Police in Brazil arrested a Facebook vice president in a dispute over government demands to access systems that users believe are at least somewhat secure.  Diego Dzodan refused to comply with court orders to hand over data for use in a criminal investigation into drugs trafficking.

"The information was required to be utilized in an investigation of organized crime and drug trafficking," claim the Brazilian Federal Police.  Facebook said jailing Mr. Dzodan was "disappointed with the extreme and disproportionate measure".  Authorities could hold him for a week or more, if the judge in Sao Paulo extends the order.

Previously, the judge had twice ordered Facebook to pay fines for refusing to hand over the data from its WhatsApp instant messaging.  In December a judge in Brazil suspended WhatsApp for 48 hours.

The tech industry is seeking to preserve the privacy of its users, while cops and government officials claim they need access to data as a matter of national security and law.  Apple is embroiled in a similar episode in California:  The FBI is going to court to try and force the company to unlock data from an iPhone used by a terrorist in the San Bernardino, California, shootings in December that claimed the lives of 14 people.

In the Apple case, the company says the Feds are going too far,and demanding that Apple write a tool that will not only unlock the San Bernardino iPhone, but pretty much every phone regardless of operating system.  In Brazil, Facebook can't seem to convince the judge and police that WhatApp doesn't store users' messages.  That situation is made trickier by the app's new encryption updates designed to protect communications between people.  Simply put, WhatsApp says it cannot provide information it does not have.