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by atoav 1018 days ago
No. The problem is that as a messenger company you have to comply with different markets at the same time. If the biggest market (the EU) would punish you for breaching privacy and a small market (the UK) wants to punish you for the polar opposite you can either:

- develope a seperate app for that small market and break that promise (and have the headache of figuring out just how to treat communications that cross the border of those two markets)

- choose the bigger market, retreat from the smaller one and let the small market decide if they really want their special deviating regulation if it now means: "Those politicians took your messenger away" and there is no EU-buerocrat that you can blame for it.

Notice how this doesn't even require any particularly strong political stance by the messenger organisation? The latter just makes more sense from the standpoint of an organization that cares about it's use of resources.
2 comments
nonethewiser 1018 days ago
> No. The problem is that as a messenger company you have to comply with different markets at the same time.

Well then you could technically say they can't keep the keys private then, since some places force them to share. It's definitely a "can but wont" scenario.

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ethbr1 1018 days ago
> (and have the headache of figuring out just how to treat communications that cross the border of those two markets)

You could also ban the ability for UK citizens to have chats with EU citizens, which I imagine some of the kookier UK conservatives would love.

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atoav 1018 days ago
You could do that, but then you cut a whole mode of interaction between e.g. UK parents and their kids who study or live on the continent.

Either way this is a measure that (like many conservative talking points) sounds good on paper ("law and order"), but once it becomes reality it won't win you any prices, except negative ones.

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