UK Edition
Sir Tim Berners-Lee warns Government against 'disaster' of breaking encryption
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, has urged the Government not to undermine encryption in popular digital services such as WhatsApp following Amber Rudd's threat to crackdown on internet firms giving criminals "a place to hide".
The British computer scientist said encryption underpins a vast range of modern services and that breaking it would be a "disaster" and a "bad idea" as he accepted one of the most prestigious awards in the technology world.
The warning comes after Ms Rudd said the UK Government would seek to force technology companies to break encryption in cases where it was "providing a secret place for terrorists".
Sir Tim said such behaviour threatens citizens' human rights and could lead to further problems if the tools to crack encryption fall into the wrong hands.
"I know that if you're trying to catch terrorists it's really tempting to demand to be able to break all encryption," he said, according to the BBC. "But if you can break it then guess what, so can other people, and they may end up getting better at it than you."
He added that the ability to hold conversations in private is fundamental for democracy. "Its really important for business and it's really important for human day-to-day life," he told Wired.
The comments reflect Sir Tim's growing concern about the evolution of the internet. On its 28th anniversary last month he released an open letter decrying the misuse of data, which has created a "chilling effect on free speech".
Sir Tim made the most recent comments as he won the Turing Award, regarded as the "Nobel Prize for computing", for his role in the creation of the World Wide Web.
On receipt of the award he said: "It is an honor to receive an award like the Turing that has been bestowed to some of the most brilliant minds in the world."
The $1 million prize has previously been awarded to artificial intelligence pioneer John McCarthy and the "fathers of the internet" Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn.