WhatsApp has joined Apple in defying the US government’s efforts to gain access to mobile phone users’ private messages by rolling out tough encryption protections that will prevent law enforcement agencies from snooping on its more than 1bn users.

WhatsApp推出高强度加密保护技术，将阻止执法部门监视其超过10亿用户，从而加入苹果(Apple)的行列，违抗美国政府试图获取手机用户私人信息的努力。

The Facebook-owned chat app expanded its end-to-end encryption just weeks after Apple narrowly avoided a legal showdown with the FBI over access to the iPhone owned by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attacks that killed 14 people.

Facebook旗下的这款聊天应用扩大端到端加密的几周前，苹果侥幸避免了与美国联邦调查局(FBI)就解锁加州圣贝纳迪诺恐怖袭击案中一名枪手的iPhone手机的法律诉讼。那场枪击案导致14人死亡。

Like the iPhone’s messaging software, WhatsApp will hold no keys to users’ private communication — whether one-on-one or group messages, photos or calls — and so could not grant agencies access even if they had a warrant.

与iPhone的即时信息软件一样，WhatsApp将不持有用户私人通信的钥匙（不管是一对一的信息或群发信息、图片还是通话），因此即使执法部门持有法庭的搜查令也无法让它们解锁设备。

Law enforcement agencies have warned that increasingly sophisticated encryption on digital communications could hinder their ability to track terrorists and criminals. Tech groups argue that weakening encryption would make it easier for cyber criminals to attack their customers, at a time of a growing number of cyber attacks.

执法部门警告称，针对数字通信的愈发复杂的加密技术可能会阻碍其追踪恐怖分子和犯罪分子的能力。科技公司辩称，在网络攻击日益增加之际，削弱加密技术将令网络犯罪分子更容易攻击其客户。

Jan Koum, WhatsApp co-founder, said protecting private communication was a core value at WhatsApp, partly because of his own experience growing up in the Soviet Union.

WhatsApp联合创始人简•库姆(Jan Koum)表示，保护私人通信是WhatsApp的核心价值观之一，部分原因是他在苏联长大的经历。

“The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals . . . Not oppressive regimes. Not even us,” he wrote in a blog post.

他在一篇博文中写道：“这个想法很简单：当你发送信息时，唯一能读取这条信息的人是作为这条信息收件人的人或者群。没有人能看到这条信息。网络犯罪分子不能……专制政权不能。甚至我们也不能。”

Apple has been the most prominent defender of the tech industry’s right to protect consumers from government snooping, refusing to aid the FBI with accessing an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, who with his wife committed the San Bernardino shooting last year.

苹果一直是科技行业保护消费者不受政府监视的权利的最知名捍卫者，该公司拒绝帮助FBI解锁赛义德•法鲁克(Syed Farook)的iPhone，法鲁克和他的妻子去年实施了圣贝纳迪诺枪击案。

Facebook was one of several tech companies to support Apple in the fight, signing a letter that said the government’s order “exceeds the bounds of existing law and, when applied more broadly, will harm Americans’ security in the long run”. However, none of Facebook’s other apps has the same high level of encryption as WhatsApp.

Facebook是在这场争斗中支持苹果的几家科技公司之一，该公司在一封信上签名，信中称，美国政府的命令“超出了现有法律的界限，若更广泛应用，将损害美国人的长期安全”。然而，Facebook的其他应用都没有像WhatsApp这么高强度的加密。