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Signal says it can't allow government access to users' chats
Last week, the Australian government passed the country's controversial Access and Assistance Bill 2018 into law, legislation that allows government agencies to demand access to encrypted communications. Companies that don't comply with the new law could face fines of up to AU$10 million ($7.3 million). A number of companies that stand to be affected have spoken out about the legislation, and Signal has now joined in, explaining that it won't be able to fulfill such requests if asked.
"By design, Signal does not have a record of your contacts, social graph, conversation list, location, user avatar, user profile name, group memberships, group titles or group avatars," Signal's Joshua Lund wrote in a blog post. "The end-to-end encrypted contents of every message and voice/video call are protected by keys that are entirely inaccessible to us." Lund added that Signal is open source, meaning anyone can "verify or examine the code for each release." "People often use Signal to share secrets with their friends, but we can't hide secrets in our software," he wrote. "We can't include a backdoor in Signal."
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday December 14 2018, @11:10PM (7 children)
You don't have to be profit-driven to leave the high road in a hurry. Threats of lawsuits or jail time often does the trick.
In this case of course, the high road is the only option, as there is technically no other answer.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Friday December 14 2018, @11:30PM (6 children)
Of course there are other answers. The AU government could declare the software source contraband, its use illegal, and assert various kinds of legal unpleasantness against the author(s.)
I'm not saying they're good answers, but certainly this kind of thing is well within the bounds of what politicians do on a fairly regular basis.
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The 3 Functional Retardations:
traditional, jingoistic, and religious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 15 2018, @02:56AM (2 children)
(Score: 3, Informative) by fyngyrz on Saturday December 15 2018, @05:14AM
Not saying they can. I am saying they can hold your feet to the fire if you indulge in it. Just ask all those people sitting in jails all over the world for having the temerity to personaly or consensually indulge in recreational drug activities.
It's not that you can't do it — not at all — it's that if you do, they will do their very best to screw you sideways. With barbed wire. Coated with acid. When they finish with you, you'll probably never be able to get a good job again. Your family, if any, will suffer. Your personal relationships will suffer. Your finances will likely crash hard.
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No sense being pessimistic, it wouldn't work anyway.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday December 15 2018, @04:50PM
Maybe do like Lenin did in 1922 - put all philosophers on a ship and send them into exile?
I'm tempted to agree with him on that one. But you gotta do it all at once, otherwise how would you know where to begin?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday December 15 2018, @03:14AM (2 children)
You misunderstand: the only pressure that is allowed to be applied flows from the US to Aus, any other direction is STRICTLY prohibited.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday December 15 2018, @05:14AM (1 child)
Irrelevant.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday December 15 2018, @10:33AM
Signal seems to be US based...
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.