Over the years, Facebook has been no stranger to being subpoenaed for user data. The scope of information the company can be requested to provide has increased over the years, after a number of big name acquisitions which have included WhatsApp.
Even though Facebook possesses a vast amount of information, this doesn"t always mean the company can or will provide it.
Most recently, Facebook has declined to fulfill three orders from Brazilian authorities for access to WhatsApp user data in relation to a criminal investigation. The first refusal attracted a daily fine of 50,000 reals (US$12,700) which was later increased to 1 million reals (US$255,000) subsequent to the company"s second refusal.
In addition, Brazilian mobile carriers were instructed to block access to WhatsApp for 48 hours which caused outrage amongst users of the service. At the time, almost half of the 200 million population of the country used the messaging service.
After the company"s third and most recent declination to surrender requested data, Facebook Latin America Vice President Diego Dzodan was arrested upon the order of Judge Marcel Maia Montalvao. The reasoning behind Dzodan"s arrest was that in the absence of any Brazil based WhatsApp staff a representative of the company should instead be detained.
A spokesman for WhatsApp said:
“We are disappointed that law enforcement took this extreme step. WhatsApp cannot provide information we do not have.
We are disappointed with the extreme and disproportionate measure of having a Facebook executive escorted to a police station in connection with case involving WhatsApp, which operates separately from Facebook."
WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption to its messaging service in late 2014 to help improve security and privacy. Open Whisper Systems was involved in efforts to incorporate TextSecure encryption into WhatsApp despite the development of its own mobile app, Signal Private Messenger.
Source: International Business Times | The Guardian
Update - March 2, 2016; 0840 ET: Agence-France Presse (AFP) reports that a judge in São Paulo has ordered the release of the Facebook executive, referring to his arrest as an "unlawful coercion", adding that "the extreme measure of imprisonment was hurried."