This is why you make a protocol rather than an app so there is no owner.

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The encrypted messaging app Signal is growing – now even the Swedish Armed Forces are using the app.

But the government wants to force the company to introduce a technical backdoor for the Police and the Swedish Security Service.

"If it becomes a reality, we will leave Sweden," says Signal's boss Meredith Whittaker, in an exclusive interview with SVT.

If the government has its way, the bill will be passed in the Riksdag as early as March next year.

The bill states that companies such as Signal and Whatsapp will be forced to store all messages sent using the apps.

Leaving Sweden Signal – which is run by a non-profit foundation – now states to SVT Nyheter that the company will leave Sweden if the bill becomes a reality.

"In practice, this means that we are being asked to break the encryption that is the basis of our entire business. Asking us to store data would undermine our entire architecture and we would never do that. We would rather leave the Swedish market completely," says Signal's head of Meredith Whittaker.

She says the bill would require Signal to install so-called backdoors in the software.

"If you create a vulnerability based on Swedish wishes, it would create a path to undermine our entire network. Therefore, we would never introduce these backdoors.

But don't you as a supplier have a responsibility to support efforts against crime?

"Our responsibility is to offer technology that upholds human rights in an era where those rights are being violated in more and more places. In today's digital world, there are very few places where we can communicate privately or whistleblow.

The Armed Forces critical Meredith Whittaker mentions the Chinese state actor Salt Typhoon's 2024 attack on several internet service providers in the United States, where text messages and phone calls were leaked. She believes that a Swedish back door would open the door for the same thing.

"There are no back doors that only the good guys have access to.

The purpose of the bill is to enable the Security Service and the police to request subsequent notification history for persons suspected of crime. Both authorities were positive in the consultation round.

"The opportunities for law enforcement authorities to effectively access electronic communications are absolutely crucial," Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (M) said earlier at a press conference.

But the Armed Forces are negative and recently the Armed Forces urged their personnel to start using Signal to reduce the risk of eavesdropping.

In a letter to the government, the Armed Forces writes that the bill will not be able to be realized "without introducing vulnerabilities and back doors that may be used by third parties".

The Swedish government can go suck a lemon.

I really like that Signal is able to update itself. Even our of the stores, it can still be up-to-date.

Because that worked so well with the US government’s back door into telecom companies. I don’t think they got the Salt Typhoon group out of the system yet.

Governments have long wanted backdoors on secure private communication, and so long as we have an ownership class, they always will.

And backdoors will always be more useful to hackers, industrial spies and terrorists than they are these departments of state looking to ensure national security (or watch for proletariat unrest. We're already pissed.)

And the private sector will always route around these backdoors, possibly by modding the client or offering new services that are still secure.

States should get used to disappointment. Investigation bureaus should prepare for going dark. Once upon a time they had to rely on detective work rather than asking Google whose phones were near the incident or what web-surfers were asking questions about the circumstances pre-hoc.

"Every house should break open a wall and build a door only to be used by the police whenever they want to. It will only be used for your protection ;)"

People host signal proxy for countries where it is banned already. The primary impact of this law is on non technical people and new users thinking to switch to.

Wherever a service with encryption exists any government in the world thinks they need to be the special child with the access to the contents.

E2E with privately generated and held keys, have you published your PGP public key yet?

As a sweed, I get really irritated at my country. We were also the ones who introduced chat control into the EU... I fear we're turning into the USA...

Then they get it through fdroid?

You can still download the APK from their repository, install it, and use signals built in censoring-evasion setting as far as I know.

They are even working on self updating app feature IIRC.

This is why I donate to signal. I know there are decentralized alternatives but I can barely get my family and friends to use Signal.

How does this even make sense? The criminals would just move to another platform like SimpleX or use a VPN.

Whole article in English:

The encrypted messaging app Signal is growing - now even the Swedish Armed Forces use it.

But the government wants to force the company to introduce a technical backdoor for the police and Säpo.

• “If this becomes a reality, we will leave Sweden,” says Signal's CEO Meredith Whittaker, in an exclusive interview with SVT.

If the government gets its way, the bill will be passed in the Riksdag as early as March next year.

The bill states that companies such as Signal and Whatsapp will be forced to store all messages sent using the apps. Leaving Sweden

Signal - which is run by a non-profit foundation - has now told SVT Nyheter that the company will leave Sweden if the bill becomes reality.

• “In practice, this means that we are being asked to break the encryption that is the basis of our entire business. Asking us to store data would undermine our entire architecture and we would never do that. We would rather leave the Swedish market completely,” says Signal's CEO Meredith Whittaker.

She says the bill would require Signal to install so-called backdoors in its software.

• “If you create a vulnerability based on Swedish wishes, it would create a path to undermine our entire network. Therefore, we would never introduce these backdoors.

But don't you have a responsibility as a supplier to support anti-crime efforts?

• Our responsibility is to provide technology that upholds human rights in an era where those rights are being violated in more and more places. In today's digital world, there are very few places where we can communicate privately or whistleblow. Armed forces critical

Whittaker cites the 2024 attack by the Chinese state actor Salt Typhoon on several internet service providers in the US, where text messages and phone calls were leaked. She argues that a Swedish backdoor would open up for the same thing.

• “There are no backdoors that only the good guys have access to.”

The aim of the bill is to allow the Security Service and the police to request the message history of criminal suspects after the fact. Both authorities were positive in the consultation.

• “The ability of law enforcement authorities to effectively access electronic communications is crucial,” said Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) earlier at a press conference.

But the Swedish Armed Forces are opposed and recently urged their personnel to start using Signal to reduce the risk of interception.

In a letter to the government, the Swedish Armed Forces wrote that the bill could not be implemented “without introducing vulnerabilities and backdoors that could be exploited by third parties”.

I did not expect this from Sweden.

Why swedes, why?

Before any politician asks for a backdoor into an encrypted service they should be required to explain Project Rubicon