3 ms·

Isn't this is already a solved problem? This feels like a huge loss for player like Signal that actually ensure privacy by design

orian 3y ago
It's not that simple. If the country introduces a legislation, every company operating in it's border must comply. If EU would introduce such legislation, it could potentially make software doing end2end encryption illegal. In such case, google would be removing it from EU Play Stores, and this would be more/less end of such messaging apps unless they comply. :-) This is why it's important to have a reasonable legislature and laws.
- ta1243 3y ago
  > This is why it's important to have a reasonable legislature and laws. And multiple points of control. In the EU the council acts as a check on populism through parliament (even if the nazis took over parliament it wouldn't give them a lot of power), parliament acts as a check on the council (even if the heads of 70% of EU countries decided something, parliament gets its say). Neither of those are the executive so they would be unable to push through laws which favour specific countries or groups of countries (as the commission are supposed to act primarily on behalf of the union, in the same way the US president is supposed to not favour his home state). Then outside of government you have the judiciary who look at the laws passed and interpret them in line with other laws, throwing out ones which are incompatible.
- contrarian1234 3y ago
  It'd give people all the more incentive to sideload and get off Google Play Store. That's a win win in my book. And Signal is a non-for-profit. I don't see why they'd care. Designing system that subvert authoritarian regimes.. what's more punk than that If you have to ask governments for permission then that's a bad design and your system will be taken away from you when the next think-of-the-children populists are elected If you work on the assumption all governments are eternally nice and well interventioned .. then E2E chat systems aren't all that necessary in the first place
yreg 3y ago
This decision is about abandoning a plan to make end-to-end encryption illegal.
mattmanser 3y ago
Signal would have had to introduce a back door if they wanted to continue operating legally in the EU.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
moffkalast 3y ago
If this were to pass, Signal would become illegal and banned in the EU.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  Well, that's possibly simplistic, because it's unlikely this would have held up in the ECJ in any case.

orian 3y ago

It's not that simple. If the country introduces a legislation, every company operating in it's border must comply. If EU would introduce such legislation, it could potentially make software doing end2end encryption illegal. In such case, google would be removing it from EU Play Stores, and this would be more/less end of such messaging apps unless they comply. :-) This is why it's important to have a reasonable legislature and laws.

ta1243 3y ago
> This is why it's important to have a reasonable legislature and laws. And multiple points of control. In the EU the council acts as a check on populism through parliament (even if the nazis took over parliament it wouldn't give them a lot of power), parliament acts as a check on the council (even if the heads of 70% of EU countries decided something, parliament gets its say). Neither of those are the executive so they would be unable to push through laws which favour specific countries or groups of countries (as the commission are supposed to act primarily on behalf of the union, in the same way the US president is supposed to not favour his home state). Then outside of government you have the judiciary who look at the laws passed and interpret them in line with other laws, throwing out ones which are incompatible.
contrarian1234 3y ago
It'd give people all the more incentive to sideload and get off Google Play Store. That's a win win in my book. And Signal is a non-for-profit. I don't see why they'd care. Designing system that subvert authoritarian regimes.. what's more punk than that If you have to ask governments for permission then that's a bad design and your system will be taken away from you when the next think-of-the-children populists are elected If you work on the assumption all governments are eternally nice and well interventioned .. then E2E chat systems aren't all that necessary in the first place

yreg 3y ago

This decision is about abandoning a plan to make end-to-end encryption illegal.

mattmanser 3y ago

Signal would have had to introduce a back door if they wanted to continue operating legally in the EU.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

moffkalast 3y ago

If this were to pass, Signal would become illegal and banned in the EU.

rsynnott 3y ago
Well, that's possibly simplistic, because it's unlikely this would have held up in the ECJ in any case.