End-to-end encryption underpins messaging apps, online shopping and much more REX/Shutterstock

PLUS ça change. Last year, the UK government dropped a plan to ban a highly secure form of encryption used by messaging services such as WhatsApp. Now this either unworkable or mathematically impossible idea has risen like a zombie.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, used a TV appearance to relaunch the discredited policy on end-to-end encryption, saying that there should be “no place for terrorists to hide”. Her comments follow the revelation that Khalid Masood used WhatsApp a few minutes before his attack in Westminster.

Rudd’s comments are ill-informed at best. End-to-end encryption underpins not just messaging apps but also online shopping, banking and even government websites. Banning it would cause chaos. In any case, you cannot legislate the mathematics of encryption out of existence. People would still be able to find ways to securely encrypt their messages.


A ban on end-to-end encryption was a terrible, unworkable idea when the previous home secretary proposed it. Theresa May, who has since become prime minister, frequently proved herself to be impervious to evidence. Sadly, Rudd has picked up where she left off.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Garbage out, garbage in”