Will you pull out of UK and US? Seems very unrealistic. You have no choice but to obey the law,even if the law is ridiculous.

Have you considered architectural changes that will allow for the app to be compiled and deployed by an affiliate corp outside of these jurisdictions?

Thanks for the clarity.

So will WhatsApp refuse to comply, if this goes forward?

And is that even possible?

I do appreciate that Facebook has the resources to fight. To fight an NSL, even. But IANAL, and have no clue.

Facebook give the government this and the government in acts regulations to “protect” Facebook. I’m sure Facebook is salivating at the thought at getting even more access to your sensitive data. Once the backdoor is installed who knows who’ll have access.

Thanks.

As much as would like to believe all promises coming from corporate execs - Facebook has been caught lying more than enough. So thanks for trying, but I have uninstalled WhatsApp and I'm happy with Threema.

Have you considered Riot (Matrix) or Signal? Both are open source so it's possible to verify claims made on their website, which is a lot less possible with proprietary software like Threema.

And with Matrix apps you can choose to run your own server. Not sure what legal ramifications that has, but practically speaking it allows the possibility of eliminating another potential weakness.

... but probably opening many new ones, unless one has a really strong security team in place.

These vulnerabilities would then at least be bespoke, particular to a specific server, preventing mass surveillance. At least if you're not talking about potential vulnerabilities in synapse (Matrix server software), but then a strong security team wouldn't help that much.