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Goodbye Whatsapp ?
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Mark C
10-07-2015
http://tribune.com.pk/story/918323/u...-within-weeks/
Gigabit
10-07-2015
I believe what the law actually does is to prevent encrypted data from being unreadable by the authorities.

It nowhere (that I can see) states that Whatsapp is being banned.
jchamier
10-07-2015
Originally Posted by Gigabit:
“It nowhere (that I can see) states that Whatsapp is being banned.”

WhatsApp pride themselves on being secure (ie, encrypted) and that they have no adverts. They may be owned by Facebook, Inc, which could of course affect their decision.

If the UK is becoming China in respect to individuals data, and demanding interception capability, then WhatsApp will have to evaluate if they open their networks to the UK Government, or withdraw the service from the UK. The latter they could decide to do if they believe their revenue in other countries is based on the security model.

Whatever happens it will affect Apple and Google as well.

Mr Cameron and co don't understand it, they need to read up:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07...ryption_plans/

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archiv...sks_of_ma.html
Old Endeavour
10-07-2015
What's to stop you using the App on a server outside the UK via a proxy?
jchamier
10-07-2015
Originally Posted by Old Endeavour:
“What's to stop you using the App on a server outside the UK via a proxy?”

Whats going to happen to VPNs that multinational companies run?

Cameron is going after "encryption" but if he thinks he can get rid of VPNs and get rid of HTTPS web pages, he might as well shut down the entire economy.

This is not thought through.
mupet0000
10-07-2015
This wont work. They can't enforce a block on encryption, if anything, this will ensure that encryption becomes more prevalent than ever. Many people would like to shoot Cameron in the foot, but it appears that he's done that himself.
psionic
10-07-2015
Politicians don't understand the internet and never have done. They only way this could be achieved in practice is to shut Facebook down or buy them out. Even then it won't make a difference ultimately as people will always find ways around it or use alternatives.
nafanny29
10-07-2015
Whatsapp is going nowhere, its used by literally 95% of all my phone contacts.

Unless the government really have a death wish.
Gigabit
10-07-2015
I understand the argument that the Government are concerned about terrorists using WhatsApp for terror, however are there any actual terror cases that could have been prevented had they had access to WhatsApp?
Swipe
10-07-2015
It will get bocked again
engineermoore
10-07-2015
Originally Posted by Gigabit:
“I understand the argument that the Government are concerned about terrorists using WhatsApp for terror, however are there any actual terror cases that could have been prevented had they had access to WhatsApp?”

and obviously once this law is in place the terrorists wont break it! terrorists don't like breaking laws....
psionic
10-07-2015
Originally Posted by engineermoore:
“and obviously once this law is in place the terrorists wont break it! terrorists don't like breaking laws....”

Yep - they're a law abiding bunch. They'll stick writing letters to each other instead
John_Patrick
10-07-2015
Remember folks, MI6, CIA, Sweeny, CI5, CIA, FBI et all aint interested in intercepting smutty pics and dirty messages between consenting adults but they may want to read messages between people on the watch lists.

Which is better, the story in a few months time saying that these services have withdrawn from the UK or a court case/coroners inquiry that states that a serious attack was planned by using encrypted services that we could have prevented.

I know which I would prefer.
IslandNiles
10-07-2015
Originally Posted by John_Patrick:
“Remember folks, MI6, CIA, Sweeny, CI5, CIA, FBI et all aint interested in intercepting smutty pics and dirty messages between consenting adults but they may want to read messages between people on the watch lists.

Which is better, the story in a few months time saying that these services have withdrawn from the UK or a court case/coroners inquiry that states that a serious attack was planned by using encrypted services that we could have prevented.

I know which I would prefer.”

Banning services like Facebook Messenger, iMessage, WhatsApp and Snapchat from the UK is ridiculous and just isn't going to happen. And as others have said, what about communication via encrypted websites? What about cloud storage systems that have encryption? It's not feasible.

The other option, and I believe the one preferred by the government, is for the providers to build in backdoors so that the communications can be intercepted. This is possibly even more ridiculous than banning the services. A deliberate backdoor would inevitably be exploited by hackers and fraudsters.

