From the United Kingdom to Sweden, encrypted communications are increasingly attacked while the authorities are looking for ways to better monitor people’s conversations to fight crime. Signal, one of the best encrypted messaging applications, however, is not willing to compromise its confidentiality and safety.
“The signal position on this subject is very clear – we will not come back, adulterate or will not disturb the solid confidentiality and security on which people depend,” said signal president Meredith Whittaker at a panel conference in Rightscon 25 on Tuesday 25 February.
“Whether this disturbance or this stolen door is called the client side scan or the stripping of the encryption protections of one or the other of the characteristics similar to what Apple has been pushed to do in the United Kingdom,” she added.
Whittaker’s comments came a few days after Apple was forced to kill the encryption function from start to finish in the UK following an order from the government to create a stolen encryption door to allow the order forces of user data. Sweden also plans to introduce a new law obliging all encrypted communication applications to create a similar background door.
Attack of the United Kingdom against encryption
For almost a week – Friday, February 21, to be exact – people in the United Kingdom have not been able to use the Advanced Data Protection function (ADP) of Apple on iCloud.
Although it is not a default feature, Apple launched ADP in 2022 to provide an additional protection layer on all data stored by iCloud via end -to -end encryption technology. This even means that the supplier cannot access these files.
The great technology giant has deleted functionality instead of complying with the stolen door order of the United Kingdom’s encryption, ensuring that this decision will not affect the iCloud data categories which are encrypted from finish by default. These include user health data, passwords, iCloud messages and Apple card transactions. You can see all the others on the Apple assistance page.
“As we have said on several occasions before, we have never built a stolen door or master in any of our products or services and we will never do it,” said Apple in a written declaration at the time.
However, it is not yet clear the impact that this decision will have on the confidentiality of users in and outside the country. What would happen when British users go abroad, for example? And what about foreign users traveling in the United Kingdom? More importantly, perhaps, will delete ADP will be sufficient for the British authorities?
These are some of the questions that still need an answer. For the signal, however, it is not negotiable and guarantees, once again, that the company is ready to leave the British market instead of undermining encryption.
Sweden and new anti-incryption efforts
The United Kingdom is not the only country that pushes to choose the encrypted communications lock to facilitate criminal surveys.
Sweden has recently joined the list of governments taking into account the legislation to make compulsory for signal, WhatsApp and Imessage to create a stolen encryption door in their software. If successful, the new rules could come into force in March 2026.
Again, speaking to Swedish SVT SVT, Whittaker recently reiterated the position of the company. She said: “This means asking us to break the encryption which is the basis of our entire business. We ask to store data would undermine our whole architecture and we would never do it. We would prefer to leave the Swedish market.
Indeed, Whittaker added: “Our responsibility is to offer a technology that confirms human rights at a time when these rights are violated in more and more places.”
Do you know?
Encryption refers to the shock of data in an illegible form to prevent third -party access. End -to -end encryption is the reiteration that messaging applications and secure messaging services, among other tools, use to protect data in transit by keeping private between the sender and the receiver – end -to -end.
Apart from Sweden, the EU has also tried to transmit a proposal to scan the private communications of citizens, the encrypted persons included, since 2022 to stop the spread of children’s sexual abuse equipment (CSAM). Cat controlled judged by its criticisms, the bill continues to receive setbacks from experts and legislators, who could not yet find compromise after almost three years and two lighter versions.
In January, the head of Europol, Catherine de Bolle, reiterated such efforts to break encryption, arguing that “anonymity is not a fundamental right” and the technology giants have a “social responsibility” to give the police access to the encrypted messages used by criminals.
At the same time, however, recent events such as the Typhon of Salphon’s attack against all the main American telecommunications have shown how encryption is crucial for the intimacy and security of each. On this occasion, even the experts of the FBI and the CISA called on citizens to move on to the encrypted services in the aftermath of this unprecedented cyber attack.
What is the next step?
The signal is not alone among the technological community which calls for the campaign against encryption. For example, a group of more than 100 civil society organizations, technological companies and cybersecurity experts also urged the British government to cancel its order to Apple, warning how a icloud stolen door “ends the security and confidentiality of millions”.
The path to mitigate legal actions against encryption is certainly filled with challenges for experts in confidentiality and technology. However, users can be reassured that signal undertakes to retaliate.
“We are going to continue to repel,” said Whittaker, stressing how incidents like Salt typhoon are a tangible example of what cryptographers, human rights experts, journalists and the technical community as a whole say for decades – “you cannot build a safe back door.”
She added: “Our position does not change. This does not change according to the year, this does not change according to the jurisdiction. It is actually quite simple.”
