New Security Efforts by OTT Providers Continue Despite Wiretap Concerns

By

Popular online entities like Facebook, Google and Snapchat continue to advance the security they deliver around their services and capabilities, and while that’s typically good news for their customers, it may be a mixed blessing overall.

The discussion about the challenges this kind of thing presents to law enforcement officials resurfaced recently when the FBI recently began pushing Apple to unlock its iPhones to help it access information on the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. Apple, as you probably know by now, refused.

WhatsApp, the instant messaging service that Facebook purchased for $19 billion back in February of 2014, now has encryption that makes it impossible for government entities to eavesdrop on these IM communications. As The New York Times reported in a March 12 article, the Justice Department has been working to figure out what to do next in a criminal investigation for which it got approval for a wiretap from a federal judge, but for which investigators couldn’t do that wiretap due to the WhatsApp encryption.

An Electronic Frontier Foundation blog posted earlier this week by Nate Cardozo said: “according to the New York Times, the government has obtained a wiretap order, authorizing real time acquisition of the WhatsApp messages (probably text chats rather than voice calls, but that’s unclear at this stage) in an ongoing criminal investigation. WhatsApp is, of course, unable to provide decrypted text in response to the wiretap order, just as it was unable to comply with a similar order by a Brazilian court earlier this month. The whole point of end-to-end encryption is that no one but the intended recipient of a message is able to decipher it…. For now however, we applaud WhatsApp (and Facebook) for standing strong in the face of orders, whether Brazilian or American, to do the impossible or to compromise our security for the sake of enabling click-of-the-mouse surveillance.”

Meanwhile, a CNET article by Lance Whitney posted today notes that Google is investigating whether the encryption it uses for emails today can be applies to other products, and notes a report by The Guardian that Snapchat is working to introduce a more secure messaging system.




Edited by Maurice Nagle
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

Executive Editor, TMC

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Lessons Learned from Enterprise Oracle Cloud Migrations

By: Contributing Writer    7/1/2025

Switching to Oracle Cloud can feel daunting. Security risks, unexpected expenses, and performance troubles often turn what seems like an effortless up…

Read More

Protecting Business Assets with Smarter Security Frameworks

By: Contributing Writer    7/1/2025

Protecting your business is more challenging than ever. Cyber threats are increasing every day. Hackers target small and large businesses alike, searc…

Read More

Emerging Trends in Technology and Their Impact on Future Innovations

By: Contributing Writer    7/1/2025

Technology is changing faster than ever. Business owners often struggle to keep up. What's trending today might be outdated tomorrow. Falling behind c…

Read More

Tech Podcast Award Winners Bring Excitement and Enthusiasm to a Range of Important Tech Topics

By: TMCnet Staff    6/18/2025

Tech Podcast Award winners produce engaging, informative, and often entertaining content, bringing valuable insight from industry front lines to the e…

Read More

How Mobile Technology is Driving the Shift to Casino Apps

By: Contributing Writer    6/12/2025

Recent years have seen casino apps completely changing the online casino experience. Thanks to mobile-first technology, apps are becoming the default.…

Read More