As usual, we have politicians claiming that they want to do all sorts of things when they don't have any actual understanding of how these things work.
mupet0000
10-07-2015
Originally Posted by John_Patrick:
“Remember folks, MI6, CIA, Sweeny, CI5, CIA, FBI et all aint interested in intercepting smutty pics and dirty messages between consenting adults but they may want to read messages between people on the watch lists.

Which is better, the story in a few months time saying that these services have withdrawn from the UK or a court case/coroners inquiry that states that a serious attack was planned by using encrypted services that we could have prevented.

I know which I would prefer.”

Yeah because banning encryption is going to help fight terrorism. You'd just do one of the following:
A. Use a VPN
B. Organise terrorism abroad
C. Use internet from satellites
D. Talk in person
E. Talk in code in an unencrypted chat
Etc...

Encryption goes as far as WPA and https. That would mean that your home network must be open, otherwise it would be using WPA or WEP encryption. Any website like Google/Youtube/Facebook/Twitter, they all use encryption, so that no one can intercept your traffic and snoop on you or steal your credentials and pose as you.

Ever heard of online banking? You do realise that it's encrypted right?

Encryption is extremely important in many many ways, and if you are willing to give it up because "I have nothing to hide", you are an idiot or you don't understand what encryption truly is.

In Cameron's case, I think both.
Gigabit
11-07-2015
If you want to make a terrorist plot, you're going to find a way to do it.

We're never going to be able to predict future plots perfectly but we've gone basically 10 years without a serious incident so we must be doing something right already.
Mark C
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by mupet0000:
“Encryption is extremely important in many many ways, and if you are willing to give it up because "I have nothing to hide", you are an idiot or you don't understand what encryption truly is.

In Cameron's case, I think both.”

Yes !!! Problem, politicians are broadly a bunch of poorly educated, knee jerk reaction dimbos. I recall Alastair Campbell saying that he switches off any empty mains socket
he sees, because it will be 'leaking energy'. Eh ? !

However, mainstream journalists are just as stupid, so nothing ever gets properly challenged.

The mobile companies won't be any help of course, they'd love to see their their SMS revenue restored to pre 2010 levels. Fortunately Facebook, Google, et al will put up a case.

(Oooh, I can hear a helicopter overhead......)
davor
11-07-2015
UK is becoming a dictatorship, all under the disguise of the terrorism and radicalisation prevention. Banning a commercial app and encrypted messagining is an attack on democracy. On the other hand, real potential terrorist will keep on using something even if that's illegal. They can have home made apps that allow 128bit encryption with the advanced key pairing etc.

Only ordinary people will suffer from this legislation and it won't prevent malicious messaging being encrypted. I was happy when Torries won a majority, now, I'm not so sure. they are becoming too complacent, which is bad for the country.
Swipe
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by davor:
“I was happy when Torries won a majority, now, I'm not so sure. they are becoming too complacent, which is bad for the country.”

It's not just Tory policy. Believe me, Labour would have been trying to push this crap through too had they been elected this time around..
engineermoore
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by Swipe:
“It's not just Tory policy. Believe me, Labour would have been trying to push this crap through too had they been elected this time around..”

Personally I was hoping for another Con/Lib coalition. The Liberals seemed to do a decent job at stopping stuff like this.

You are right though, the two main parties are very similar when it comes to things like this.
nafanny29
11-07-2015
Al this, whats the point when you can buy a SIM card in cash without ID lol
noise747
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by nafanny29:
“Al this, whats the point when you can buy a SIM card in cash without ID lol”

There was talk about pre-pay users having to register, not sure if it will happen.,

I don't use Whats app, i keep getting people asking me to use it, but at the end of the day we all got SMS. I already got Facebook messenger on the phone, if I installed every messenger app people ask me to install, I would have no psace on my phone.
gillyallan
11-07-2015
If the phone companies included mms then for the most I wouldn't need whatsapp or viber but at 30p a pic msg it's too expensive
SkipTracer
11-07-2015
BREAKING NEWS: Vodafone, o2, EE and 3, closing within weeks because they use encryption on their mobile phone calls.

OK, I'll get my hat and coat.
Gigabit
11-07-2015
Originally Posted by Swipe:
“It's not just Tory policy. Believe me, Labour would have been trying to push this crap through too had they been elected this time around..”

They wanted ID cards...
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