New
security added in the app might mean that it contravenes Indian rules that
force companies to use a specific kind of encryption.
The
company announced this week that all chats on its service would be end-to-end
encrypted, meaning that it would not be possible for the company or others to
see or read the contained within them.
the new step means that only the sender and recipient are able to unscramble
the encrypted messages and read their contents.
But the Indian government requires companies
to use no more than 40-bit encryption, unless they get explicit permission from
the power.
Getting
that permission will prove impossible because of the way that the system is set
up. WhatsApp would have to hand the key over to the government for it to be
checked ,but since the company doesn’t actually have those keys, they can’t be
handed over at all.
That could
mean that the 100 million users who use WhatsApp in India are using an app that is illegal in the
country. The app is the most popular in the entire country.
The
country’s authorities have not yet indicated whether they will continue the
action against WhatsApp. But the government has previously come up against
other companies including BlackBerry over encryption.
Like many
countries, India is currently looking to pass new policies on encryption, and
it is not clear whether those will also bring new requirements up on WhatsApp.
Aucun commentaire :
Enregistrer un commentaire