GET IT ALL: What is end-to-end encryption that should protect our private conversations?

Since August 8, the case of Celeste Burgess, accused of having an illegal abortion in the United States, has been highly publicized. The reason? Facebook provided police with the 17-year-old woman’s trades, allowing them to charge her. A few days later, on August 11, the company announced that end-to-end encryption would apply by default starting in 2023.

• What is end-to-end encryption?

This function allows secure digital exchanges. Applicable to written, audio or video messages, it ensures that only the people involved in a conversation can access the messages. Data transmitted by transmitters is instantly encrypted and can only be read by recipients using an encryption key.

This method opposes the transfer of data in clear text, in particular when sending SMS. In this case, anyone could potentially intercept these exchanges and gain access to them. Thus, end-to-end encryption ensures that no one outside of a conversation can discover its content.

• What applications offer this service by default?

The moderator’s blog lists email services that offer encryption by default. The best known -Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp- are obviously part of it. But the site indicates other solutions. In particular, the French applications Olvid and Skred or Wire, founded by the co-creator of Skype.

• Are there limits to end-to-end encryption?

Antivirus solution provider Kapersky claims in a blog post that encrypted exchanges can still be traced. If the conversations remain secure and no one can decipher them, sending and receiving information can be tracked. Thus, it is possible to know that an individual has sent a message on such a day, at such a time, to such a person. Without having the encryption key, the server will keep the timing of the exchanges and the identity of the senders and recipients.

• Why has the issue of abortion revived the debate on the subject?

When Facebook received a search warrant to obtain Celeste Burgess’s trades, she was under investigation for miscarrying and disappearing the body of her stillborn child. But by analyzing her Facebook data, Nebraska authorities discovered that it was actually an illegal abortion. Therefore, the charges against the 17-year-old girl increased after the involvement of the social network in the case.

This is the first case in which a woman’s personal data has been used against her since the repeal of the right to abortion in the United States. Despite everything, it should be noted that the events, which occurred in April, and the authorities’ request to Facebook, on June 7, preceded the decision of the US Supreme Court, on June 24.

However, the Nebraska abortion case describes the worst-case scenario that human rights groups feared. Since the revocation, they have repeatedly called for more protection around personal data. Rekindle the debate on the need for end-to-end encryption of conversations.

• Did Facebook announce its default encryption in response to the case?

Officially, there is no connection between the two events. Facebook explained that the search warrant did not indicate that authorities were conducting an abortion investigation. If the announcement of default encryption in Messenger were made in the wake of events, it would not be a reaction, according to Martin Signoux. On Twitter, the Meta public affairs officer in France recalled that the date of 2023 had already been cited long before the investigation against Celeste Burgess.

In fact, at the end of 2021, Antigone Davis, Meta’s global head of security, had explained in a column published by The Telegraph“We’re taking our time to get it right and don’t expect to complete the global rollout of end-to-end encryption by default across all of our messaging services until 2023.”

However, the company’s press releases on end-to-end encryption published since these comments never mentioned this date of 2023 before this August 11. Three days after media coverage of abortion in Nebraska.

• Why is the application of encryption by default not unanimous?

Messenger introduced the end-to-end encryption feature in October 2016. Whatsapp has been using it since April 2016. Although both services were part of the Facebook group at the time, which has since become Meta, the default app became chose for Whatsapp. , but not for Messenger. A decision immediately criticized in the name of security and protection of personal data.

At the same time, an opposition has also formed to advocate for the transparency of messages sent on Facebook. For six years, child safety advocates have claimed that end-to-end encryption by default would protect child molesters in contact with minors. Although young Americans aged 13 to 17 seem to be abandoning the social network, the argument is still perfectly understandable.

In June 2019, the US government even considered banning the encryption of personal data. The authorities regretted that they no longer had access to the conversations as part of a police investigation.

Only problem, the repeal of the right to abortion in the United States gives weight to the need for the application of encryption by default. Therefore, it would serve to protect pregnant women who wish to abort.