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Unites States government considers banning end-to-end encryption


Implementation of end to end encryption in various user engagement platforms has been fantastic in taking care of online privacy. The case is different with government authorities with their varied intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Due to the prying nature of government authorities, there was a need for an end to end encryption.

The issue can be traced back in 2014 when a former contractor to a US intelligence authority revealed the mass-surveillance operations conducted by government intelligence agencies on individuals.

The shocking revelation was the fundamental driver to the implementation of encryption services by most tech companies to date. Nowadays, most chat apps and services have end-to-end user encryption.

End to end encryption ensures that only end users can read messages exchanged between them and no third party. Due to encryption, US government agencies reportedly run into problems while following up on suspects.

The US officials from various agencies held a meeting on Wednesday 26 to address the issue of encryption according to Politico Report.

Among the groups that shared words on the meeting, only the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency upheld the importance of encrypting critical private data.

The Commerce Department also issued their concerns on “economic, security and diplomatic consequences on mandating backdoors” in encryption services.

The FBI and Department of Justice proposed an end to encryption as they argued on the importance of “catching criminals and terrorists.”

Other agencies had mixed reactions on the matter of whether or not encryption should be banned.

The meeting, however, ended without any decision made. Although politico suggests a decision to hold an NSC deputies meeting may not remain on the back burner for long.

Besides, it’s unlikely that Congress may pass a bill that completely bans end to end encryption according to the report.

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Alvin Wanjala

Alvin Wanjala has been writing about technology for over 2 years. He writes about different topics in the consumer tech space. He loves streaming music, programming, and gaming during downtimes.

One Comment

  1. User privacy is paramount. Hope this doesn’t go through but then there is the issue of security which we all need. A catch 22 kind of situation.

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