cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/50130760
Head of the Signal app threatens to withdraw from Europe
https://www.bluewin.ch/en/news/signal-app-boss-threatens-to-withdraw-from-europe-2897197.html
https://www.bluewin.ch/en/news/signal-app-boss-threatens-to-withdraw-from-europe-2897197.html
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/50130760
52 Comments
ryannathans@aussie.zone · 44 pts · 310d
If signal pulls out of Europe we're in a pretty fucked state. Apps like signal will be reduced to operations it a few fringe countries eventually
ISOmorph@feddit.org · 28 pts · 310d
Signal is nice because it has a pretty good adoption rate even with non techies (which is why they've been mentioned by name in the chat control proposal). But privacy enthusiasts will still have briar/simplechat/xmpp. Those aren't centralised like Signal and will be a lot harder to regulate
0xtero@beehaw.org · 29 pts · 310d
ChatControl 2.0, if passed means your entire device is backdoored so it doesn’t matter what apps you installl, they can get your info pre-encryption
kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 15 pts · 310d
Custom roms is your best bed at that point. I do use GOS already.
0xtero@beehaw.org · 22 pts · 310d
It's great as long as you can guarantee that the person you're communicating on the receiving side does the same. Otherwise it's useless as your messages will be read on the receiving device. In practice it will make private communication extremely cumbersome and niche.
Also, the authorities can backdoor your custom ROM device at will, when seized.
kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 310d
I mean I don't see them back dooring GOS anytime soon. But your right both ends need to have a custom ROM.
adespoton@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 310d
Steganography. There’s more than one way to protect your communication.
And encryption in transit is better than no encryption at all (assuming the baddies don’t already have full access to your phone data).
0xtero@beehaw.org · 2 pts · 310d
That's the whole point of Chat Control 2.0
adespoton@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 310d
Not quite; Chat Control hearkens back to Apple’s doomed attempt at on-device CSAM filtering - the idea is that on-device images and message contents would be scanned for known hashes. This means a nation state could go fishing on devices for known content, but it wouldn’t allow them to indiscriminately sift through all the content at rest — they’d have to know what they were looking for.
That’s where the steganography comes in, because the hash based approach will fail if the content they’re looking for is obscured in some manner.
rbn@sopuli.xyz · 15 pts · 310d
Didn't know they come with sleeping facilities. They're so versatile nowadays! SCNR
kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 310d
😅🤣
eleitl@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 309d
Unless you outlaw alternative ROMs some devices will be not backdoored.
adespoton@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 310d
ChatControl 2.0 will mean that phones localized outside of Europe will sell at a premium.
jnod4@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 310d
You won't be able to install those apps soon after Android bans sideloading of apps that aren't signed, or bans sideloading of apps that are not from the playstore itself.
What then?
ISOmorph@feddit.org · 13 pts · 310d
I don't think privacy enthusiasts use vanilla Android. People will stick to Lineage/Graphene for as long as it works and then switch to something like Postmarket. It's already in a state where it's rough but usable.
rumba@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 310d
Europe: Companies can't lock down your operating system.
Also Europe: Companies must force back doors into their operating systems.
I wonder how long those two things can coexist.
adespoton@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 310d
Well, Google’s current behaviour is already putting the future existence of F-Droid into question.
rumba@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 310d
We need FOSS phones badly and in numbers that manufacturing isn't horrible. That is until our governments force carriers not to connect them.
If I could find a reasonably priced 8" Linux tablet, I'd sell my phone and buy a cellular wifi AP.
vorpuni@jlai.lu · 2 pts · 310d
You can spoof IMEI and pretend your phone is an old iPhone. Carriers wouldn't know.
defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 310d
Yes, but not everyone they want to talk to will go through that effort. It's already hard enough to convince someone to download another messaging app that they will only use with you.
ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org · 3 pts · 310d
"privacy enthusiasts" not everybody can do that. also remember that privacy is a spectrum.
sadfitzy@ttrpg.network · 3 pts · 310d
We still have Matrix.
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 32 pts · 310d
Canary coal mine kind of signal (pardon the pun)
Edit: they also obviously do not have a choice. If they legally must weaken their work and the core of their work is that it's not weak... then they have no work. So they can't accept it.
SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 310d
I always threaten to pull out, but I never do
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 10 pts · 310d
Dumbass. Always pull out. And wear a condom.
thatradomguy@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 310d
This is what I always say to myself when reading the Japanese porno mags.
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 309d
I can smell the STIs
thatradomguy@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 309d
🧐
herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 309d
Signal does not have a large enough userbase to threaten something like this. EU will just shrug and move on.
i_am_somebody@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 308d
Hard disagree. Politicians use Signal themselves for their private group chats.
pineapple@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 309d
This is the right choice.
nicerdicer@feddit.org · 8 pts · 310d
For a future with privacy, not mass surveillance, Germany must stand firmly against client-side scanning in the Chat Control proposal [PDF - Statement from Meredith Whittaker, President, Signal Foundation]
Mynameisallen@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 310d
Shocker. I do however wonder what prevents someone from downloading and installing the apk to their phone. Am I wrong in believing this is a real way to bypass them leaving a market?
14th_cylon@lemmy.zip · 27 pts · 310d
google.
https://www.androidsage.com/2025/08/26/google-blocks-sideloading-of-android-apps/
Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 310d
So first step is installing an alternative phone OS then.
14th_cylon@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 310d
yeah, except according to my understanding of the topic, there is not much adult alternatives. graphene will have the same problem.
f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 309d
If you are running Android Open Source Project without Google Play Services, Google has no control. However, manufacturers could be pressured into locking bootloaders and then no one gets AOSP or GrapheneOS at all.
eleitl@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 309d
You can move to WiFi tablets then. The hostile network boundary would then begin on your MiFi router.
ISOmorph@feddit.org · 7 pts · 310d
Doesn't Signal work with phone numbers? They will probably block every EU number from accessing the service to protect themselves legally. Maybe you could use something like jmp.chat to circumvent that? Probably need a VPN as well to mask your IP. In any case, it will decimate the user base, so you're left chatting with yourself anyway.
ashleythorne@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 310d
To my understanding, you just need a phone number to make an account. I think it can be a burner number. But then if you ever lose access to the account you can't recover it.
bjrn@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 308d
Please check out https://fightchatcontrol.eu/ if you want to take action against this.
absquatulate@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 310d
I don't understand how this "threat" is supposed to work. If the law passes won't any and all chat encryption be affected? In that case it doesn't matter how you get the app, or if you manage to get it in europe. Its encryption will be broken/unavailable.
LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz · 24 pts · 310d
Laws don't magically break encryption. I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
They're trying to force Signal to weaken the application, Signal says they won't do it.
They can ban Signal for not complying, but you know how difficult it is to ban a digital application? It might make it more popular since it'll be one of very few actually secure messaging apps out there.
absquatulate@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 310d
I imagined the law would be enforced by a deal with google and some global android state approved keylogger/backdoor completely bypassing all apps including Signal. But yeah, I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around this.
beyond@linkage.ds8.zone · 2 pts · 309d
Recently Google announced they were going to restrict certified Android devices to only allowing apps approved by Google. An F-Droid member found references to "blocked developers" in the new verification code. It's not unreasonable to assume that this developer blocklist could be region-dependent and Google could use this ability to block Signal from being installed in EU.
douglasg14b@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 310d
Encryption isn't magically broken because a legislature says it is.
They have to apply teeth to a market they control. Not everything is within their control. Though, signal is.
janonymous@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 310d
I suspect that signal will be asked to add a backdoor to their encryption, they will refuse and subsequently banned from EU app stores.
utopiah@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 310d
What even is that? Aren't the 2 app official app stores American anyway?
PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de · 7 pts · 310d
Yes they are based in america but they have to comply with regional laws since they operate internationally. the apps available in these stores, and the laws that apply to them, differ per country.
utopiah@lemmy.ml · -1 pts · 310d
If I understood correctly "they" here means Google and Apple because they are corporations that sell products, advertisement brokerage, SaaS, physical devices, etc in the EU. They have to comply otherwise they wouldn't be able to make money if one of the most profitable markets. They solely chose to comply because it puts their baseline at risk, not solely because of regional laws.
pathos@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 309d
Anywhere to petition or digitally sign?