Encryption Showdown: WhatsApp Risks Leaving India to Protect User Privacy
WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted which keeps its users secure but the messaging app warns that it will stop its services in India if it is forced to break chat encryption in the near future. WhatsApp informed this to the Delhi High Court this week, where it is facing a big battle to keep its users secure behind its vaunted end-to-end encryption for chats, calls, videos and more.
The Meta-owned platform has appointed Tejas Karia, who shared the company’s opinion on breaking encryption and threatening to exit the country rather than comply with the laws on this matter. He also mentioned that WhatsApp is used by millions because they feel secure with the features offered by the platform. The messaging app is claimed to have around 400 million active users in the country where you also have the UPI payment feature.
The last thing Meta and WhatsApp would want is to stop its messaging service in the country and it will be quietly hoping that warnings like these would help its case and will not be forced to break its encryption for messages.
The Indian government has repeatedly claimed that WhatsApp and other messaging apps need to allow them to trace the messages under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 which is not possible when the chats are secure behind encryption and the keys are not accessible to anyone, including WhatsApp.
The Meta-owned platform is challenging its case against the IT Rules and argued that breaking encryption violates the privacy of users under the Indian Constitution. The government feels that privacy rights are not absolute and wants to have a balance, which includes breaking encryption for chats.
WhatsApp has faced similar demands in other countries but continues to abide by its policies and belief that messages in all forms should and will be secure for a long time. After all, security is one of the biggest reasons why WhatsApp became so popular and got Meta to buy it for over $15 billion more than a decade ago.
