Encryption to stay, won’t give ‘backdoor’ access: Facebook tells US govt

Facebook has clearly told US Attorney General William Barr that the social networking giant will neither remove encryption from its messaging apps nor will provide law enforcement agencies access to its encrypted services.

“As a company that supports 2.7 billion users around the world, it is our responsibility to use the very best technology available to protect their privacy. Encrypted messaging is the leading form of online communication and the vast majority of the billions of online messages that are sent daily, including on WhatsApp, iMessage, and Signal, are already protected with end-to-end encryption,” said WhatsApp head Will Cathcart and Facebook Messenger’s chief Stan Chudnovsky, in a letter to Barr on Tuesday.