Learning English

Who can read your smartphone messages?

Criminals and terrorists are using private messaging apps to organise their attacks. Now the British government wants access to private smartphone messages. 

Language challenge

What does 'to show someone the door' mean?

a) to invite someone into your house
b) to tell or make it obvious you want someone to leave
c) to make something possible

ነቲ ቪድዮ ብምዕዛብ ነቲ ስራሕ ዕመምዎ

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The story

WhatsApp encrypts messages, so it's nearly impossible for anyone other than the user to see what's being said. Tech experts say there are sometimes backdoors, but these can be used by criminals too.

It's understood the man who killed four people in Westminster last Wednesday used WhatsApp just before the attack. So, now Amber Rudd wants support from other European ministers as she argues intelligence services should have access to that data.

Key words and phrases

privacy
right to keep personal information secret

encryption
action of putting information into a code to keep it secret

backdoor
secret route into a secure system

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.

Downloads

You can download the audio and PDF document for this episode here. 

Language challenge - answer

b) to tell or make it obvious you want someone to leave

End of Session 2

Join us in Session 3 for Pronunciation in the News - our video which takes a word from the latest headlines and shows you how it's being said. This time, we're looking at the word process.