With a greater emphasis being placed on security and privacy, it is not surprising that more developers have started to include end-to-end encryption in their apps. For example it wasn’t too long ago that WhatsApp turned on encryption for its app, and while the feature might be great for end users, the UK government isn’t too thrilled by it.In a report from the BBC, it looks like the UK government actually wants to restrict end-to-end encryption for messaging apps. This follows a recent attack in London in which it was discovered that the attacker had used WhatsApp minutes before he carried out his attack, where he drove into a crowd of civilians on the Westminster Bridge.
Speaking to the BBC, British Home Secretary Amber Rudd was quoted as saying, “We need to make sure that organizations like WhatsApp don’t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with one another. We need to make sure our intelligent services have the ability to get into situations like encrypted WhatsApp.”
Naturally these comments were met with a strong response from security experts as well as those from civil right liberties groups, and we guess in all fairness it is a double-edged sword, but exactly what can or will be done about it remains to be seen.