Reply to post: Re: What did the court orginally ask for?

Re: What did the court orginally ask for?

WhatsApp encrypt messages only to make it difficult to eavesdrop in real time. If they do not keep the keys they presumably do not keep the messages past delivery since it would be a pointless waste of storage. Thus, a court request/order for past messages would be answered with a simple "we don't keep messages on our servers after they are delivered".

You need to understand how governments think when they want something. They think and act like spoiled children, which includes thinking that everyone lies (like they do). Anything they do not understand or do not like hearing becomes sounds like blah blah noise, so like a spoiled child that does not understand, they think if they throw a large enough temper tantrum they will get what they want.

So "We will not provide you with the messages because we don't keep messages on our servers after they are delivered"

becomes

"We will not provide you with the messages blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah"

To the government, "unable to comply" = "refusal to comply". So the government throws a temper tantrum and blocks WhatsApp. When their behavior makes things worse (voter revolt), they try another tactic.

it's important to realize that the government still believes that although WhatsApp denies having access to messaging data, they do not believe WhatsApp because they would keep and deny the data themselves.