Encryption: end-to-end, laws and latest news

What is encryption and what is end-to-end encryption

Encryption is the scrambling of data into a form nobody can read without the right key. An algorithm turns readable data into ciphertext, and only the matching key turns it back; the algorithm is public, so the secrecy of the key is what counts. With symmetric encryption the same key locks and unlocks. With asymmetric encryption, such as RSA, a public key locks and a private key unlocks. Data can be encrypted in transit over the web (HTTPS), at rest on a disk or in the cloud, and end to end between two people.

End-to-end encryption (E2EE) means only the people in a conversation can read it, not even the company running the service. Messenger’s Help Center (as of 10 October 2026) describes it as ensuring that only you and the people you communicate with can see or hear messages and calls, “no one else, not even Meta”. Meta says it is securing personal messages with E2EE by default, but chats with businesses and Marketplace chats are not covered, and anyone in the chat can still share a message. Google’s help page says RCS chats between Google Messages users are end-to-end encrypted, but SMS and MMS are not (as of 10 October 2026). For a comparison of apps see messaging apps privacy.

Signal’s answer to server-side risk is Automatic Key Verification. It lets users confirm that messages reach the right person without meeting in person, using a key transparency system with Cloudflare and Trail of Bits as independent auditors, and it addresses a man-in-the-middle swap of keys at Signal’s own servers.

The difference between encryption types is who holds the keys. Amazon’s Ring shows where the line runs. It announced an encryption system called TAKE in which keys rotate and Ring deletes its cloud copy after 24 hours. The EFF replied that it is not end-to-end encryption: keys reach the server whenever features need them, so the system is close to encryption at rest, where the provider holds the keys. Ring already offers a separate end-to-end option, but says it cannot provide features such as smart alerts and video search under it.

Encryption also fails through poor deployment. Hackers found an encryption key stored on a stolen Flock camera that unlocked a partition of media files, and NHS Blood and Transplant sent patient data over an unencrypted pager network.

Can police read encrypted messages

Yes, but usually by going around the encryption rather than through it. A Netzpolitik document shows that German police read messages by exploiting linked-device features. Customs officials logged into web clients of Telegram and WhatsApp with a suspect’s phone number, which can mean phishing a confirmation code or coaching someone to link a device. Signal uses QR codes that can be scanned without physical access. Testing began in late 2023, the strategy became permanent in August 2025, and it covers WhatsApp, Telegram, Threema and Signal. Users are advised to check active sessions and remove unrecognized devices.

Phones are the other route. Magnet Forensics, maker of GrayKey, has reportedly built a workaround for iPhone’s Inactivity Reboot, which restarts a phone after 72 hours without unlocking and returns it to the protected Before First Unlock state. Its GrayKey Preserve is said to hold phones in the weaker After First Unlock state through restarts. A separate piece explains why restarting your phone is one of the best privacy moves: in Before First Unlock files stay encrypted until you enter the passcode. It puts the automatic restart at 96 hours for iPhones and 72 for Android, so the sources differ on the iPhone figure.

Software on your own device can read messages as well. OpenAI’s plugin lets ChatGPT on Mac search Apple Messages; the person who installs it must consent, but others in the chat cannot know. OpenAI says it reads messages only when a request calls for it. Security expert Paul Walsh called it the worst privacy development he had seen in decades, and Proton recommends leaving it off.

What are encryption backdoors and where is the fight

A backdoor is a deliberately built way for authorities to reach encrypted data, and the biggest 2026 fight over one involves Apple in the UK. See also encryption backdoors and lawful access.

A secret Technical Capability Notice issued under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 in January 2025 reportedly ordered Apple to give access to iCloud data protected by Advanced Data Protection, at first worldwide and later narrowed to UK citizens. Apple withdrew the feature for new UK users instead of complying, which left two tiers of iCloud encryption in the UK depending on whether a user enabled it in time. Apple says it has never built a backdoor. In September the tribunal heard a lawyer for Privacy International and Liberty call the policy of neither confirming nor denying the notice farcical, while the government’s counsel argued that abandoning it would damage national security.

UK public opinion is clear. In a Center for Democracy & Technology poll of 2,000 adults from April, only 12% supported secret orders for data access, and 93% said they have a right to private online conversations.

Canada is next. Access Now and other groups urged the EU to act against Canada’s Bill C-22, under which a Canadian minister could secretly order a European company to weaken a product used across the EU. In the EU the same conflict centres on message scanning, covered under Chat Control.

