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  • LiamTheBox@lemmy.mltoPrivacy@lemmy.ml•[SWE] Swedish government wants a back door in SignalEnglish
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    12 days ago

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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”.