People think that the smart phone app Whatsapp is too private because terrorists could be hiding their communication by using it.
About 34 billion messages are sent via the Whatsapp every day. Since some time back, all communication people have in this environment is protected from anyone “looking in”, using something called end-to-end encryption.
Does this mean that governments and police that are investigating possible terrorists cannot see what is going on? If end-to-end encryption is active, the technology company running the app is not able to disclose any information about what criminals might be saying to each other. The only thing companies could reveal is “meta data”: when a message was sent, your telephone number, and the physical location of the people you are texting.
What more does the government want to do about Whatsapp? Possibly also the content of exchanges, to be able to see if anyone is planning an attack, for example. Even if there was a way to unencrypt the chats when someone is suspected of a crime, it is unclear how this would work technically and governments don’t like that.
On the other hand, some people are opposing the idea of governments being able to “snoop” at everyone’s private messages. They like the idea of end-to-end encryption. What if they start looking at what people are saying who are not terrorists, but that do not like the government? Could they get into trouble too? That would not be okay in a democracy, where you are allowed to have your own thoughts and ideas. Governments say they would never misuse their power in that way, yet people worrying about privacy say “you never know!”