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Tuesday, 9 June 2026

Signal



Anne-Laure Dufeal has a Brussels Signal piece on the UK move to implement the technical and regulatory framework of a mass surveillance system under the guise of child safety. 

We've known about this for some time of course, but the point is worth making over and over again until we can't make it.


Signal accuses UK of creating a mass surveillance system under the guise of child safety

The company criticised the proposals, warning that they could have far-reaching implications for privacy and civil liberties.

Following UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s call for tech companies to introduce device-level controls, the messaging platform Signal has accused the UK government of laying the groundwork for a “mass surveillance system” under the guise of child protection...

“The UK government’s demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the UK be scanned on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification and content scanning, will not safeguard children”, Signal warned in a statement.

“It endangers us all, whilst strengthening Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s market dominance and their control over our most personal information”, the company added.



The UK government will probably be comfortable with strengthening Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s market dominance. It only has to hold "discussions" with those three.

2 comments:

DiscoveredJoys said...

If only we could send messages that autodeleted themselves after an hour. Although I suspect that some politicians might choose to do this, or possibly exempt their devices from being scanned.

A K Haart said...

DJ - if politicians and influential people realise their level of personal privacy could become compromised, then they are bound to exempt their devices from being scanned. Two tier phones.