Apple suggests iMessage and FaceTime could be withdrawn in UK over law change
www.theguardian.com
US tech firm says giving government oversight of security changes could endanger encrypted products

Apple has said planned changes to British surveillance laws could affect iPhone users’ privacy by forcing it to withdraw security features, which could ultimately lead to the closure of services such as FaceTime and iMessage in the UK.

  • athlon@lemm.eeEnglish
    581·
    1 year ago

    Everyone commeting here saying “good, we will switch to X” is absolutely stupid. This law means no iMessage, no Signal, no WhatsApp, no Telegram, no secure encrypted messaging for anyone.

    • raesin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      181·
      1 year ago

      People completely missing the point for an opportunity to shit on Apple is on brand though. Lol.

      • athlon@lemm.eeEnglish
        151·
        1 year ago

        Oh I think there is hundreds reasons to shit on Apple, but this ain’t one of them.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Good luck enforcing that.

      Anyway the criminals are just going to switch to something else so this law is useless

      • athlon@lemm.eeEnglish
        8·
        1 year ago

        Great! If you’re technical and not have iOS. That’s already 50% of British market not using it.

        Besides, it won’t help you if that’s a government mandate, and Google will be forced to take it down for the UK market from the store. Not a lot of people are installing apps from outside the Play Store.

        • vd1n@lemmy.mlEnglish
          36·
          1 year ago

          Too bad if people arent willing to adapt. I guess you’ll just have to use paper notes and face to face contact, or whatever app your government makes. /S

    • Leraje@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Either that or an app that has been vetted by government stooges and given the thumbs up as its trivial for others to access the content on.

    • itchy_lizard@feddit.itEnglish
      89·
      1 year ago

      Bullshit. Open source distributed messaging clients will always exist. The key is to federate and host in other countries.

      • athlon@lemm.eeEnglish
        19·
        1 year ago

        Okay, try explaining it to my 51 years old father. Or someone who really isn’t into tech in general.

        Federated stuff will work for you and I - technically knowledgeable people. But we are a tiny fraction of population. The success of WhatsApp lays in its super simplicity.

        • itchy_lizard@feddit.itEnglish
          56·
          1 year ago

          Click this link, type email and password. Federated services are just as easy from UX side. The complexity is the backend.

          • athlon@lemm.eeEnglish
            131·
            1 year ago

            It seems easy, but the moment you ask the user to “choose their instance” - you already push away a lot of untechnical people. What is an instance? How do I know which one is good? Will I be able to talk to people on other instances (look at Lemmy, some instances are blocked by other instances)? Why do I even have to choose an instance?

            From an UX standpoint, that’s a disaster. Stuff like Lemmy or Mastodon will remain forever a niche, because of that.

            EDIT: Typo

            • itchy_lizard@feddit.itEnglish
              6·
              1 year ago

              Yeah, don’t tell your grandpa to pick an instance. Just link him straight to the registration page. Solved.

              Lemmy is the same. Facebook is the same. You don’t need to tell a user that their Facebook account is going to be shared by their geography. That doesn’t matter.

              Just link then to the registration page for the instance that you use. Easy.