Can encryption be broken

Widely used encryption has not been broken, but 2026 brought records and attacks on narrow schemes. Anthropic engineer Stephen Weis factored RSA-896 with help from Claude, lifting the public record from 862 to 896 bits, 16 days after the previous one set with the Devin agent. Weis stated that no new algorithmic improvements were made and no deployed keys are threatened; RSA-1024 remains unfactored publicly.

More worrying are attacks on how RSA is used. Researchers including Nadia Heninger and Emmanuel Thomé forged 1024-bit RSA signatures without factoring the key, using a hardware security module as a signing oracle, and estimate such setups are 15 to 30 bits weaker than factoring suggests. Nadia Heninger’s team published a faster forgery attack on blind-signature RSA; it works only on blind or textbook RSA, not the padded RSA used almost everywhere, but affects Privacy Pass, used by Apple and Cloudflare. Some leaks sit outside the maths: InjectEave pulls audio from headphones at up to 30 meters because the leak comes from the analog path.

What is quantum encryption, and will quantum computers break encryption

“Quantum encryption” usually means post-quantum cryptography: algorithms built to resist quantum computers, such as ML-KEM and ML-DSA. Quantum key distribution is a separate, hardware-based technique that these stories do not cover. A quantum computer could threaten today’s public-key schemes, and the EU’s financial supervisors warned that Q-Day could arrive before quantum computers are commercially useful. The risk already exists as “harvest now, decrypt later”: data intercepted today can be decrypted later.

Governments are moving. The G7 cybersecurity group urged immediate preparation on 3 September, the NIS Cooperation Group recommends migration strategies by end-2026, and NIST’s draft recommends phasing out 112-bit ECDSA after 2030. Google’s March claim that breaking an elliptic-curve scheme needs 1,175 logical qubits rested on a flawed zero-knowledge proof that was corrected in April, and as of July the record estimate is under 100 logical qubits. In crypto, experts warn that more than $2 trillion is exposed, though Coinbase says Bitcoin’s core infrastructure is largely safe and the risk sits at the wallet level.

Products are starting to change. Surfshark added ML-DSA certificates to WireGuard, claiming the first full post-quantum implementation; by its count only AWS KMS and Google Cloud KMS among 15 major platforms have deployed ML-DSA.

HTTPS, TLS certificates and encrypted browsing

TLS certificates are about to expire much faster: Let’s Encrypt will cut lifetimes from 90 to 64 days on 10 February 2027, with opt-in testing from 14 October and 45-day defaults planned for 2028. Administrators on modern ACME clients with ARI will not notice; those with hardcoded or manual renewals must update.

The certificate system has weak spots. Google said attackers obtained counterfeit TLS certificates for Google domains by hijacking three country-code domains and passing domain-control checks. Chrome blocks the suspect certificates, but Google warns that browser action alone is not enough. Cloudflare plans quantum-safe TLS certificates for the first quarter of 2027. Android 17 is the first major mobile OS with built-in Encrypted Client Hello, which hides the site name from carriers, and it also lets carriers disable 2G by default.

Encryption and AI

AI providers encrypted reasoning tokens with one global key. Researchers from MATS Research, the ELLIS Institute Tübingen, the Max Planck Institute and Snyk found that Anthropic, OpenAI and Google use a single key for the whole ecosystem. Decoding 315,320 blocks from public repositories gave 182 credentials, including 62 live API keys and 33 passwords. The providers patched their servers, but session logs already public can still be decrypted.

Encryption is also being used to protect AI users. Google DeepMind keeps the keys to AI memory on the user’s device in its Private AI Compute platform, decrypting only inside a secure enclave, and the system passed an independent audit. Google also released HEIR, a compiler for homomorphic encryption, which allows computation on encrypted data.

What it means for you

• Use a messenger with end-to-end encryption, and treat plain SMS as unencrypted.
• Review the linked devices in your messenger and remove any you do not recognize. German police use exactly this route.
• Restart your phone now and then: after a restart, files stay encrypted until you enter your passcode.
• Do not enable AI integrations that read your chats without the other participants knowing.
• If you run a website, automate certificate renewal. From February 2027 Let’s Encrypt certificates will last 64 days.

Still open: whether the UK will disclose its order to Apple, how Canada’s Bill C-22 ends after the Senate review expected as early as October, and when post-quantum TLS certificates reach mass deployment.