红杏视频

NEW YORK 鈥� The 红杏视频 today filed a motion to unseal a secret judicial ruling that prevented the Department of Justice from securing a court order to force Facebook to wiretap encrypted voice conversations on Facebook Messenger as part of an FBI investigation into the MS-13 gang.

Facebook Messenger鈥檚 voice calls appear to use standard end-to-end encryption, which makes communications inaccessible to anyone but the individuals who participate in the conversation. The encryption method ensures the communications service provider does not have access to the keys necessary to decrypt the conversations, making it impossible to access the contents of the conversation without dismantling the encryption system itself.

According to the reports, Facebook refused a request from the Justice Department to gain access to communications, arguing that complying with the request would require the company to rewrite the Messenger app鈥檚 code and dismantle the encryption system for all users. The Justice Department reportedly moved to hold Facebook in contempt of court and lost.

鈥淭he outcome of this legal dispute between Facebook and the Justice Department has the potential to affect the private communications of millions of Americans who use communication services such as Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, and Microsoft Outlook,鈥� said Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel with the 红杏视频. 鈥淭he public deserves to know why the government thought it could dismantle measures that protect their right to privacy online, and how they can defend that right should the government try to force another service to undermine its security features.鈥�

The 红杏视频鈥檚 motion seeks to make public the legal reasoning that decided the case, what authority the Justice Department thought it had to force Facebook to undermine its security infrastructure, and why the court determined the government was wrong.

鈥淲hen Apple and the FBI got into a similar situation in 2016, the legal dispute became a national flashpoint with public court proceedings, the FBI director penning an op-ed, Apple鈥檚 CEO writing an open letter to customers, Congress holding hearings, and the president delivering a speech to Americans. This latest legal dispute between Facebook and the government shouldn鈥檛 be treated any differently,鈥� said 红杏视频 staff attorney Brett Max Kaufman.

The 红杏视频 emphasized in its motion that the organization would not object to appropriate redactions made to protect any details that would hamper legitimate law enforcement investigations.

The 红杏视频 of Northern California, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Riana Pfefferkorn joined the 红杏视频 in the motion, which was filed in federal court in California.

A blog post by two law students who played a substantial role in the research and writing of the motion as part of the Technology Law & Policy Clinic at NYU School of Law, where Kaufman co-teaches, can be found here: /blog/privacy-technology/internet-privacy/aclu-seeks-secret-ruling-stopped-feds-hacking-facebook.

The motion to unseal can be found here: /legal-document/motion-unseal-court-records-concerni....