WhatsApp推出高強度加密 WhatsApp joins tech group push to shield users from snooping spo

WhatsApp has joined Apple in defying the US government’s efforts to gain access to mobile phone users’ private messages by rolling out tough encryption protections that will prevent law enforcement agencies from snooping on its more than 1bn users.

WhatsApp推出高強度加密保護技術，將阻止執法部門監視其超過10億用戶，從而加入蘋果(Apple)的行列，違抗美國政府試圖獲取手機用戶私人信息的努力。

The Facebook-owned chat app expanded its end-to-end encryption just weeks after Apple narrowly avoided a legal showdown with the FBI over access to the iPhone owned by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attacks that killed 14 people.

Facebook旗下的這款聊天應用擴大端到端加密的幾周前，蘋果僥倖避免了與美國聯邦調查局(FBI)就解鎖加州聖貝納迪諾恐怖襲擊案中一名槍手的iPhone手機的法律訴訟。那場槍擊案導致14人死亡。

Like the iPhone’s messaging software, WhatsApp will hold no keys to users’ private communication — whether one-on-one or group messages, photos or calls — and so could not grant agencies access even if they had a warrant.

與iPhone的即時信息軟件一樣，WhatsApp將不持有用戶私人通信的鑰匙（不管是一對一的信息或羣發信息、圖片還是通話），因此即使執法部門持有法庭的搜查令也無法讓它們解鎖設備。

Law enforcement agencies have warned that increasingly sophisticated encryption on digital communications could hinder their ability to track terrorists and criminals. Tech groups argue that weakening encryption would make it easier for cyber criminals to attack their customers, at a time of a growing number of cyber attacks.

執法部門警告稱，針對數字通信的愈發複雜的加密技術可能會阻礙其追蹤恐怖分子和犯罪分子的能力。科技公司辯稱，在網絡攻擊日益增加之際，削弱加密技術將令網絡犯罪分子更容易攻擊其客戶。

Jan Koum, WhatsApp co-founder, said protecting private communication was a core value at WhatsApp, partly because of his own experience growing up in the Soviet Union.

WhatsApp聯合創始人簡•庫姆(Jan Koum)表示，保護私人通信是WhatsApp的核心價值觀之一，部分原因是他在蘇聯長大的經歷。

“The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals . . . Not oppressive regimes. Not even us,” he wrote in a blog post.

他在一篇博文中寫道：“這個想法很簡單：當你發送信息時，唯一能讀取這條信息的人是作爲這條信息收件人的人或者羣。沒有人能看到這條信息。網絡犯罪分子不能……專制政權不能。甚至我們也不能。”

Apple has been the most prominent defender of the tech industry’s right to protect consumers from government snooping, refusing to aid the FBI with accessing an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, who with his wife committed the San Bernardino shooting last year.

蘋果一直是科技行業保護消費者不受政府監視的權利的最知名捍衛者，該公司拒絕幫助FBI解鎖賽義德•法魯克(Syed Farook)的iPhone，法魯克和他的妻子去年實施了聖貝納迪諾槍擊案。

Facebook was one of several tech companies to support Apple in the fight, signing a letter that said the government’s order “exceeds the bounds of existing law and, when applied more broadly, will harm Americans’ security in the long run”. However, none of Facebook’s other apps has the same high level of encryption as WhatsApp.

Facebook是在這場爭鬥中支持蘋果的幾家科技公司之一，該公司在一封信上簽名，信中稱，美國政府的命令“超出了現有法律的界限，若更廣泛應用，將損害美國人的長期安全”。然而，Facebook的其他應用都沒有像WhatsApp這麼高強度的加密。