Encryption is good for almost everyone.

• It's good for the user, who gets their messages kept private
• It's good for the platform, who doesn't need to spend money moderating their users' messages (because they can't)

But it's not good for governments who would like to spy on people. One such government is the UK, which has been pushing to ban encryption.

France also detained the creator of Telegram, blaming him for not moderating the messages of Telegram's users...which were encrypted.

If a platform encrypts your messages well enough, then not even they can see them. Which means governments can't see them. Which means your private messages are private.

But if encryption—or privacy—was made illegal, then that changes things.

I fear that sooner or later some misguided government will ban encryption and force companies to spy on their users for the government or just flat out require backdoor access.

Right now, that government is looking to be the UK. What's really scary is they have made it illegal for companies to publicly disclose when they're being forced to hand over user data.

So the UK government gets the privacy to take away your privacy. Without you knowing.

It's funny. The government gets privacy, but you don't.

Governments should be encouraging encryption, not discouraging it. It keeps everyone and their data safe.

And governments violating users' privacy without publicly disclosing it is arguably even worse.

I really hope the UK, Europe, and other countries can get their act together and stop fighting privacy.

We'll have to see how platforms like WhatsApp and Signal respond when push comes to shove. If companies give in, then it's over. But if they stand firm and refuse to give backdoor access to governments, then that'll be a win for privacy.

Apple might be fighting back, so perhaps that's a step in the right direction.