WhatsApp encryption won’t stop ‘Spy’ Bill – MP

Ranking Member on Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Major Derek Oduro (rtd) has said despite the controversies surrounding the Postal Packets and Telecommunications Bill, also known as Spy Bill, the committee does not envisage that extra security features introduced by WhatsApp will render parts of the bill useless when passed into law.

WhatsApp has added an end-to-end encryption security feature to all of its messages, meaning the company cannot give information to governments, even if it wanted to.

The latest version of the app will use security technology that cannot be intercepted. Encryption ensures that only a message's sender and recipient can read messages, stopping them from being intercepted on their journey.

The Spy Bill seeks to authorise law enforcement agencies to monitor and intercept communication to better fight crime.

However, Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert and Trainer at IPMC, Abu Conde, has said the law will run into difficulties due to the encryption feature introduced by WhatsApp.

“It is going to be difficult for government because most of the communication government tries to track, (the sender) will prefer the secure way and that secure way government does not have the necessary men to decrypt them,” he stated.

But Major Oduro assured that the committee would invite the relevant experts to make inputs before consideration of the bill, adding that service providers will assist the security agencies if need be.

“As for the end-to-end situation, if the service providers – MTN, Vodafone, Tigo and others – are conscious of the fact that this bill is passed into law in Ghana, and they are to oblige in whatever the security agencies make, I don’t see how it is going to cause any problem, unless, of course, it is thrown out.”