Facebook is having trouble once again in Brazil over the recent WhatsApp case as they failed to provide the data that the Brazilian court has been requesting.
Instead of simply blocking WhatsApp in the country, the Brazilian court has now frozen over $6 million of their assets after they did not provide the data that they were looking for. The case began in January as the judges wanted the Facebook-owned app to fork over the data from a suspect's WhatsApp account in order to proceed with their investigation.
The problem is that WhatsApp does not save any of the conversations or calls in their servers and they have repeatedly told the Brazilian courts about the situation. Part of the complication is that the app has end-to-end encryption to protect their users from hackers or anyone else snooping in on their messages.
WhatsApp started implementing the encryption technology for their app in April, Digital Trends has learned. Since the authorities can't tap in to monitor communications due to the encryption, they assume that the company has what they are looking for.
In the same month, WhatsApp was also punished by instituting a 72-hour ban. Users were not able to use the app for several hours but another judge overturned the ruling as millions of users were increasingly becoming restless regarding the ban.
Facebook also has one of their Vice Presidents in Brazil arrested in May due to possible connections with their ongoing investigation, TechCrunch reported. Now, the Brazilian court ordered to freeze Facebook's assets in the country which are equivalent to the accumulated fines over the past few months.
WhatsApp itself does not have any bank accounts in Brazil and so its parent company was targeted. The social network giant still has not responded to the issue.
In the past, Facebook and WhatsApp have stood by their decisions to implement the encryption technology for the app. They also insist that they really have no data whatsoever as they do not save the messages and calls in their servers.
Encryption has been a growing thorn in relationships between the tech industry and the government. WhatsApp and the Brazilian government is one good example of how it can be complicated.