Revealing private info defeats encryption, says WhatsApp

KOCHI : Emphasising on the primacy of user privacy, WhatsApp has pointed out that citizens will not speak freely for fear that their private communications will be traced and used against them, which is antithetical to the very purpose of end-to-end encryption, if such communication is revealed.

The company stated so in its writ petition before the High Court seeking to set aside the Thiruvananthapuram additional chief judicial magistrate court’s order to issue a notice to a WhatsApp representative for the company’s failure to provide Cyber Police officials with the account details of a person who uploaded the obscene videos of a Kilimanoor woman on the app. The court has stayed the magistrate’ order.