Apple threatens to pull iMessage and FaceTime from UK

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Content source

https://www.neowin.net/news/apple-threatens-to-pull-imessage-and-facetime-from-uk/

Apple has threatened to remove popular communication services from the UK market if the government carries out planned amendments to the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016. The company says it will remove iMessage and FaceTime from the UK instead of weakening their security.

Under adjustments to the law, tech companies would be forced to show the Home Office any security features and have them approved before releasing them to the public. If the Home Office doesn’t like the feature, it can make the company disable the security feature in question immediately, without telling the public.

According to the BBC, the Home Office already has these powers but there has to be a review and there can be an independent oversight process. Tech firms also have the ability to make an appeal before they make any change.

Under the adjustments to the law, tech companies would have to disable the features right away. In its current state, there is still a high level of secrecy around demands made by the Home Office and it’s not known how many have been issued or complied with.

Apple has listed to following comments about the proposed amendments:

• It would not make changes to security features specifically for one country that would weaken a product for all users.
• Some changes would require issuing a software update so could not be made secretly
• The proposals "constitute a serious and direct threat to data security and information privacy" that would affect people outside the UK

If the law does go ahead, it’ll be interesting to see whether Apple really follows up on its threats to pull out of the UK. Its blue-bubble iMessage feature is regularly held up as a soft power tactic Apple uses to shame younger, more impressionable people, into using an iPhone over an Android phone.

Apple threatens to pull iMessage and FaceTime from UK

Apple could pull iMessage and FaceTime from the UK if the government passes new measures. Under changes to law, Apple would be forced to disable security features without telling users.

www.neowin.net

 

[Brahman]

Apple threatens to pull iMessage and FaceTime from UK

Apple could pull iMessage and FaceTime from the UK if the government passes new measures. Under changes to law, Apple would be forced to disable security features without telling users.

www.neowin.net

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”

 

[nicolaasjan]

I just mailed to my sister about this (her daughter lives in the UK).

She replied:

We now video call via WhatsApp, that will continue right? In the beginning we did it via FaceTime.

My reply:

That remains to be seen...:

WhatsApp says it will leave the UK rather than weaken encryption under Online Safety Bill

WhatsApp could disappear from UK over privacy concerns, ministers told

 

[vtqhtr413]

It was difficult to maintain a poker face when the leader of a big US tech firm I was chatting with said there was a definite tipping point at which the firm would exit the UK. I could see my own surprise mirrored on the faces of the other people in the room - many of whom worked there. They hadn't heard this before either, one told me afterwards. I can't tell you who it was but it's a brand you would probably recognize. I've been doing this job for long enough to recognize a petulant tech ego when I meet one.

From Big Tech, there's often big talk. But this felt different. It reflected a sentiment I have been hearing quite loudly of late, from this lucrative and powerful US-based sector. Many of these companies are increasingly fed up. Their "tipping point" is UK regulation - and it's coming at them thick and fast. The Online Safety Bill is due to pass in the autumn. Aimed at protecting children, it lays down strict rules around policing social media content, with high financial penalties and prison time for individual tech execs if the firms fail to comply.

One clause that has proved particularly controversial is a proposal that encrypted messages, which includes those sent on WhatsApp, can be read and handed over to law enforcement by the platforms they are sent on, if there is deemed to be a national security or child protection risk. The NSPCC children's charity has described encrypted messaging apps as the "front line" of where child abuse images are shared, but it is also seen as an essential security tool for activists, journalists and politicians.

Why US tech giants are threatening to quit the UK

Some tech giants feel they might have reached a "tipping point" due to new legislation.

www.bbc.com

 

[nicolaasjan]

UK pulls back from clash with Big Tech over private messaging | Financial Times

Ministers will not immediately enforce online safety bill powers to scan apps after WhatsApp threatened shutdown

www.ft.com

 

[nicolaasjan]

UK has not backed down in tech encryption row, minister says

Britain will require social media companies to take action to stop child abuse on their platforms, and if necessary work to develop technology to scan encrypted messages as a last resort, technology minister Michelle Donelan said on Thursday.

www.reuters.com

Platforms including Meta's WhatsApp and Signal have been fighting Britain's Online Safety Bill, which is currently being scrutinised by lawmakers, because they say it could threaten the end-to-end encryption that underpins their messaging services.

Junior minister Stephen Parkinson appeared to concede ground to the tech companies' arguments on Wednesday, saying in parliament's upper chamber that the Ofcom communications regulator would only require them to scan content where "technically feasible".

Tech companies have said scanning messages and end-to-end encryption are fundamentally incompatible.

Donelan, however, denied on Thursday that the bill had been watered down in the final stages before it becomes law.

"We haven't changed the bill at all," she told Times Radio.

"If there was a situation where the mitigations that the social media providers are taking are not enough, and if after further work with the regulator they still can't demonstrate that they can meet the requirements within the bill, then the conversation about technology around encryption takes place," she said.

She said further work to develop the technology was needed, but added that government-funded research had shown it was possible.

 

[nicolaasjan]

British Parliament approves controversial Online Safety Bill

Britain makes internet safer, as Online Safety Bill finished and ready to become law

Online Safety Bill passes its final Parliamentary debate and is now ready to become law.

www.gov.uk

Ofcom welcomes the Online Safety Bill passing final stage in parliament

The Online Safety Bill has now passed all its parliamentary stages and will soon achieve Royal Assent, meaning it will then become law. At that point, Ofcom will formally take on our role as the regulator for online safety.

www.ofcom.org.uk

Today The UK Parliament Undermined The Privacy, Security, And Freedom Of All Internet Users

The U.K. Parliament has passed the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which says it will make the U.K. “the safest place” in the world to be online. In reality, the OSB will lead to a much more censored, locked-down internet for British users. The bill could empower the government to undermine not just...

www.eff.org