U.S., allies protest Facebook's dangerous encryption plan

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The United States and two of its key allies, the United Kingdom and Australia, have urged Facebook not to go ahead with an encryption plan for its platform that would hinder law-enforcement investigations.

Privacy organizations, meanwhile, have condemned the request.

The letter to Facebook was signed by U.S. Attorney General William Barr; U.S. acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan; Priti Patel, the secretary of state for the Home Department in the United Kingdom; and Peter Dutton, Australian minister for Home Affairs.

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The letter began, "We are writing to request that Facebook does not proceed with its plan to implement end-to-end encryption across its messaging services without ensuring that there is no reduction to user safety and without including a means for lawful access to the content of communications to protect our citizens."

The letter cited a March 2019 posting in which Facebook admitted there are "real safety concerns" in the plan.

"You stated that 'we have a responsibility to work with law enforcement and to help prevent' the use of Facebook for things like child sexual exploitation, terrorism, and extortion," the letter continued. "As you know, our governments have engaged with Facebook on this issue, and some of us have written to you to express our views."

The letter pointed out, however, Facebook "has not committed to address our serious concerns."

The government representatives confirm they support encryption and privacy, but they argued "we must find a way to balance the need to secure data with public safety and the need for law enforcement to access the information they need to safeguard the public, investigate crimes, and prevent future criminal activity."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the request "a staggering attempt to undermine the security and privacy of communications tools used by billions of people."

"Facebook should not comply," the organization said.

EFF noted the letter "comes in concert with the signing of a new agreement between the U.S. and U.K. to provide access to allow law enforcement in one jurisdiction to more easily obtain electronic data stored in the other jurisdiction."

However, EFF said law enforcement appears to be asking for "nothing less than access to every conversation that crosses every digital device."

"Many people – including journalists, human rights activists, and those at risk of abuse by intimate partners – use encryption to stay safe in the physical world as well as the online one," EFF pointed out.

"And encryption is central to preventing criminals and even corporations from spying on our private conversations, and to ensure that the communications infrastructure we rely on is truly working as intended," the organization said. "What's more, the backdoors into encrypted communications sought by these governments would be available not just to governments with a supposedly functional rule of law. Facebook and others would face immense pressure to also provide them to authoritarian regimes, who might seek to spy on dissidents in the name of combating terrorism or civil unrest, for example."

EFF said that given "the remarkable reach of Facebook’s messaging services, ensuring default end-to-end security will provide a substantial boon to worldwide communications freedom, to public safety, and to democratic values, and we urge you to proceed with your plans to encrypt messaging through Facebook products and services."