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I’m surprised Sweden is going this route at all, considering they’ve touted being a privacy respecting country in the past. I suppose that gets enshitified at some point, too.
Well, we have a shitty police force that tries to do as little as possible. Easier to fuck shit up for regular people than actually bothering the criminals.
Well yeah, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
She talks a good game now, let’s hope she sticks with that stance after the bill is introduced.
I don’t believe a bill will be introduced.
The Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) have decided to standardize the use of the encrypted messaging app Signal for non-classified communications via mobile phones.
The Swedish military would likely have to reevaluate their use.
Frankly the military should re-evaluate.
As good as Signal is for the average non-technical person, organizations with resources would be far better served by hosting their own, using something like XMPP with encryption, with servers only permitting connection from their own compiled clients, run in a container on the phone, which have been available since at least 2010.
No business I’ve worked for would accept Signal as a solution, in part because you have little control over it.
It’s only for non classified information. Sweden has other encryption schemes for communication.
Still, they don’t control it. Which means support is a real problem.
They’re not even paying for a service, which would give you contractual commitments.
Sure, but it’s not like the security of the state is at stakes.
Wire (https://wire.com/) uses the same OTR / double-ratchet encryption primitives as Signal, but focuses more on self-hosting, and supporting organizations that want to self-host (for whatever reason).
I believe GNU Jami, well-deployed is capable of Signal’s level of security while being self-hosted.
I mean signal is used for non-secret non-sensitive communications.
It’s like hey we have a formation here at this time.
Hey we have inventories here.
It’s good enough for basic stuff. No one will be using signal for anything higher than unclassified.
Also phones are often not issued to soldiers so I doubt most are going to install a military related/developed app onto it.
SAF is really not happy about this. Most people in the military used and recommend Signal for most communication (both personal and non-confidential) until they standardized it, and most people I have contacted facepalmed at the proposal. Hopefully, the dipshit that got this stupid fucking idea (pardon my french) will meet the same storm of critisim as Ylva Johansson got.
Nato and some Swedish agencies already use Matrix, Försvarsmakten should help standardize.
I’d rather would like to put hope into that the bill will never be introduced.
Signal is maintained by a nonprofit foundation in California. They don’t have shareholders or profits to worry about, unlike Apple, Google, Meta, and the rest.
After all they’ve done to ensure their users’ privacy, I would be genuinely shocked if they capitulate to just this one country.
After all they’ve done to ensure their users’ privacy, I would be genuinely shocked if they capitulate to just this one country.
Of course they won’t.
The problem happens when other countries start following the precedent and too many of them make the same ask. There are parallel processes in the UK, and at the EU level.
Oh, definitely. That’s a danger even for decentralized social media, because once a legal precedent is set, going after smaller operators could become easier (especially if global leaders all decide to try).
My claim isn’t that it’s bulletproof, just that I don’t expect them to fold over a desire to keep their market share. That’s the beginning and end of it.
Everyone should always remain vigilant, especially since privacy isn’t a guarantee even among previously privacy-forward countries, anymore.
Their location is a pretty big problem given the direction the USA is going right now.
You’re not wrong. Hopefully that never becomes a problem, but it’s why nobody should ever take privacy for granted.
The signal logo is white not blue.
