WhatsApp debate

A surprise move by a US tech company has changed the conversation on privacy

In the past week, a small app for smartphones has become the most secure way to have a conversation. Dado Ruvic / Reuters

In the past week, a smartphone app has become the most secure way to have a conversation. WhatsApp, which has an estimated one billion users worldwide, switched on what is called end-to-end encryption. This means, in practice, that no one apart from the sender or receiver can see the conversation. Even the company itself will have no idea what is sent.

WhatsApp’s move comes as part of a wider debate over encryption and data privacy. On the one hand, users want complete privacy. Governments, and their security services, usually want to know what some people are saying. The line is usually drawn by national governments.

The difference here is that there has been no debate. Instead, at a stroke, the conversations of a billion people went dark to the security services. Whatever your views on the balance between privacy and national security, it is at least worth pausing for a moment to consider the implications when tech companies headquartered far away start acting like governments.