Gareth Corfield
Fri, 24 February 2023
The Signal messaging app logo is seen on a smartphone - Dado Ruvic / Reuters
The encrypted messaging app Signal has threatened to shut down its service in Britain if the Government's controversial Online Safety Bill forces it to violate users' privacy.
Signal, which has around 40 million active users worldwide, would “absolutely, 100pc walk” if the bill goes ahead in its current form, according to company president Meredith Whittaker.
Critics claim that the Online Safety Bill, the government’s flagship internet regulation law, would force companies to break their own encryption so users' messages can be read.
When asked if the Bill would jeopardise Signal's ability to keep its users safe, Ms Whittaker told the BBC: “It could, and we would absolutely 100pc walk rather than ever undermine the trust that people place in us to provide a truly private means of communication.
“Encryption is either protecting everyone or it is broken for everyone.”
Signal and rival service WhatsApp use end-to-end encryption, which means only the sender and receiver of a message can read its contents.
This helps protect messages from hackers, business rivals and hostile foreign governments.
It also means police and other law enforcement bodies such as the National Crime Agency cannot break into suspects’ conversations and digitally eavesdrop on them to gather evidence.
Alan Woodward, a professor of computing at the University of Surrey, said: “By causing certain vendors to withdraw from the UK, the government could actually make the UK less safe for everyone.”
Opponents of encryption, including the Home Office, say that it provides a safe haven for criminals to hide their illicit activities from police.
Jake Moore, antivirus company ESET’s global cyber security advisor and a former constable with Devon and Cornwall Police’s cybercrimes unit, said: “Making ways to scan encrypted messages may sound like the best way to safeguard people but doing so will unfortunately give different bad actors [new] entry points.
“This will undermine the technology and see more companies remove themselves from the UK.”
The online safety bill is currently passing through Parliament. A Home Office spokesman claimed that it does not represent a ban on end-to-end encryption, adding that the draft law’s current wording only forces tech companies to break their encryption when “technically feasible”.
Privacy advocates say that once a digital “master key” is cut to unlock end-to-end encryption for police, technically adept hackers can copy that master key to gain the same level of access to everyone’s messages.
The head of WhatsApp previously also threatened to abandon Britain over fears that the Online Safety Bill would place its users at risk of increased harm online.
Will Cathcart
In December, Will Cathcart said: “The bill provides for technology notices requiring communication providers to take away end-to-end encryption – to break it.
“The hard reality is we offer a global product. It would be a very hard decision for us to make a change where 100pc of our users lower their security.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Child sexual abuse is a sickening crime, and it is vital that online predators are identified and brought to swift justice.
“That is why it’s important that technology companies make every effort to ensure that their platforms do not become a breeding ground for paedophiles.
“It is not a choice between privacy or child safety – we can and we must have both.”
Ms Whittaker said: “If the choice were between operating in the UK, while undermining our privacy promises, or pulling out of the UK, we would pull out of the UK.”
Ms Whittaker described the Government's plans as “magical thinking” and said: “You can have as many working groups and as many exploratory research grants as you want. It's never going to make two plus two equal five.”
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