The U.K. Parliament is pushing ahead with a sprawling internet regulation bill that will, among other things, undermine the privacy of people around the world. The Online Safety Bill, now at the final stage before passage in the House of Lords, gives the British government the ability to force backdoors into messaging services, which will destroy end-to-end encryption. No amendments have been accepted that would mitigate the bill’s most dangerous elements. If it passes, the Online Safety Bill will be a huge step backwards for global privacy, and democracy itself.

The U.K. Government Is Very Close To Eroding Encryption Worldwide::The U.K. Parliament is pushing ahead with a sprawling internet regulation bill that will, among other things, undermine the privacy of people around the world. The Online Safety Bill, now at the final stage before passage in the House of Lords, gives the British government the ability to force backdoors into messaging services, which will destroy end-to-end encryption. No

  • skepticalifornia@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    All of these providers need to cease operating in the UK - it makes no sense to compromise security for the rest of the world just because one country wants to make it easier to spy on citizens.

    • EsotericEmbryo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      I believe this is the plan for most of them. I know Signal messenger has said as much and Im sure Telegram and even Whatsapp (lol at the idea of whatsapp being secure) wont stick around either. Seems like the easiest way to solve this problem. The downside is, once this passes the USA and other countries are bound to follow suit. Especially Australia’s spying ass, if they havent passed something like this already.

      • Nioxic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        But there are privacy risks. This wont go in a lot of places.

        Non encrypted data and GDPR is a bad combination…

  • Gray@lemmy.caEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    All it’s going to take is one scandal for these bullshit bills to cause overwhelming outrage that’ll lead to lost elections. These old fucks are so out of touch with modern tech. It’s a joke that they’re in charge of regulating things like encryption. I can’t wait until a generation of people that grew up with the internet ages into these legislative positions.

    • EsotericEmbryo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      It will not be any better by then. In fact it will probably worse when they do have a solid understanding of the internet and the infastructure behind it they will be able to use it to our disadvantage even more than they already are.

  • Doherz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Honestly I hope WhatsApp (yeah I know Meta are date harvester extraordinares) pull out the second this passes.

    WhatsApp is by far the largest messaging service used in the UK. Every company I’ve worked for in the last five years makes extensive use of group WhatsApps. Same with all my friends and family too.

    The public outcry at that loss would potentially be enough to sway politicians away from such BS. Anything short of WhatsApp going and the British public won’t be technologically literate enough to give a fuck.

  • veloxy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    UK really seems to want to close themselves off from the world. Sounds like an immense amount of work for something that can never be truly effective, the ones who want to keep their communication secure will always find a way.