Overview
- Signal, which issued its warning Thursday, said it would leave Canada rather than weaken end-to-end encryption or break its privacy promises to users.
- Bill C-22 would require telecom and internet providers to retool systems to meet surveillance orders, with future rules that could make certain “core providers” store metadata for up to a year.
- Metadata under the plan could include which phone numbers contacted each other and location details, creating maps of relationships and movements that attackers could target.
- Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree called the bill encryption-neutral, and his office said it would not force companies to install surveillance capabilities.
- Reporting says the bill could permit secret orders to weaken encryption, and Apple, Meta, and VPN provider Windscribe warned it could compel backdoors or logging that harms user security.