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Tin-foil hat wearers are right about this one: In a letter to the US Department of Justice, Senator Ron Wyden pleaded with the justice department to compel Apple and Google to notify users that currently unidentified governments want to survey smartphone users via their push notifications, reports Reuters.
Who is requesting this data? While Wyden did state a source of information, he did not detail the extent of the information received. The source reportedly declined to identify the foreign governments making these requests, but described them as allies of the United States.
The letter details how this data comes from Apple and Google. While apps use push notifications to alert users to updates or incoming messages, these notifications come from Apple and Google servers, not through the individual apps. This puts these companies unique insight into how clients use specific apps through the traffic flowing through their servers.
Back-tracking. It was the US federal government that stopped Apple and Google from sharing this information in the first place. Apple expressed in a statement to Reuters that Wyden’s letter lifted the federal prohibition from sharing this knowledge with the public. Google seconded the sentiment, saying it shared Senator Wyden’s commitment to keeping users informed about their data.
The DOJ declined to comment on the gag order.
HAS META BEEN LISTENING IN? Related to the above story or not, full encryption is on the way for Facebook messenger chats and calls,in the same way that WhatsApp is, Meta said yesterday in a blog post. Facebook’s parent company has started rolling out the end-to-end encryption (E2EE) feature by default to chats and calls on its Messenger app, Axios reports. WhatsApp has been implementing the E2EE feature since 2016 for all conversions and calls.
Why does this feature matter? It will add an extra layer of security to ensure the content of messages and calls on the platform is protected throughout the entire transmission process and the information will be kept private from prying eyes, including Meta’s — unless you report a message.
Messenger has offered optional encrypted messaging since 2016: Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, first mentioned plans to introduce end-to-end encryption by default in 2019. Otherwise, the US along with the UK and Australia asked Meta to stop implementing this feature as they have law enforcement concerns about child exploitation and other crimes.
