"We will not walk back" – Signal would rather leave the UK and Sweden than remove encryption protections

From the UK to Sweden, encrypted communications are increasingly under attack as authorities seek ways to better monitor people's chats to combat crime. Signal, one of the best encrypted messaging apps, however, isn't willing to compromise its privacy and security.

"Signal's position on this is very clear – we will not walk back, adulterate, or otherwise perturb the robust privacy and security guarantees that people depend on," said Signal President Meredith Whittaker during a panel at RightsCon 25 conference on Tuesday, February 25.

"Whether that perturbation or backdoor is called client-side scanning or the stripping of the encryption protections from one or another features similar to what Apple was pushed into doing in the UK," she added.

Whittaker's comments come days after Apple was forced to kill its iCloud's end-to-end encryption feature in the ...