Signal Says it Might Exit Canada if Forced to Comply with Lawful Access Bill
Privacy messaging app Signal has said it may exit Canada if forced to comply with the countrys proposed lawful access bill, which would require companies to build technical surveillance capabilities that some argue could threaten end-to-end encryption. In an interview with Canadian news outlet The Globe and Mail on Thursday, Signals vice president of strategy and global affairs, Udbhav Tiwari, argued that the bill could and leave private messaging services vulnerable to potential cyberattacks. Bill C-22 is part of a regulatory package introduced in March. It would require electronic service providers to build surveillance capabilities and retain certain user metadata for up to a year as part of a broader push to help law enforcement such as terrorism and child exploitation. Some have the bill because of its implications for user privacy, echoing concerns of the EUs controversial chat control proposal, which posed threats to encryption by pushing for client-side scanning of private messages. In an X on Thursday, Canadian Conservative Party Member of Parliament Jacob Mantle claimed that “every member of Parliament in the country” uses Signal primarily for its safety and privacy features, arguing that the bill would contradict that and allow the government to read everyones messages. Tiwari the firm “would rather
