Facebook’s recent months this year has been really ‘tight’, to walk out from all of it, they seem to take drastic measures
Facebook won a court battle in California. The federal judge was on Facebook’s side of the case. The agents from a criminal case required evidence from the popular “Messenger” app. The security encryption which binds the protocol was not broken and the court ruled in favor of Facebook. The voice call was asked to be intercepted and several people involved with the case weren’t provided with it.
The authorized decision from the court hit the Justice Department real hard. What, they asked for was to intercept through their encryption system and to obtain the suspect’s conversation.
US government loses bid to force Facebook to wiretap Messenger calls: US government investigators have lost a case to force Facebook to wiretap calls made over its Messenger app. A joint federal and state law enforcement effort investigating the MS-13… https://t.co/kOf3F30xyD pic.twitter.com/PfwuY7Ntlj
— Web Scraping Service (@ScrapingWeb) September 30, 2018
Facebook’s stern decision to protect its dignity
This whole issue was over the fact of how the past reminds Facebook of issues regarding privacy invasion and now when, the tech firms are all up for it and make stern decisions. This comes out as a hurdle for the Justice Department.
The whole legal issue came out from an investigation in the Eastern District of California against the MS-13 gang, a fierce transnational criminal group. The members are referred to as “Animals” by President Donald Trump. Cited crimes committed by MS-13 members as justification in part for his hard-line immigration policies.
The court decision was first reported Friday by the Reuters news agency.
Asked for more than what the law states
The Federal Law demands the communication services facilitate the feature to wiretap for certain issues like these. The company stood with the point that Facebook Messenger wasn’t a service covered by the legislation.
U.S. investigators fail in legal bid to force Facebook to wiretap Messenger calls in controversial MS-13 test case https://t.co/glTjEwz51J
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) September 29, 2018
The company’s construction for Messenger with “end-to-end” encryption, meaning that the voice calls are encrypted all while between phones, and the firm has no possible ways to decode them.
Providing a way to give law enforcement access to Messenger voice calls would be troublesome and costly. It would proceed far beyond the Wiretap Act’s “technical assistance” provision, Facebook commented in support of their case. The judge sided with the company, according to people familiar with the case.
A year full of ‘Ups & Downs’
In the month of August, Facebook was sought and asked for contempt of not functioning with the law and refusing surveillance, Reuters reported.
https://twitter.com/GetNewsUpdates/status/1045827771367211008
Facebook and the Justice Department had no comment Friday.
The Wiretap Act provision states that the company “shall furnish technical assistance necessary to accomplish the interception unobtrusively and with a minimum of interference” to the service.
“The question in these cases often is, ‘What’s the minimum of interference?’ “ said Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cyber-security counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Why is the question asked to implement the Wiretap Act?
The Fresno case went very silently in contrast with the high-profile showdown in early 2016 between the Justice Department and Apple. The government asked to force Apple to go through a dead terrorist’s locked iPhone as a scheme of an investigation into the attack in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 dead and 22 injured.
Buried in today’s news: Facebook prevailed against the FBI’s request to intercept encrypted Messenger calls. This is a key test case; the court may have declined an expansive interpretation of the Wiretap Act assistance provisions. Opinion is still sealed. https://t.co/3GYCfPYRf5
— Jonathan Mayer (@jonathanmayer) September 28, 2018
In that case, federal authorities asked for a court order on Apple to force it to disable a security feature that clears the phone’s data after 10 wrong attempts at entering a password. Just before verbal arguments were to start, the FBI found a third-party solution to go through the device and the department withdrew its motion.
The case brought back a national debate over how to pull back competing desires to protect public safety and safeguard user privacy. The Obama administration worked through the issue and opted not to pursue legislation to pressure tech companies to build surveillance capabilities into their services.
The Law Enforcement needs support from them
Under Trump, the Justice Department is taking a more aggressive posture.
“Warrant-proof encryption is a serious problem,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a speech in October. “Technology companies almost certainly will not develop responsible encryption if left to their own devices,” he said. “They are in the business of selling products and making money . . . We are in the business of preventing crime and saving lives.”
Facebook Wins Court Battle Over Law Enforcement Access to Encrypted Phone Calls https://t.co/THDJTnbPEq pic.twitter.com/OWNjOxbLz2
— srikanth (@allnewsforu) October 1, 2018
He did not suggest specific policy proposals but did not rule out legislation.
“There is broad concern among the Internet and telecommunication companies about what the limits of ‘technical assistance’ provisions are and how much private sector engineers can be forced to solve the government’s access problems,” said Mieke Eoyang, vice president for the national security program at Third Way, a center-left think tank.
“There are very serious questions about Congress’ ability to understand the technical challenges to be able to effectively regulate in this area.”