WhatsApp：为护隐私 自断后路

如今，WhatsApp甚至采取比苹果更极端的立场——苹果还能说愿不愿意提交用户数据，WhatsApp则是即使愿意，也无法提交了，它断绝了所有后路。“唯一能读取这条信息的人是作为这条信息收件人的人或者群。没有人能看到这条信息。网络犯罪分子不能……专制政权不能。甚至我们也不能。”

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

snoop 调查，窥探[snuːp]

cyber 网络的，计算机的['saɪbə]

prominent 显著的；杰出的['prɒmɪnənt]

hamper 妨碍；束缚['hæmpə]

surveillance 监督；监视[sɝ'veləns]

阅读即将开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用时间，并对照我们在文章最后给出的参考值来估算您的阅读速度。

WhatsApp extends encryption to 1bn users（554words）

By Hannah Kuchler in San Francisco

* * *

WhatsApp has joined Apple in defying the US government’s efforts to gain access to mobile phone users’ private messages by rolling out tough encryption protections that will prevent law enforcement agencies from snooping on its more than one billion users.

The Facebook-owned chat app expanded its end-to-end encryption just weeks after Apple narrowly avoided a legal showdown with the FBI over access to the iPhone owned by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack that killed 14 people.

Like the iPhone’s messaging software, WhatsApp will now hold no keys to users’ private communication — whether it is one-on-one or group messages, photos or calls — and so cannot grant law enforcement access even if they have a warrant.

Law enforcement agencies have warned that increasingly sophisticated encryption on digital communications could hinder their ability to track terrorists and criminals. Tech groups argue that weakening encryption would make it easier for cyber criminals to attack their customers, at a time of a growing number of cyber attacks.

Jan Koum, WhatsApp co-founder, said that protecting private communication was a core value at WhatsApp, partly because of his own experience growing up in the Soviet Union.

“The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us,” he wrote in a blog post.

WhatsApp began to roll out end-to-end encryption in 2014 but until now it had not covered all devices and all types of communication.

Apple has been the most prominent defender of the tech industry’s right to protect consumers from government snooping, refusing to aid the FBI with accessing an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, who alongside his wife committed the San Bernardino shooting last year.

The court case was dropped two weeks ago after the FBI said it had found another way to unlock the iPhone, sparking speculation about how the agency may have hacked into the device and whether they would be able to use the same technique on other iPhones.

Facebook was one of several tech companies to support Apple in the fight, signing a letter that said the government’s order “exceeds the bounds of existing law and, when applied more broadly, will harm Americans’ security in the long run”. However, none of Facebook’s other apps have the same high level of encryption that WhatsApp does.

A white paper by WhatsApp added that even if someone accesses the encryption keys from a user’s device, they cannot go back in time to decrypt previously sent messages. This would have hampered law enforcement efforts to access messages on a device such as Mr Farook’s, which they had possession of physically.

WhatsApp has been directly criticised by governments, including the UK, which floated the idea that it would ban or try to weaken the encryption on the app last year, before dropping it in the face of opposition.

With most of WhatsApp’s users outside the US, Mr Koum said that he was concerned about surveillance in countries without the same “checks and balances”. Speaking to Wired magazine, he said: “Building secure products actually makes for a safer world, [though] many people in law enforcement may not agree with that.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1、Who owns the WhatsApp now?

a. Apple

b. Google

c. Facebook

d. Yahoo

2. What kind of encryption does WhatsApp use to protect privacy?

a. end-to-end encryption

b. one-on-one encryption

c. public-key encryption

d. encipher transmit mode

3. What is a core value at WhatsApp as mentioned from its co-founder?

a. receiving information quickly

b. protecting private communication

c. reading experience

d. informational multiplicity

4. Who has been the most prominent defender to protect consumers from government snooping?

a. Facebook

b. WhatsApp

c. Google

d. Apple

[1] 答案c. Facebook

解释：WhatsApp 是Facebook旗下的聊天应用。

[2] 答案a. end-to-end encryption

解释：WhatsApp宣布把文字、语音通话、相片、视频、群组或单独的对话，都采取端至端的加密保护。

[3] 答案b. protecting private communication

解释：WhatsApp联合创始人简·库姆(Jan Koum)表示，保护私人通信是WhatsApp的核心价值观之一，部分原因是他在苏联长大的经历。

[4] 答案d. Apple

解释：苹果一直是科技行业保护消费者不受政府监视的权利的最知名捍卫者，该公司拒绝帮助FBI解锁赛义德·法鲁克(Syed Farook)的iPhone，法鲁克和他的妻子去年实施了圣贝纳迪诺枪击案。