Brazil has banned WhatsApp from the country in an attempt to get access to users’ data.
The company and country are engaged in an ongoing fight over whether Brazilian officials should be able to read the messages of users of the service. Brazil has argued that it is important for security, but WhatsApp says that it is impossible to share the data,which is fully encrypted and therefore can only be read by the sender and recipient.
That has led to the roughly 100 million people who use WhatsApp in Brazil finding themselves unable to send or receive messages.
The outage came as the result of a judgement by Marcel Maia Montalvao, a judge in the small, remote northeastern state of Sergipe, who ordered the suspension.
The fight over data has been happening for months. In March, Facebook’s most senior staff member in Latin America was detained and held as officials accused it of withholding information that was important for drug trafficking and organised crime investigations.
At the time, a spokeswoman for federal police in Sergipe, Monica Horta, said investigators had requested content from a WhatsApp messaging group as well as other data, including geolocation. Investigators first contacted WhatsApp several months earlier but hadn’t received a response, Horta said.
In a statement widely cited in Brazilian media, WhatsApp said the company was disappointed by the judge’s decision, saying it “punished more than 100 million Brazilians who depend on our service.”
At the time, a spokeswoman for federal police in Sergipe, Monica Horta, said investigators had requested content from a WhatsApp messaging group as well as other data, including geolocation. Investigators first contacted WhatsApp several months earlier but hadn’t received a response, Horta said.
In a statement widely cited in Brazilian media, WhatsApp said the company was disappointed by the judge’s decision, saying it “punished more than 100 million Brazilians who depend on our service.”
By: independent.co.uk
