WhatsApp: What is traceability and why does WhatsApp oppose it? Read more about how it works
Some governments are seeking to force technology companies to find out who sent a particular message on private messaging services. This concept is called “traceability.”
Technology and privacy experts have determined that traceability breaks end-to-end encryption and would severely undermine the privacy of billions of people who communicate digitally. Reasonable and proportionate regulations for an increasingly digital world are important, but eroding privacy for everyone, violating human rights, and putting innocent people at risk is not the solution. WhatsApp is committed to doing all to protect the privacy of people’s personal messages, which is why to join others in opposing traceability.
How does “traceability” break end-to-end encryption?
WhatsApp deployed end-to-end encryption throughout our app in 2016, so that calls, messages, photos, videos, and voice notes to friends and family are only shared with the intended recipient and no one else (not even WhatsApp).
“Traceability” is intended to do the opposite by requiring private messaging services like WhatsApp to keep track of who-said-what and who-shared-what for billions of messages sent every day. Traceability requires messaging services to store information that can be used to ascertain the content of people’s messages, thereby breaking the very guarantees that end-to-end encryption provides. In order to trace even one message, services would have to trace every message.
That’s because there is no way to predict which message a government would want to investigate in the future. In doing so, a government that chooses to mandate traceability is effectively mandating a new form of mass surveillance. To comply, messaging services would have to keep giant databases of every message you send, or add a permanent identity stamp -- like a fingerprint -- to private messages with friends, family, colleagues, doctors, and businesses. Companies would be collecting more information about their users at a time when people want companies to have less information about them.
How does traceability violate human rights?
Traceability forces private companies to turn over the names of people who shared something even if they did not create it, shared it out of concern, or sent it to check its accuracy. Through such an approach, innocent people could get caught up in investigations, or even go to jail, for sharing content that later becomes problematic in the eyes of a government, even if they did not mean any harm by sharing it in the first place. The threat that anything someone writes can be traced back to them takes away people’s privacy and would have a chilling effect on what people say even in private settings, violating universally recognized principles of free expression and human rights.
Would traceability work?
No. Tracing messages would be ineffective and highly susceptible to abuse. If you simply downloaded an image and shared it, took a screenshot and resent it, or sent an article on WhatsApp that someone emailed you, you would be determined to be the originator of that content. At another point, someone might copy and paste the same piece of content and send it along to others in an entirely different circumstance. Think of this like a tree with many branches -- looking at just one branch doesn’t tell you how many other branches there.
Moreover, traceability inverts the way law enforcement typically investigates crimes. In a typical law enforcement request, a government requests technology companies provide account information about a known individual’s account. With traceability, a government would provide a technology company with a piece of content and ask who sent it first.
Can WhatsApp work with law enforcement without traceability?
WhatsApp respects the important work law enforcement does to keep people safe. The dedicated team reviews and responds to valid law enforcement requests. WhatsApp responds to valid requests by providing the limited categories of information available to WhatsApp, consistent with applicable law and policy. WhatsApp also has a team devoted to assisting law enforcement 24/7 with emergencies involving imminent harm or risk of death or serious physical injury. WhatsApp consistently receives feedback from law enforcement that our responses to requests help solve crimes and bring people to justice.
It’s also important to understand that depending upon the nature of their investigations, law enforcement officials have multiple investigative tools, and may obtain information from many sources, including different companies, other governments, or from users’ devices.
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