Apple is in the midst of a battle with law enforcement, it has denied complying with a court order obtained by the FBI to provide the bureau with backdoor access to the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. That matter is far from over and it looks like there might be another making headlines soon. The Justice Department’s lawyers now have WhatsApp encryption in their sights.
The New York Times reports that the Justice Department is facing trouble in the execution of a wiretap that’s being conducted through WhatsApp due to the service’s encryption.
According to the report, the DOJ’s officials have been mapping out their options in case they’re not able to gain any information from the court-approved wiretap. Sources cited in the report claim that the WhatsApp wiretap only involves an ongoing investigation and not an act of terrorism like the one in San Bernardino.
Some officials are said to be considering asking a judge to issue a court order that would force WhatsApp to turn over user data, whether or not Facebook-owned WhatsApp would comply is another matter altogether, but these recent fights against encryption might be followed by a call to update wiretap laws that were written back when business, legal or illegal, was mostly conducted over landlines.
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