Tech companies and digital rights advocates have said that such efforts would infringe on human rights because providing the authorities with access to such messaging services would require weakening their overall levels of encryption. The law also required tech companies to bypass encryption protocols, where possible, to aid ongoing investigations. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyTech companies say they cannot hand over such information because internet messages are sent through so-called end-to-end encryption. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThis technology scrambles messages to make them indecipherable to anyone but their intended recipient. If such technology is weakened, campaigners say, governments and hackers could gain access to encrypted messages, reducing people’s ability to communicate privately online.

Source: New York Times March 27, 2017 11:09 UTC