Google Allo: new messaging app is latest to fight FBI over encryption

Google on Wednesday became the latest major technology company to join a standoff with the FBI over encryption. At its developer conference, the company announced that its new messaging app, Allo, would feature an "incognito mode" that offered end-to-end encryption. Such technology can make it difficult for law enforcement to recover messages during investigations even if they have a warrant. In Washington DC, the FBI director, James Comey, has lobbied the administration to put restrictions on such technology. Google isn't the first Silicon Valley giant to offer a messaging app with strong encryption. Apple's iMessage system uses it by default, and Facebook's WhatsApp turned end-to-end encryption on by default this spring.