Signal lämnar Sverige om regeringens förslag på datalagring klubbas
www.svt.se
Den krypterade meddelandeappen Signal växer – nu använder till och med Försvarsmakten appen. Men regeringen vill tvinga bolaget att införa en teknisk bakdörr åt Polisen och Säpo. – Om det blir verklighet så lämnar vi Sverige, säger Signals chef Meredith Whittaker, i en exklusiv intervju med SVT.

Swedish government wants a back door in signal for police and ‘Säpo’ (Swedish federation that checks for spies)

Let’s say that this becomes a law and Signal decides to withdraw from Sweden as they clearly state that they won’t implement a back door; would a citizen within the country still be able to use and access Signals services? Assuming that google play services probably would remove the Signal app within Sweden (which I also don’t use)

I just want the government to go f*ck themselves, y’know?

      • SolarPunker@slrpnk.net
        2·
        21 hours ago

        Centralized communications are susceptible to government controls, while decentralized systems are more difficult to stop, like Lemmy for example.

        • easily3667@lemmus.orgEnglish
          1·
          15 hours ago

          It can also be more safe depending on where the centralization happened.

          Id argue that if decentralization is the goal, matrix is the right path forward.

  • Mio@feddit.nu
    11·
    2 days ago

    Stop this!

    Would anyone accept if the government installed a door into your house that only they have the key to?! Just in case they need to come in and avoid kicking the normal door when I am not home…

  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    91·
    2 days ago

    This is why you make a protocol rather than an app so there is no owner.

    • douglasg14b@lemmy.world
      71·
      2 days ago

      Protocols are much more difficult to create and implement.

      The barrier for technical ability and maturity is much higher. Which is why you don’t see them as often, and when you do see them they tend to suck, have massive gaps, or some other significant failing that prevents them from really scaling out.

      Building reliable and robust protocols with a hobby project is a nearly impossible task, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of minds over a long period of time to settle on the specifications. And just as long to actually implement it.

      Usually this requires some sort of funding and dedicated resources from the get-go. Which many of these projects lack.

      • barryamelton@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 day ago

        “But doing things correctly in life is difficult so why try”.

        People still do and build thinga the correct way. See Matrix and Element.

  • LiamTheBox@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    2 days ago

    Article with no trackers

    The encrypted messaging app Signal is growing – now even the Swedish Armed Forces are using the app.

    But the government wants to force the company to introduce a technical backdoor for the Police and the Swedish Security Service.

    “If it becomes a reality, we will leave Sweden,” says Signal’s boss Meredith Whittaker, in an exclusive interview with SVT.

    If the government has its way, the bill will be passed in the Riksdag as early as March next year.

    The bill states that companies such as Signal and Whatsapp will be forced to store all messages sent using the apps.

    Leaving Sweden Signal – which is run by a non-profit foundation – now states to SVT Nyheter that the company will leave Sweden if the bill becomes a reality.

    “In practice, this means that we are being asked to break the encryption that is the basis of our entire business. Asking us to store data would undermine our entire architecture and we would never do that. We would rather leave the Swedish market completely,” says Signal’s head of Meredith Whittaker.

    She says the bill would require Signal to install so-called backdoors in the software.

    "If you create a vulnerability based on Swedish wishes, it would create a path to undermine our entire network. Therefore, we would never introduce these backdoors.

    But don’t you as a supplier have a responsibility to support efforts against crime?

    "Our responsibility is to offer technology that upholds human rights in an era where those rights are being violated in more and more places. In today’s digital world, there are very few places where we can communicate privately or whistleblow.

    The Armed Forces critical Meredith Whittaker mentions the Chinese state actor Salt Typhoon’s 2024 attack on several internet service providers in the United States, where text messages and phone calls were leaked. She believes that a Swedish back door would open the door for the same thing.

    "There are no back doors that only the good guys have access to.

    The purpose of the bill is to enable the Security Service and the police to request subsequent notification history for persons suspected of crime. Both authorities were positive in the consultation round.

    “The opportunities for law enforcement authorities to effectively access electronic communications are absolutely crucial,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (M) said earlier at a press conference.

    But the Armed Forces are negative and recently the Armed Forces urged their personnel to start using Signal to reduce the risk of eavesdropping.

    In a letter to the government, the Armed Forces writes that the bill will not be able to be realized “without introducing vulnerabilities and back doors that may be used by third parties”.

  • Geodad@lemm.eeEnglish
    28·
    2 days ago

    Because that worked so well with the US government’s back door into telecom companies. I don’t think they got the Salt Typhoon group out of the system yet.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    40·
    2 days ago

    Governments have long wanted backdoors on secure private communication, and so long as we have an ownership class, they always will.

    And backdoors will always be more useful to hackers, industrial spies and terrorists than they are these departments of state looking to ensure national security (or watch for proletariat unrest. We’re already pissed.)

    And the private sector will always route around these backdoors, possibly by modding the client or offering new services that are still secure.

    States should get used to disappointment. Investigation bureaus should prepare for going dark. Once upon a time they had to rely on detective work rather than asking Google whose phones were near the incident or what web-surfers were asking questions about the circumstances pre-hoc.

    • icmpecho@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      it always bugs me how governments who demand backdoors continuously fail to realize that even if they backdoor the encryption of Signal: PGP, or more similarly to Signal, Pidgin+OTR and/or OMEMO all still exist, are well maintained and are designed to work on top of insecure channels. This isn’t gonna be the way to catch actual bad actors, they’ll all just get SimpleX or Pidgin or any other number of things and continue communicating and “going dark”.

      …not to mention that Signal’s source code is open, so even if they compromise the Signal client, you can just switch to Molly or build an older version - or if the server is compromised, you can run your own with the backdoor disabled or stripped out. This is a zero-sum-game all the way down.

  • serenissi@lemmy.world
    34·
    3 days ago

    People host signal proxy for countries where it is banned already. The primary impact of this law is on non technical people and new users thinking to switch to.