In the physical world, the limits are clear: no democratic government is permitted to monitor citizens in their homes without a court order, even to prevent domestic violence or child sexual abuse. In the digital world, though, the answer remains unresolved. Child safety advocates believe that governments must be able to unlock private messages, while tech companies and privacy activists see a smokescreen for mass government surveillance.
The law is in no way fixed and passing it will still be a terrible thing for a country that claims it wants to be a tech colossus.
Westminster hasn’t blinked, they intend to pass a law which they then intend to not prosecute. Selectively enforced laws are awful.
This government remains awful, the bill remains awful, and the sooner all of westminster can be shut down the better. We will only be safe if we can free the country from the wankers in Westminster palace completely and entirely.
Ban westminster, not encryption!
Tweak@feddit.uk 9 months ago
My understanding is they’ve done bugger all. MP’s behind the bill have merely said they won’t use the provision, primarily because there is no sufficient technical means to do so, but the wording of the bill hasn’t changed.
If the bill goes through as is then businesses may be compelled to create the means to do so, regardless of it breaking encryption - maybe they won’t do it right away, but they’ll have the perogative under law. It wouldn’t be too much more effort to throw in a gag order and prevent public disclosure. I’m sure Signal and a few others would kick up a stink and leave if they were targeted, but I could see Facebook and Google signing up, for a price. Hell I’d be more surprised if WhatsApp didn’t already have backdoors.
peter@feddit.uk 9 months ago
What will happen here will be exactly like what happened with the net neutrality laws in the US. Even if we beat it once they’ll just keep trying until the media gets fatigued and they can pass it without a large amount of uproar. There’s no legal way for us to stop them.
fushuan@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Not there is a feasible way to remove e2e from the internet. tons of banks would just stop working in the UK. the bill wouldn’t last a week.