption. In addition, there is a required obligation for so -called chat control.