cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47296462
For now, your encrypted messages have a lock on them.
Only you, and the person you’re talking to, hold the key. Not the app. Not the company. Not the government. You probably don’t think about it. That’s the whole point — it just works.
Until, possibly, the end of this summer. Every messaging app in Canada would be required to build a second key.
With Bill C-22, the government would hold the copy. The lock you trust would no longer be a lock only you can open. It would be a lock the locksmith was ordered to duplicate.
Find and email your MP here to voice your opinion.
I’m not super plugged into Canadian politics. But for our friends to the north, I really hope this won’t pass. Wasn’t a similar bill voted down in the EU recently? Chat Control? So maybe there is hope for Canada too?
It seems like it’s the same story everywhere.
Some gov: “We shall require identity verification! We shall require encryption backdoors!”
Randos: “Nah. We’ll VPN around that shit.”
Gov: “Holy shit! Randos are VPNing! We must ban VPN!”
Randos: “Holy shit! They’re banning VPN! We better find ways to circumvent that!”
Gov: “Holy shit! Randos are circumventing our VPN ban! We better improve our VPN detection and blocking!”
Randos: “Holy shit! They’re better at detecting VPN now… We better tunnel over HTTPS…”
Round and round. Unfortunately, once the pain gets too high, it CAN be effective. Some countries went very far down this road already. It isn’t like 100.0000% effective. But it doesn’t have to be. Raise the tech bar enough. Make the legal risks too great. Eventually most ppl will give in. A handful will be super determined. But most won’t.
If Canada is this shitty, then the US has been hacking citizens for years. I’m not sure why they continue with this bullshit. None of these govs ever respected any citizen’s privacy in the first place.