Signal to Ottawa: We'll Leave Canada Before We Help You Spy on Users (www.iphoneincanada.ca)
from floofloof@lemmy.ca to privacy@lemmy.ml on 17 May 01:18
https://lemmy.ca/post/64976745

cross-posted from: piefed.ca/…/signal-to-ottawa-we-ll-leave-canada-b…

Signal is drawing a hard line on the federal government’s proposed surveillance legislation: comply with Bill C-22 or leave the country. The secure messaging app says it would rather ditch the Canadian market than be forced to weaken the privacy protections it has built its reputation on. In an interview with The Globe and Mail

#privacy

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neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 17 May 02:37 next collapse

If they left the Canadian market, what’s preventing Canadians from still using it?

sekurious@lemmy.nz on 17 May 02:57 next collapse

I think they can use the VPN to get access to it. It’s a way to make sure governments doesn’t exert too much pressure to give up data!

Rat_in_a_hat@lemmy.ca on 17 May 16:07 collapse

True, until VPNs are also banned (like some US states are doing). One anti-privacy law passed will bring up another, then another, then another.

funkforager@sh.itjust.works on 17 May 03:03 next collapse

The Canada-region app stores like Apple or Android would be unwilling to let you download the app if the law passes. So without sideloading, it just wouldn’t be accessible.

adespoton@lemmy.ca on 17 May 03:15 next collapse

Am I the only one who has app store accounts for multiple regions?

But actually, if this happens (and it won’t, at least this time), the next bill to go through would have to be for the right to sideload. Because all of the politicians use Signal and would need a way to install it.

Delilah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 17 May 03:35 next collapse

And by side loading you mean installing software on a device you own, like PCs have been forever. Side loading is a 100% bullshit term created by Apple and Google to try and make sure you don’t think you actually own your devices

akilou@sh.itjust.works on 17 May 15:29 next collapse

Ok, I’m on board. So like what do we call installing an app outside of a store?

root@aussie.zone on 17 May 16:07 next collapse

Installing a downloaded application.

Delilah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 17 May 18:08 collapse

Installing for short

Redjard@reddthat.com on 17 May 18:41 collapse

Installing an apk, installing directly, …
As opposed to installing from Fdroid, from gplay, …

You can also go by source, like with the stores. For example Signal android can be installed from their website (by downloading an apk).

Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 17 May 17:04 collapse

That’s factually not true though. Side loading was a term used before Google was even a company and before devices had internet access or peripherals/accessories to directly connect media other than plugging into your computer. Before devices had internet and you had to plug them into your computer to transfer files and install non-stock software. They would just say unauthorized or unofficial software if side loading wasn’t a term. It’s not like they need that term to exist for their shit behavior.

quick_snail@feddit.nl on 17 May 04:34 next collapse

Or people could just install it from fdroid.

Oh wait, signal isn’t FOSS so it isn’t allowed on fdroid.

ItJustDonn@slrpnk.net on 17 May 04:41 next collapse

what about Molly, then?

quick_snail@feddit.nl on 17 May 04:46 collapse

Molly is Foss, but it’s not on fdroid for likely other sketchy reasons

eodur@piefed.social on 17 May 05:05 next collapse

Its on Accrescent though

TiredTiger@lemmy.ml on 17 May 06:45 collapse

You can import the repo into F-Droid.

quick_snail@feddit.nl on 17 May 16:22 collapse

…and make yourself less secure, sure

theherk@lemmy.world on 17 May 04:43 next collapse

github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android AGPL

quick_snail@feddit.nl on 17 May 04:46 collapse

Lol no.

Download the apk. It includes that AGPL and also non free blobs. Just because part of if is Foss does not make if foss

theherk@lemmy.world on 17 May 07:31 collapse

Nothing to laugh at here in my view. It is FOSS. The reason it isn’t on there is sort of procedural. You could easily build signal from source, but signal prefers only their builds connect to their servers. They of course can’t enforce this but fdroid is happy to do so.

root@lemmy.world on 17 May 06:03 next collapse

I get it from FDroid via the Guardian repo. No issues.

quick_snail@feddit.nl on 17 May 16:22 collapse

Security issues. guardian repo has no acceptances criteria. Closed source blobs? Allowed.

