The UK is discussing legislation that could force concessions on end-to-end encryption in the name of public safety. Inadmissible for Signal, who warns that he could leave the country.
It is out of the question, for Signal, to weaken in any way whatsoever the security and confidentiality of its application, renowned for the strong protection it grants to the discussions of Internet users. This, even if the law would force it to weaken its main argument, end-to-end encryption. If that happened, Signal would still prefer to leave the country.
This is the warning that at the end of February 2023 Meredith Whittaker, the president of the Signal foundation, the structure which oversees the instant messaging of the same name, passed on in the press. A parliamentary debate is taking place in the UK on a new law — called the Online Safety Bill — concerning online communications.
UK online safety law
Within the framework of this text, the British government seeks to better combat child pornography and terrorist content, in particular when it circulates via platforms offering end-to-end encryption. This device provides such protection that it is impossible to see the message without the key to read it.
End-to-end encryption is legitimately used to preserve the confidentiality of one’s conversations, preventing third parties from gaining access to them in one way or another. But it is also a mechanism that inevitably is used for illicit purposes, which complicates the work of identification and investigation to find the culprits.
For London, this law on online security is not intended to prohibit end-to-end encryption. It aims to find a middle way to manage both the protection of privacy and the secrecy of correspondence on the one hand, and the tracking of illegal content on the other hand – public security also being an imperative.
This debate which is being played out across the Channel is recurrent and old in the tech world and it has not, to date, found a solution that would satisfy each party. We saw it with Apple, which had designed an automatic analysis tool in the iPhone to find child pornography images. Although documented, the device was disputed, leading Apple to abandon it.
In Europe, a strategy against child pornography content has also alarmed computer security specialists about the consequences that the plan would have on the privacy of Internet users. The European authorities in charge of the protection of privacy have also taken a very severe look at this initiative.
Opponents of the mechanism devised by Apple and critics of the EU plan are not for laissez-faire online. However, today it is impossible to weaken end-to-end encryption only for suspects. When this mechanism is changed, the entire end-to-end encryption is affected, including for the innocent.
Signal will leave the UK if necessary
” Either encryption protects everyone, or it doesn’t work for anyone “warned Meredith Whittaker. To believe that one can distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys is magical thinking “. A loophole in the name of combating child pornography or terrorism could end up being found by third parties, who could then carry out malicious actions.
This law, whether it passes or not, in this version or not, will have no impact on Signal: “ We have never weakened our privacy promises, and we never will. “. And, if the text still obliges him to do so? So in this case, the Signal app will still prefer to leave the UK. A caveat that applies to other countries.
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