Can the FBI monitor your WhatsApp conversations?
A previously undisclosed FBI document shows that monitoring
WhatsApp and Facebook activity is a simple process for the bureau. The FBI
document provides guidelines for legally obtaining messages and metadata on
specific messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Viber and
others.
According to the document, which was obtained by Rolling
Stone, iMessage and WhatsApp provide the FBI with access to more data
categories than other platforms, including content and history of messages sent
and received. They also cooperate with authorities further if a search warrant
is issued, offering data on previous backups, contact lists and even more
personal data.
WhatsApp, for instance, is the only one of the nine apps
outlined in the document that uses what is called a “pen register,” a
surveillance request that captures the source and destination of each message
for an individual. WhatsApp produces certain user metadata every 15 minutes in
response to a pen register, the FBI says, meaning that even without requesting
message content from WhatsApp, the metadata captures who and when someone is
messaging, as well as which other users they have in their address book.
“WhatsApp offering all of this information is devastating to
a reporter communicating with a confidential source,” Daniel Kahn Gillmor, a
senior staff technologist at the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) told
Rolling Stone.
WhatsApp said through a spokesperson that the document
"illustrates what we’ve been saying – that law enforcement doesn’t need to
break end-to-end encryption to successfully investigate crimes."
"We carefully review, validate, and respond to law
enforcement requests based on applicable law, and are clear about this on our
website and in regular transparency reports," the spokesperson declared.
The FBI document, titled “Lawful Access,” covers the
policies for iMessage, WhatsApp, Line, Viber, Telegram, Signal, Threema, WeChat
and Wickr. Telegram and Signal are particularly known for their privacy
protections, as Telegram famously only provides IP addresses and phone numbers
in a case of suspected terrorism, while Signal only provides the date and time
of registration and last date of the app’s use. Neither of the two provides
message content to the FBI.
The information further showed that only iMessage, WhatsApp
and Line store message content and make it available to federal authorities,
while the other six do not disclose message content.
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