The Congress on Friday said it strongly opposed any attempt to do away with the end-to-end encryption of interactions on the social media platform WhatsApp as it would compromise an individual’s right to privacy.
“I don’t want to speak for any private entity, but I am asking a commonsensical question to each one of you: will you use WhatsApp if there is no encrypted end-to-end message? At least I will throw it into the dustbin,” senior Congress spokeperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told presspersons.
Earlier this week, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, during his meeting with the WhatsApp CEO, had suggested that the social media company find the source of “fake” news and WhatsApp forwards.
The company, however, maintained that it could not be done without compromising the end-to-end encryption.
“Is it possible to say that your right to privacy, his right to privacy, her right to privacy, my right to privacy is all voluntary compromised. Then WhatsApp might as well wind up its application. The Congress party very clearly and strongly stands for the autonomy of the individuals. The Congress party very clearly stands for the privacy of the individuals,” Mr. Singhvi said.
The Congress leader said the Supreme Court’s Puttuswamy judgment had upheld the right to privacy as a fundamental right.
“This is yet another example of assault on privacy. Whether it is Aadhaar, DNA profiling or data protection, no other government has attacked privacy as this one. I am also making an allegation that the government wants to resort to 360-degree micro-managed surveillance,” he said.