(April 25, 2023)
WhatsApp and Signal, two of the largest privacy-focused messaging apps, have joined forces to petition against the United Kingdom’s proposed Online Safety Bill due to privacy concerns. They are accompanied in this effort by several other smaller privacy apps, such as Viber and Wire, who have signed on to an open letter directed to UK legislators.
(21.04.2023)
Mehrere Kinderschutzverbände haben nach einer Sachverständigenanhörung zum Thema Chatkontrolle im Digitalausschuss des Deutschen Bundestages eine Stellungnahme veröffentlicht. Unter ihnen sind die schon in der Zensursula-Debatte für Websperren werbenden Organisationen „Innocence in Danger“ und das „Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk“.
(18.04.2023)
Es könne kein „britisches Internet“ oder eine Version der Ende-zu-Ende-Verschlüsselung geben, die speziell auf das Vereinigte Königreich zugeschnitten ist. Die britische Regierung müsse das Gesetz deswegen dringend überarbeiten.
Der offene Brief enthält keine Ankündigung, was die Messenger machen würden, sollte die britische Regierung den Forderungen nicht nachkommen. In der Vergangenheit hatten aber einzelne Messenger-Anbieter aufgezeigt, in welche Richtung ihre Reaktion gehen würde. So will Threema es auf einen Rausschmiss ankommen lassen, und WhatsApp hatte einen Rückzug aus Großbritannien ins Spiel gebracht.
(18.04.2023)
Global providers of end-to-end encrypted products and services cannot weaken the security of their products and services to suit individual governments. There cannot be a “British internet,” or a version of end-to-end encryption that is specific to the UK.
The UK Government must urgently rethink the Bill, revising it to encourage companies to offer more privacy and security to its residents, not less. Weakening encryption, undermining privacy, and introducing the mass surveillance of people’s private communications is not the way forward.
Signed by those who care about keeping our conversations secure:
Matthew Hodgson, CEO, Element
Alex Linton, Director, OPTF/Session
Meredith Whittaker, President, Signal
Martin Blatter, CEO, Threema
Ofir Eyal, CEO, Viber
Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp at Meta
Alan Duric, CTO, Wire
We connect people, no matter who they are or where they are from.
Make calls, send messages and much more – freely and securely.
(21.1.2015) He changed his password, alerted his friend, and stopped using Facebook Messenger — but the intrusions kept coming.
In another instance, Moosa noticed that someone posing as him solicited his female Facebook friends for sex — part of an effort, it seemed, to blackmail or perhaps defame him in Bahrain’s conservative media. Facebook was only the beginning. Unbeknownst to him, Moosa’s phone and computer had been infected with a highly sophisticated piece of spyware, built and sold in secret. The implant effectively commandeered his digital existence, collecting everything he did or said online.