Swedish government wants a back door in Signal

www.svt.se Signal lämnar Sverige om regeringens förslag på datalagring klubbas

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.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/56591279

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?

Privacy @lemmy.ml

Wolfie @lemm.ee

3d ago

SWE

Swedish government wants a back door in Signal

www.svt.se /nyheter/inrikes/signal-lamnar-sverige-om-regeringens-forslag-pa-datalagring-klubbas

625 116

Privacy @lemmy.dbzer0.com

Blaze @lemmy.zip

3d ago

SWE

Swedish government wants a back door in Signal

www.svt.se /nyheter/inrikes/signal-lamnar-sverige-om-regeringens-forslag-pa-datalagring-klubbas

74 3

22 comments

Bro i just moved here, stop going to shit please
- Welcome. Where from?
  
  Shithole called hungary... had no choice at this point, my sister is trans so we kinda escaped that place. Thankfully hungary is eu so it was easy to move here. Pretty nice so far apart from even this place slowly turning to the right but every country is doing that right now...

I like you Sweden but you can go fuck yourself in this particular scenario
- Classic right-wing government doing dumb right-wing government shit. Hopefully we can flush these ghouls out by next election. They barely managed to cross the line last election, and through their deep incompetency have been continuously falling in the polls.
  
  We're in the middle between elections, the difference between the blocks is often even greater at this point so the right is doing fairly well unfortunately. And with the ongoing and continued focus on security and defence that is right where they feel at home. Additionally, the opposition is completely silent for some reason, just like the democrats in the US. Silence doesn't win elections, silence from the opposition means approval for the rulers.

If privacy will be taken from ordinary citizens, only criminals will enjoy true privacy.

You can just install the app from apk if that should happen
- My guess is signal leaving sweden means they would block sign-ups from swedish phone numbers. It would be very effective as most people won't bother jumping through hoops to get a number from a different country.
- Signal has already said they'd "leave Sweden first".
  But what does that mean today, when the Internet is non-local, and I can run my own VPN with Wireguard or Tailscale?
  
  It probably won't be in the Play store when in Sweden, yes you'll still be able to work around it.
  
  That just means they don't offer their service there officially and don't offer support
  
  But what does that mean today
  The first thing you need to understand is: if any government is demanding a back door to a messenger in the name of law enforcement, they are lying. It is simple as that.
  Everybody spending more than 10 seconds on the subject knows that there are hundreds of alternatives out there. And somebody actually needing a way to keep illegal activities hidden will just switch over to something else.
  There is only one reason to push for such an idea (and always for the popular messenger options of course): Wanting to surveil ordinary citizens that don't think much about which platform they use. Because everyone else will be gone from the platform in the blink of an eye.
  So this means exactly nothing for you if you want to keep using Signal. Because they won't stop you and they won't care. You are not the target if you actually think about consequences. They aim at the majority that will just move on to the next popular mainstream option over time once Signal isn't available in the domestic app store anymore... hopefully (or not... depending on your perspective) to an option that will not resist demands for an backdoor when the time comes.
- Ah good, it had become to easy to convince my friends to let me message them on Signal.

Signal's encryption was great. Still, for some years now they are not 100% open source and they still advertise themselves as open source.
- What part am I missing? They seem to have the source code of their server and the different apps on their GitHub page.
  
  They still have a tone of open-source stuff. It's just that not everything is open-source anymore. Meaning, since everything is not public, we have no way of knowing if this private piece of software is what they say, or anything else actually.
  So, trust a company because they say they are not evil? I'll pass
  From Signal Blog 01 Nov 2021:
  Improving first impressions on Signal
  We build Signal in the open, with publicly available source code for our applications and servers. To keep Signal a free global communication service without spam, we must depart from our totally-open posture and develop one piece of the server in private: a system for detecting and disrupting spam campaigns.
  
  There isn't any proof that the app you download is built exactly from the source code on github. There could be an intermediate step to inject whatever they want before packaging it for the app stores.
  There's also the conspiracy that Signal has been compromised since the beginning as they received initial funding from the CIA. Not sure exactly where I stand on this, but it is plausible.
  The protocol itself is open source though so someone could make an open source service with that.

22 comments