BENGALURU: After Apple, the US government is reported to be in discussion about the world’s largest messaging service, WhatsApp for its encryption standards. While the justice department is in a legal battle with apple over access to a locked iPhone, the government officials are privately debating on the encryption standards provided by WhatsApp, reports Matt Apuzzo, The New York Times.

In the recent week, reports state that the officials said the Justice Department was discussing how to proceed in a continuing criminal investigation in which the investigators were puzzled by WhatsApp’s encryption.

A court fight with the world’s largest mobile messaging service, WhatsApp would open a new front in the government’s disagreement with Silicon Valley over encryption, security and privacy. WhatsApp, the leading online messenger and calling app, has been adding several levels of encryption to the application making the conversations completely impossible to read or eavesdrop for the government.

Whether the WhatsApp dispute ends in a court fight that sets precedents, many law enforcement officials and security experts suggested that such a case can be unavoidable since the nation's wiretapping laws were last updated a generation ago, when people communicated by landline telephones.

During the initial stage, WhatsApp had the ability to read messages as they passed through its servers that comply with government wiretap orders. After further evolution, the company said that it would begin adding sophisticated encoding, known as end-to-end encryption, to its systems that made only the intended recipients to read the messages. Owned by Facebook, WhatsApp messenger is a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging client for smartphones. With over 1 billion user base, the application uses internet to send text messages, documents, images, videos, user location and audio messages to other users using standard cellular mobile numbers. 

Read Also: Six Industries to Take Off with the Help of Drones

Google's Project Fi, Would it Disrupt Telecommunications?