Once again, the prominent Five Eyes Alliance has asked for meddling, potentially compromising the robustness of end-to-end encryption. This time, two more nations, Japan and India, have also backed Five Eyes demanding the tech firms for E2EE backdoor.
Five Eyes, India, Japan, Urge Backdoor In E2EE
Five Eyes alliance, which includes the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, have long demanded compromise in the end-to-end encryption (E2EE).
The intelligence alliance is known to have implemented robust surveillance measures on its citizens. Time and again, they have demanded the technology companies to lower down the (almost) unbreakable encryption in E2EE.
And now, Five Eyes, along with Japan and India, have together asked the tech firms to create backdoor in E2EE.
According to the statement, the nations aren’t against E2EE. However, they demand backdoor in it as it makes it difficult to curb illegal or criminal activities.
We, the undersigned, support strong encryption, which plays a crucial role in protecting personal data, privacy, intellectual property, trade secrets and cyber security…
Encryption is an existential anchor of trust in the digital world and we do not support counter-productive and dangerous approaches that would materially weaken or limit security systems.
Particular implementations of encryption technology, however, pose significant challenges to public safety, including to highly vulnerable members of our societies like sexually exploited children.
As per their stance, such unbreakable encryption hinders investigations and poses threat to public safety.
Hence, they demand the tech firms to allow governments to meddle with encryption for ethical and legal purposes.
‘Privacy Possible With Backdoor Too’
This isn’t a first-time, though, that such a demand has come up. However, despite continuous pressure, tech firms haven’t yet agreed to such a compromise. They believe such backdoor violates their terms of service that ensures uninterrupted online privacy to the users with end-to-end encryption.
Nonetheless, the recent international statement ends with a denial of the tech firms’ perspective.
We challenge the assertion that public safety cannot be protected without compromising privacy or cyber security. We strongly believe that approaches protecting each of these important values are possible and strive to work with industry to collaborate on mutually agreeable solutions.
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