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Signal boss warns app will exit Australia if forced to hand over users’ encrypted messages (www.theaustralian.com.au)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone
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Signal president Meredith Whittaker is prepared to withdraw the privacy-focused messaging app from Australia — saying she hopes it doesn’t become a “gangrenous foot” by poisoning its entire platform by forcing it to hand over its users’ encrypted data to authorities.

Ms Whittaker says Signal would take the “drastic step” of leaving any market where a government compelled it to create a “backdoor” to access its data, saying it would create a vulnerability that hackers and authoritative regimes could exploit, undermining Signals’ “reason for existing”.

Pressure has been mounting on Signal and other secure messaging platforms. ASIO director general Mike Burgess has urged tech companies to unlock encrypted messages to assist terrorism and national security investigations, saying offshore extremists use such platforms to communicate.

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[-] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago

To the ASIO chief claiming that they need this to monitor terrorism I would answer that legislation has already made it illegal to not unlock your phone if you are presented with a 'data access order' - which police can obtain from a judge. Their claim of 'but terrorists' falls apart when they are free to surveil suspected terrorists in 1000 other ways and can then arrest them with very loose suspicions, hold their phone while they obtain a data access order, and then force them to unlock it and see all the Signal chat data and groups they're in. If you don't unlock your phone it's fines or 2 years in jail.

So they don't need to have a backdoor into Signal or any other E2E encrypted chat to 'stop terrorism'. It's just a wishlist item because they're jealous that they can't hoover up everyone's chats to datamine any more.

[-] TeraByteMarx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 15 hours ago

Remember when they radicalised that extremely autistic and socially isolated teenager? And by radicalised I guess I mean groomed.

this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2025
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