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WhatsApp Blocked in Brazil for 72 Hours Over Data Dispute (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader cites an article on TechCrunch: WhatsApp, Facebook's messaging service that recently rolled out end-to-end encryption to its users, will be blocked in Brazil for 72 hours, starting this afternoon. A Brazilian judge ordered telecom providers in the country to block WhatsApp today in a dispute over access to encrypted data. Judge Marcel Montalvao has ordered WhatsApp to turn over chat records related to a drug investigation, but WhatsApp has argued that it cannot access the chats in an unencrypted form and therefore cannot provide the required records to the court. [...] This isn't Montalvao's first clash with WhatsApp, which boasts more than 100 million Brazilian users. The judge ordered the arrest of Facebook's vice president for Latin America, Diego Dzodan, in March. Facebook has said that WhatsApp operates with relative independence and that Dzodan has no control over WhatsApp data.American lawyer and journalist Glenn Greenwald said: "WhatsApp shut down again in Brazil as of 1 pm ET today: used by 100m people, 91% of those online: all from 1 judge."
The trouble with most stories of government attempts at grabbing data and hindering those who try to protect the individual is that it is generally seen as "someone else's problem". This means that politicians can ignore those who it affects and continue eroding freedoms. If it affects a large proportion of the population then some aspiring politicos will see it as one way of getting up the electoral greasy pole; if (and a big "if") they keep their promises when elected we could see legislation to curtail the likes of Judge Marcel Montalvao. I certainly hope that this happens, it might make politicians in the USA and Europe think twice before they grab more privacy from us.
"When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Supposedly Thomas Jefferson
Someone just needs to post the Judge's home address and let those users show up at his door.
Internet Tough Guy likes the idea of mob justice when he's comfortably behind his computer and only has to imagine the scenarios where this plays out in his favour.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Well, one point to be made is that it is too easy to block the ability to communicate on the internet. Domestic or otherwise, I am very interested in rendering the state, or anybody else, absolutely powerless in that regard, and in seeing the discussion revolve around how to do it, instead of whether we should. Start with overcoming the greatest single point of failure we are all under, the Internet Service Provider. Once we are past that obstacle, the state will lose a great deal of its advantage.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”