In November 2015, Theresa May was Home Secretary introduced the Investigatory Powers (Technical Capabilities) Act, which got Royal Assent in December 2016, with May as Prime Minister. There was strong opposition to the biggest surveillance act in any democracy, with concerns raised by Labour conveniently drowned out by the EU Referendum.
Here are some changes that have taken place and, in some cases, evidence of what has happening behind the scenes.
In 2009, Blackberry and Nokia held 70% of the smartphone market. Today, 99% of smartphones sold worldwide are by Apple, Google and Microsoft, who had less than 25% share of the market in 2009 – Indian Express
How did that happen?
Whatsapp, Skype, Twitter and Facebook Messenger have all removed support for apps on legacy hand devices such as Blackberry 10 (their first Android phone from 2012) and Nokia Symbian operating system. That means if you want to communicate for free with people around the world, you have to do it on the right handset. – The Independent
Internet security? In 2013, the Internet finished its migration from MD5 to SHA-1. From January 2017, Microsoft is ending SHA-1 as an encryption certificate to the Internet (this article may help you understand this better)
Compare these two statements.
Google:
Unfortunately, SHA-1 is dangerously weak, and has been for a long time. It gets weaker every year, but remains widely used on the internet. Its replacement, SHA-2, is strong and supported just about everywhere.
Microsoft
Even if SHA1, the more widely used hash algorithm (98%), is still steady and will be for some time, SHA256 has been created to take over eventually in order to guarantee SSL security durability.
Dairy of A Nonny Moose 