The European Parliament has drafted a plan that would ban any 'backdoor' entry to messaging apps such as WhatsApp. This comes after the UK government called for messaging apps to give authorities the ability to access all secure communications in an attempt to help stop potential terror incidents. However, the report created by the European parliament's committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs, says that amendments would be made to a 2002 regulation on privacy and electronic communications to bring it into line with modern technology. The proposal states that “when encryption of electronic communications data is used, decryption, reverse engineering or monitoring of such communications shall be prohibited”. If passed, the law will prevent the UK from using personal user data at will, as member states would no longer be allowed to do anything that “would result in the weakening of [network security and encryption]”. Although with the UK's impending leaving of the EU, it remains to be seen if the country will be impacted by the potential changes.
