1y ago

Apple Suggest They Will Withdraw iMessage and FaceTime In UK If Law Changes Go Ahead

www.theguardian.com Apple suggests iMessage and FaceTime could be withdrawn in UK over law change

US tech firm says giving government oversight of security changes could endanger encrypted products

Apple has said planned changes to British surveillance laws could affect iPhone users’ privacy by forcing it to withdraw security features, which could ultimately lead to the closure of services such as FaceTime and iMessage in the UK.

Technology @lemmy.ml

Apple warns iMessage and FaceTime could be withdrawn in UK over law change

www.theguardian.com /technology/2023/jul/20/uk-surveillance-law-changes-could-force-apple-to-withdraw-security-features

50 8

59 comments

Everyone commeting here saying “good, we will switch to X” is absolutely stupid. This law means no iMessage, no Signal, no WhatsApp, no Telegram, no secure encrypted messaging for anyone.
- People completely missing the point for an opportunity to shit on Apple is on brand though. Lol.
  
  Oh I think there is hundreds reasons to shit on Apple, but this ain’t one of them.
- P2P! Direct to PC encryption!
  https://briarproject.org/
  https://tox.chat/
  
  Great! If you’re technical and not have iOS. That’s already 50% of British market not using it.
  Besides, it won’t help you if that’s a government mandate, and Google will be forced to take it down for the UK market from the store. Not a lot of people are installing apps from outside the Play Store.
  
  I don't believe Tox has had a security audit so be careful using it
- Either that or an app that has been vetted by government stooges and given the thumbs up as its trivial for others to access the content on.
- Good luck enforcing that.
  Anyway the criminals are just going to switch to something else so this law is useless
- Bullshit. Open source distributed messaging clients will always exist. The key is to federate and host in other countries.
  
  Okay, try explaining it to my 51 years old father. Or someone who really isn’t into tech in general.
  Federated stuff will work for you and I - technically knowledgeable people. But we are a tiny fraction of population. The success of WhatsApp lays in its super simplicity.

Good. Let's all move to signal
- Signal have already said they will withdraw completely from the UK, as have WhatsApp, Session and a few others.
  
  Lol UK losing WhatsApp. Yikes.
  
  If and when Signal is packaged for F-Droid, how is the British government going to stop people in the UK from using Signal?
  
  How will that prevent people from using them?
- No, move to something that's federated and not run by a corporation
- For real, wish I lived in the UK so I could get all my friends to adopt signal finally lol
  
  Signal will shut down too though lol

The UK cannot believe every tech company will allow the govt to pre-approve updates instead of just pulling out.
- I think you underestimate the deep stupidity and tech-ignorance of our politicians, coupled with their burning desire to know everything that we do. This is a set of people who think hidden == illegal.
  
  Unfortunately both big parties tend towards authoritarianism too. The 'nanny state' is popular with voters.
  
  This is a set of people who think hidden == illegal.
  This is a fundamental shift in mentality that has occurred over the last 30 years and it's startling how many average people have bought in. There doesn't need to be a reason for something to be legal, rather there needs to be a compelling reason for it not to be. People have stopped viewing freedom as fundamental right, but rather as something granted to them by the government on a case by case basis.
- No normal person would think every tech company would, but our politicians are bloody idiots if we go by their history
  
  Why do they not see that encryption can happen in any form of communication even if they do get their backdoors? Are they going to make all encryption illegal?

Do apple users in Europe actually use iMessage? I thought most users in the EU used Whatsapp or Signal
- All the Apple users I know routinely use iMessage and WhatsApp.
- Telegram or Facebook messenger/Instagram chat is what I see people use in Sweden
- They use it as a secondary service with couple of peoples, everyone is on WhatsApp.

As a 40yr old Android user... I live without these apps. Hell, I might have even used them once in history...

Apple's arrogance leads it to threaten to remove something that's neither unique nor actually cross-platform anyway.
- Did you even read the article? They are refusing to allow the British government to control the encryption standards used by the entire world. They are also not the only company to make this decision. Any company using E2EE will be affected.
  
  No one reads the articles. They just want to be outraged, not informed.
  
  People running their own (eg Matrix) servers outside the UK will be unaffected.

59 comments