CorrectAlias@piefed.blahaj.zone on 17 May 07:07 next collapse

Molly is on fdroid I believe

Ash37970244@sh.itjust.works on 17 May 09:27 next collapse

Yep and Molly is even better :)

ruplicant@sh.itjust.works on 17 May 12:09 next collapse

I think it used to, but unfortunely Molly is not on Fdroid’s repo. You can download it from the app, but you’d need to add Molly’s repo

quick_snail@feddit.nl on 17 May 16:21 collapse

Not the official repo…because they couldn’t meet it’s acceptance criteria. Which is a red flag

racoon@lemmy.ml on 17 May 09:06 collapse

GrapheneOS frowns upon fdroid because of apk security reasons

ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 17 May 15:44 next collapse

Well unless they want to add verified APKs of all the apps I do use to their app store, their frowning is useless because every graphene user basically needs f-droid as it stands now.

quick_snail@feddit.nl on 18 May 04:22 collapse

And we frown upon grapheneOS because of numerous human concerns

asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world on 17 May 12:30 next collapse

Any reason Signal couldn’t offer a web app client?

egsaqmojz@lemmy.ml on 17 May 16:21 collapse

cuz they dont store msgs on a server. feature, not a bug

asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world on 17 May 16:39 collapse

Web browsers have a local storage API.

Rat_in_a_hat@lemmy.ca on 18 May 04:41 collapse

Signal mentioned that their apps were best for security and a web browser had too many vulnerabilities that they couldn’t guarantee.

They prefer to manage their own apps - a signal desktop app being one of them.

MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip on 17 May 12:51 collapse

It’s not sideloading.

SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today on 18 May 04:52 collapse

This is one of the things that bugs me.

If you’re in Country A, with all your operations in Country A, and what you do is legal in Country A, why should you give a single fuck about Country B’s laws?

Seems to me the appropriate answer is basically to do what The Pirate Bay did with DMCA notices- respond that your laws don’t apply to us as we have nothing to do with your country, and if your citizens use our software that’s between you and them. It’s not our job to enforce your laws on your citizens.

umbrella@lemmy.ml on 17 May 06:49 next collapse

so THAT’S why they are clamping down on installing apps from outside the play store.

racoon@lemmy.ml on 17 May 09:07 collapse

I still dream of a keyboard that encrypts all messages regardless of the application being used. Like you type and then select the message, a pop up menu lets you encrypt the message using the code that you have chosen with somebody.

The other person receives the message directly unscrambled otherwise this implementation is DOA

RVGamer06@sh.itjust.works on 17 May 09:22 next collapse

Oversec is like that, but IIRC it doesn’t work correctly on the latest versions of android

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 17 May 09:28 next collapse

Pretty sure I read stories in the past of Google or someone like them banning people who were sending pre encrypted messages over one of their chat services.

racoon@lemmy.ml on 17 May 09:37 next collapse

wow so they were reading every single message, amazing

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 17 May 10:07 collapse

A computer was anyway. These services arent necessarily reading our messages personally, but the algorithms parse them for ad placements or whatever, and it probably got flagged as being unreadable.

Edit: Some services that arent intending to be secure chat might not like the idea of encrypted content on their system either. What is it? What are they now harboring which wasn’t their intent at all? Like if you made a lemmy community and only had encrypted messages on it, a mod from the server might have something to say about it.

MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip on 17 May 12:49 collapse

They still ban you now and then, if you encrypyt to their drive.

the_strange@feddit.org on 17 May 10:12 next collapse

OpenKeychain has an implementation like this (not 100%) maybe that fits your use case?

www.openkeychain.org

daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 17 May 12:44 next collapse

Look up oversec.io

It basically uses android accessibility features to both encrypt and decrypt messages.

CodeAssembler@lemmy.ml on 17 May 13:33 collapse

It is a bit tedious but works: fdroid.gitlab.io/…/com.amnesica.kryptey/

Edit: Just saw that the last update was 3 years ago, just keep that in mind. I think for some situations it is still useful and can be used, as the encryption and key-exchange seems to be solid.