Yes, but the ICO state:
The ICO considers encryption to be an ‘appropriate technical measure’, and in cases where data is lost or unlawfully accessed and encryption was not used, we may consider regulatory action. Encryption and data storage | ICO
Admittedly the context is to do with storage, but could be argued for transmitted data as well.
Signal is a non-profit service. I have no idea what data Meta/Facebook gathers.
AFAIK Meta/Facebook is still banned in China.
“Apple and the Chinese government have made an unusual arrangement to get around American laws. In China, Apple has ceded legal ownership of its customers’ data to Guizhou-Cloud Big Data , or GCBD, a company owned by the government of Guizhou Province, whose capital is Guiyang.”
“Chinese state employees physically manage the computers. Apple abandoned the encryption technology it used elsewhere after China would not allow it. And the digital keys that unlock information on those computers are stored in the data centers they’re meant to secure.”
New York Times. 05/17/21
Ah. There’s the difference, none of us use it on a Mac.
I use FaceTime regularly, nearly always on my Mac. I don’t have more problems with it than any other service I use (Zoom, Google Meet). I’ve even figured out how to do screen sharing reliably in FaceTime (finally!).
However, I am running the latest version of macOS and I have a decent cable connection, plus a MacStudio. I wonder if having a good internet connection to Apple’s servers may be a problem, too. Food for thought.
Finger problems, I meant routed, not touted!
Right. You said they were gaining nothing by being there and that Meta/Signal don’t charge. Even if they don’t charge, the platform obviously has value. If not, Meta wouldn’t have paid $19B. So they don’t charge and Meta paid $19B? Hmmm….
I know there are paid tiers for enterprise messaging, but access to those users obviously has some value (edit).
The Apple part of the question was a bit rhetorical. They obviously have a price, or else they wouldn’t have made provisions to enter the Chinese market.
During a call is going is fairly ok. But the call button often does respond to the trackpad click. It almost never responds to making a call after I’ve just come off a call. Hence I’m now looking for alternatives. Skype, Whatsapp and Signal are way better.
It’s a poor proposal because there are always messages that require encryption, which requires exception to this, for example trade secrets, industry communications, medical records, etc.
This act seems completely unenforceable and there will always be workarounds - the same ones used by the government to keep their messages encrypted.
I wonder what the reaction would be (from the public, from companies) if a government told car-makers:
Police sometimes need to stop a driver who doesn’t want to stop; this can lead to dangerous situations. Therefore, all cars must be able to be stopped remotely upon getting an authorized signal from the police. Only the police will be able to send the signal, and it will only be used in unusual circumstances to protect the public.
I mean…the tech already exists:
Device can remotely halt auto chases - ABC News.
I’m guessing it didn’t catch on, since that article is over a decade old, but the fact that GM thought it might be sane to build it in says a lot.
Apparently there’s a resurgence of the idea as well:
And of course depending on how you interpret this, something similar was part of an infrastructure bill last year:
Shhhhh, don’t give them any ideas