Five Eyes alliance warns tech companies that encryption ‘creates severe risks to public safety’

Facebook argue that end-to-end encryption is necessary to protect people's most private information

Credit: AFP

Defence secretary Ben Wallace said earlier this month that the UK is seeking to expand the Five Eyes alliance in order to “send a message to China”.

“We would absolutely continue to explore working with new partners in Asia and deepening Five Eyes,” Mr Wallace told a ConservativeHome event at the Conservative Party Conference.

Sunday’s statement follows a similar warning by the Five Eyes alliance published in 2018 which called on technology companies to create “customised solutions” that would allow police to access private messages, bypassing encryption.

The governments warned that they could take action such as “technological, enforcement, legislative or other measures” in order to prevent police being denied access to material by unbreakable end-to-end encryption.

Last year, an alliance of technology companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft and WhatsApp signed an open letter condemning a proposal by the UK’s GCHQ agency which suggested that law enforcement could be invisibly added as a recipient to private messages to avoid forcing companies to break their own encryption.

A Facebook spokesman said: “We’ve long argued that end-to-end encryption is necessary to protect people’s most private information. In all of these countries, people prefer end-to-end encrypted messaging on various apps because it keeps their messages safe from hackers, criminals, and foreign interference. Facebook has led the industry in developing new ways to prevent, detect, and respond to abuse while maintaining high security and we will continue to do so.”