Signal's Warning: The UK's Phone Scanning Plan Just Got Real

Okay, so 2 days ago the UK government

made it official.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in yet

another desperate attempt to find

something popular to do, stood up at

London Tech Week and handed Apple and

Google

a 3-month ultimatum.

Do this voluntarily or we're going to

legislate. Now, if you watched my last

video on client-side scanning,

you'll know why a 3-month deadline

matters considerably more than it might

sound because we now have something we

didn't have before, a formal government

position, a public timeline,

something of a response from the

companies being asked to comply. I'll

show you those in a minute. And rather

notably, a very clear statement from a

company called Signal about what all

this actually means. So, if you can

spare me a few minutes, let's go through

it. Trust me, it's important.

So, here's what was officially announced

on the 8th of June. The government's

headline, and I'll put the official

gov.uk statement on the screen there.

Uh now, that's a direct quote from a

formal government announcement. So, it's

it's not a leaked document, it's not a

press rumor, it's official policy in

effect.

Now, the demand sounds specific. Apple

and Google must activate built-in

features or implement technical

solutions to detect and block nude

images for children. So, 3 months to do

this voluntarily. If they don't,

legislation fines.

And the Prime Minister added this, it's

important. Well, especially if you're a

tech boss. Nothing is off the table, and

as a last resort, we are exploring

criminal liability for bosses who fail

to comply. So, how have Apple and Google

responded to this? Well, Google gave the

BBC a statement.

Uh they said they were, and this is a

verbatim quote, which you can see on the

screen, "deeply committed to protecting

children online." And that they're

working constructively with UK partners

to find effective privacy preserving

solutions. You know, the usual stuff.

Not a yes, not a no. Say something like

constructively working. That buys a bit

of time. Now, Apple, as of this

recording, hasn't actually responded at

all, which is quite interesting. Because

Apple already runs something called

communication safety in the UK. It's

It's that feature I don't know if you

know about it that scans messages,

AirDrop, FaceTime, and photos for nudity

on children's accounts. I covered this

in my last video. Apple turned this on

quietly in March when they activated age

verification for 35 million UK iPhone

users without telling any of them. It's

still actually on my phone as I haven't

age verified. So, Apple already has the

tool the government is pointing to. The

question is whether what they've already

built is enough or whether the

government wants it expanded

considerably further. And this is

probably where Signal's response matters

a bit more, really.

Now, for anyone unfamiliar with them,

Signal is an encrypted messaging app,

completely free. I'll put it up on

screen there. And it's used by

journalists campaigners security

researchers, and anybody, really.

Privacy-conscious users, if you like.

Simply because it is built around

end-to-end encryption. So, when Signal

warns that a proposal undermines

encryption, it's worth paying attention

to. I mean, Apple and Google have to be

careful here. They're the companies

being pressured and targeted by the

government. So, their language is

naturally diplomatic. Signal is in a

different position.

They simply wrote, "Encryption is either

broken for everyone or it works for

everyone. There isn't a way to create a

safe backdoor."

And on client-side scanning, Signal has

called it a Faustian bargain that

nullifies the whole premise

of encryption. Now, sounds a little bit

dramatic, but the meaning is quite

simple. I mean, a Faustian bargain is

when you accept something that seems

worthwhile initially, but the hidden

cost is much greater than it first

appears. So, in this case, I suppose the

bargain is we keep the message encrypted

while it travels across the internet,

but we let the device look at the

content before.

So, technically, the encryption may

still exist. So,

the message may still be protected in

transit, but the whole promise of

private messaging has changed. The

privacy is gone because something on the

device has already looked at the content

before it was sent. And I think that's a

Signal's point. The government's

argument is

this is just to detect nudity and

protect children.

Signal's warning is once you build a

scanner into the device,

the difficult line's already been

crossed.

Um today, it may be looking for nudity.

Tomorrow, the pressure will probably be

to look for something else.

Now, I want to come back to that phrase

from the government announcement.

They said Britain will become the first

country in the world. I don't think this

is accidental.

When a government declares it will be

the first in the world to do something,

especially in the regulation or

surveillance space, and the UK has done

this several times now with various

parts of the online safety act,

it's of course partly a domestic

political message. Um

but partly something else entirely,

really. It's a signal to other

governments. Here's a template. Go and

use it. And that's a precedent that

matters. I mean, I covered Japan

recently. They're now looking at age

verification by mobile carrier data. Uh

Australia's moving on age gates now

after their social media ban. The EU is

watching all of this closely. And each

country that implements something like

this makes the next one easier to

justify politically. So, the UK isn't

just making a domestic policy here. It's

potentially setting a global precedent

for what governments can ask platforms

to do on device. So, practically, what

does this timeline look like? Well, the

3 months run from the 8th of June, which

takes us to approximately the beginning

of September.

Um before that point, Apple and Google

are going to need to demonstrate

voluntary compliance or face the

legislation that's reportedly already

being drafted. Um I What's less clear,

and I think this is probably an

important gap in the government's

announcement, is what compliance

actually means.

They say uh companies must activate

built-in features or implement technical

solutions. I mean, that's a bit vague.

It's quite a wide definition. I mean,

Apple's communication safety already

exists.

Uh whether the government will accept

that as sufficient or whether they want

extended beyond child accounts to all

under-18 devices,

uh now or across all apps, including

third-party ones, they haven't really

said yet.

And that gap is where the difficult

technical and legal arguments are going

to happen over the next few months.

So, if you're in the UK, what can you do

if you're against this? Well, you could

contact your MP. Legislation is being

drafted now, so that window, while

things are still being written, is

probably the best moment when public

pressure has the most effect. Uh there

are um sites like the Open Rights Group

and Big Brother Watch, to name two, who

are both very active on this. I'll put a

link below. They've even got easy

templates for what to write if you want

to do that.

Second, Signal. Well, specifically,

really. Signal is end-to-end encrypted,

and they've been unambiguous about what

they will and won't implement. They

would, in their own words, rather stop

operating in the UK than undermine their

mission. So, if they do walk away from

the UK market rather than comply,

and I think that's a real possibility,

that will be one of the clearest signals

we've had about how serious this

infrastructure question actually is. And

third, just talk about it, share it. The

framing of protecting children from nude

images is deliberately chosen so you

can't argue against it. Nobody is going

to publicly push back on protecting

children, but the method they're going

to use to achieve that goal is an

entirely separate conversation from the

goal itself. People should understand

that gap.

Now, I'll keep this covering this as the

3-month window runs. The September

deadline, as I said, is the next real

checkpoint.

You could watch for whether Apple

announces anything, whether the

government clarifies

what compliance actually means.

And I'll keep you up to date with that.

So, thanks very much for watching. Stay

safe, stay private, and I will hopefully

see you in the next video. If you've

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