End-to-end encryption is a double-edged sword. There is no doubt we all love the fact that we can talk away to our friends and family safe in the knowledge our messages really are private. In a modern world that has seemingly declared war on personal privacy, it really is something to be valued. The flip of that, however, is that some people hide behind that privacy and use the cover to cause problems.
These problems could be the planning of illegal activities or the whipping up of hatred by sending false infromation across the network. One country facing problems due to WhatsApp and its rigorous anonymity has been India, where lies spread across the network have caused lynchings, beatings, and even interfered in the democratic process.
The Indian government is now pushing WhatsApp to make changes so that it can better track who has been sending messages on WhatsApp in India. It is a little worrying, however, to see exactly what the Indian government wants WhatsApp to do.
The Indian government is pressuring WhatsApp to fingerprint all messages so they can be more easily tracked
The Economic Times in India is reporting that two officials from Narendra Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist BJP government have said that they’re pressuring WhatsApp to add fingerprints to all messages sent, so it’ll be easier to track who has sent what.
The government has been pushing WhatsApp to add more traceability measures to messages ever since the first fake stories of child kidnappings in 2018 led to lynchings. One of the government officials is quoted as saying, “Fingerprinting WhatsApp messages will help find the originator of the message. That is all we want… We don’t want to read the messages but when we see a problematic message, we should be able to go to WhatsApp to help us trace the sender.” The official added that the government believes what it is asking is “technically possible.”
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Boost your WhatsApp security nowThe official also went on to clarify that it will only request the data in limited circumstances, but the worry is that once the technology exists to do so, it could easily be abused.
WhatsApp has not commented on the government’s request, but industry insiders have said that should it go along with the request the messaging app will have to redesign its entire architecture. At the moment, WhatsApp doesn’t store this kind of data, so it’d be a major change if it were to suddenly start harvesting it. Such a change would then most likely affect WhatsApp all over the globe and not just in India.
If you’re a privacy advocate, this is something that should be grabbing your attention. The change could have massive privacy implications all around the world. This means we’re at a dangerous juncture here, but that global public opposition to the move could be the biggest thing standing in the way of the Indian government getting what it wants.
The question remains then, how do you feel about your fingerprint being added to every message you send?
