On August, 30 2018 the Italian Supreme Court issued a decision affirming that the use of Whatsapp and PGP – together with Blackberry and “dedicated” mobile phones – was a way, for the defendants, to jeopardize the investigations.
The decision is focused on the goal of the defendant (making harder for the public prosecutor to investigate) rather than on the technologies. And, contrary to what it might be assumed, the Court didn’t blamed encryption as such. PGP, Whatsapp, Blackberry and “dedicated” mobile phonse, indeed, are all treated the same way, just as tools to an end.
This decision is neither a leading case nor a landmark in the complex history of the relationship between encryption and judicial/investigative powers, but as a a matter of fact there is the risk of an Italia re-make of the FBI-Apple quarrel in relationship to the implementation of security measures in IOS devices. It might not take long, indeed, before somebody use this decision to call for a crackdown on encryption and encryption-based application/services.