End-to-end encryption

[3][4] In 2022, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office, the government body responsible for enforcing online data standards, stated that opposition to E2EE was misinformed and the debate too unbalanced, with too little focus on benefits, since E2EE helped keep children safe online and law enforcement access to stored data on servers was "not the only way" to find abusers.

[citation needed] However, it also means that content can be read by anyone who has access to the data stored by the service provider, by design or via a backdoor.

This can be a concern in many cases where privacy is important, such as in governmental and military communications, financial transactions, and when sensitive information such as health and biometric data are sent.

If this content were shared without E2EE, a malicious actor or adversarial government could obtain it through unauthorized access or subpoenas targeted at the service provider.

[21] In the case of instant messaging, users may use a third-party client or plugin to implement an end-to-end encryption scheme over an otherwise non-E2EE protocol.

Telegram did not enable end-to-end encryption by default on VoIP calls while users were using desktop software version, but that problem was fixed quickly.

In 2022, Facebook Messenger came under scrutiny because the messages between a mother and daughter in Nebraska were used to seek criminal charges in an abortion-related case against both of them.

[26][27] Writing for Wired, Albert Fox Cahn criticized Messenger's approach to end-to-end encryption, which was not enabled by default, required opt-in for each conversation, and split the message thread into two chats which were easy for the user to confuse.

[1][30] Most end-to-end encryption protocols include some form of endpoint authentication specifically to prevent MITM attacks.

Each user's computer can still be hacked to steal their cryptographic key (to create a MITM attack) or simply read the recipients’ decrypted messages both in real time and from log files.

[1] Major attempts to increase endpoint security have been to isolate key generation, storage and cryptographic operations to a smart card such as Google's Project Vault.

[38] However, as Bruce Schneier points out, Stuxnet developed by US and Israel successfully jumped air gap and reached Natanz nuclear plant's network in Iran.

[40] A backdoor is usually a secret method of bypassing normal authentication or encryption in a computer system, a product, an embedded device, etc.

[41] Companies may also willingly or unwillingly introduce backdoors to their software that help subvert key negotiation or bypass encryption altogether.

The company, however, refused to create a backdoor for the government, citing concern that such a tool could pose risk for its consumers’ privacy.