Idea?
NEW YORK (awp/afp) – Being able to communicate easily from WhatsApp to Snapchat or Telegram without changing the applications, the European Union promises in its new regulations announced on Thursday; A prospect viewed by some as user gain and by others as a risk to their data.
interoperability. Behind this long word hides the decompartmentalization of messaging, which the EU wants to impose on the tech giants by early 2023. The idea is to give netizens “more choices,” according to the press release published on Thursday.
Dubbed “DMA,” this arrangement aims to allow those using “smaller platforms” to “exchange messages, send files, and make video calls” with users of large applications without having to download them.
“No more silos,” responded on Twitter Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, an organization campaigning for increased scrutiny of “big tech,” the big names in digital technology.
“The fact that we’re at a time in computing history where this kind of interoperability needs to be the subject of legislation is intriguing,” commented Mar Hicks, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, on Twitter.
But for Benedict Evans, an independent analyst, the idea that the only difference between messengers “is their logo” is “a naïve idea,” which he posted on Twitter. “These are systems, and connecting them raises all sorts of questions.”
The security of personal data is the most frequently mentioned. How to guarantee a user that he will not expose himself by communicating with another messenger?
WhatsApp, a subsidiary of Meta (ex-Facebook), has implemented systematic end-to-end encryption (from author to recipient) of all messages, including in discussion groups.
On the other hand, Telegram doesn’t offer it by default, and Snapchat only offers it for photos and videos, not for written messages.
Furthermore, “because all couriers use different algorithms for encryption and some are the same that they can communicate (…) the statement is a misconception,” says cybersecurity expert Alec Muffett.
“Between Difficult and Impossible”
For Benedict Evans, DMA is “a trade-off, a metric that’s good for competition but bad for privacy and bad for products. You can’t have all three at the same time.”
“Interoperability with end-to-end encryption is somewhere between extremely difficult and impossible,” said Steve Bellovin, a Columbia University professor and privacy specialist, on Twitter.
And beyond message encryption: “Say you receive a message (via another messenger) from a WhatsApp user named SteveBellovin. Is that me? A hacker? Someone with the same name?”
“It’s not particularly complex from a technical point of view,” counters Ian Brown, a specialist in internet regulation. “Large groups have opposed it because the lack of interoperability is one of the key factors of their dominance.”
In addition, as it stands, the new framework is intended only for Europe, “once the necessary technology has been created, it will be relatively easy to extend it to users around the world,” believes the one who advised the American in particular Government and the European Commission on regulatory issues.
“Today is the Global Day of +, as we open the platforms (to competition) the world will implode, sponsored by lobbyists and fake noses,” tweeted Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of video game publisher Epic Games.
For him, it is possible to develop standards and protocols that form the basis of interoperability, as has been the case with electronic mail, 3D animation or machine learning (artificial intelligence), the last two through the Khronos association.
Alec Muffett compares messengers to restaurants. Protocols would mean that each messenger “should serve the same menu and there would be no more differences. I hope that doesn’t happen because I use different tools (mailers) for different purposes.”
The EU has neglected social network interoperability for the time being, but already plans to examine it one day.
Tim Sweeney, whose publisher created the game Fortnite, is already dreaming on. “One day we will move to content (movies, series, games) and then to network games with compatibility across the metaverse.”
tu-jm / len / ob