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Signal warns it would pull out of Canada if made to comply with lawful access bill (www.theglobeandmail.com)

submitted 3 months ago by patatas@sh.itjust.works to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] nik282000@lemmy.ca 76 points 3 months ago

Good, not for us, but good that Signal is not backing down to the clowns who run this maple scented circus.

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 58 points 3 months ago

For added context, a major user of Signal is the CAF. They're literally required to have it on their phones, it's a primary method of distributing critical information. Signal leaving Canada would be a very big deal.

[-] nik282000@lemmy.ca 25 points 3 months ago

Good, maybe it will highlight the myopic decision making of Canada's leaders.

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 24 points 3 months ago

Maybe before it comes to that we can contact our reps and tell them to put a stop to this stupidity.

[-] redsand@infosec.pub 8 points 3 months ago

Call them out on wanting to be the 51st state. This bullshit is about sigint that the US wants to run through "AI"(grok)

[-] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 15 points 3 months ago

That makes it even funnier that they want a backdoor added to it... Don't they realize that a government mandated backdoor is still a backdoor anyone can use?

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 months ago

Yeah, this is exactly Signal's objection; it makes the product inherently less secure. That's a really bad idea under any circumstances, but doubly so for a product that is used for secure government communication.

[-] yardy_sardley@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 months ago

Kinda sad how our armed forced are that dependent on US tech. Like yeah it's E2EE, but it gives the US the ability to brick our communications if they really want to.

Surely the CAF has the resources to spin up their own secure xmpp service or something.

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Do they have the resources? Sure. But that would be fiscally irresponsible. Why would they try to replicate proven tech that works well and offers everything they need? Signal is available, accessible, and easy to use.

I also should clarify that when I say it's a primary method, that does mean one of many. We have fallbacks. Losing access to Signal wouldn't cripple us, but it would be an incredibly stupid self-inflicted injury. Having easy and accessible means of secure communications is important because it prevents people from resorting to insecure means. People are lazy and the best security is always the security that people least mind using. That's why Signal matters. Not because wec somehow wouldn't be able to hold secure communications without it. I apologize if my previous comment was misleading on this.

[-] patatas@sh.itjust.works 45 points 3 months ago

This also strikes me as being bad for businesses, such as Canadian cloud providers and email companies - I have to imagine that a number of people will start looking elsewhere if this passes.

[-] youcantreadthis@quokk.au 5 points 3 months ago

Why would anyone care would increase power asymmetry better than money could

[-] adespoton@lemmy.ca 39 points 3 months ago

And this is why we can’t have nice things.

[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago

This stuff infuriates me beyond belief. The people writing these laws are either to old and dumb to see the similarities between older tech, or purposely grabbing for more power over the populace.

Imagine if physical mail needed to be sent opened. The post office would then need to scan and keep a picture of your envelops contents for a year for any national security reasons.

[-] redsand@infosec.pub 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

https://simplex.chat/downloads

Get fucked five eyes. PQC, best metadata countermeasures available for chat, it's had a couple audits by trail of bits now. Works with tor onions only or i2p if you're so inclined. Join us lemmings. Check out the white papers and code if you're into that kind of thing

[-] snoons@lemmy.ca 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Mirror:

https://archive.ph/laiKz

[-] leraje@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 months ago

Thanks.

[-] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 months ago

I've been expecting this. My plan is to switch to Briar which has no servers to take down or block.

[-] menas@lemmy.wtf 9 points 3 months ago

Is Briar stable now ? We've never able to make it run properly

[-] RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 months ago

I didn't know Briat had a bad rep for stability.

I've tested it with a tablet and phone at home.

I'll have to get my sister involved to see it works at a greater distance.

[-] sulfidedisburseangledafternoontipper@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago

Never had stability issues. It doesn't do asynchronous messaging without the mailbox app though. IIRC, it also doesn't have an iOS app due to apple's insistence that no apps run in the background

[-] redsand@infosec.pub 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

https://simplex.chat/Downloads

Can run entirely with tor onions or clearnet. Has no intention of compliance with any country's bullshit laws. PQC and fairly stable now. The main downside is it's heavy for large groups and latency can be higher.