• Canada vows to amend Bill C-22 to better define encryption, metadata rules

• The move follows massive backlash from Big Tech and privacy tech firms

• Public Safety Minister remains firm that the legislation “needs to happen”

  • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    If you can, send a email to voice your opinion regarding bill C-22.

    If you oppose this bill you can. Use the follow template as a start.

    Email: [email protected]

    Subject: Say NO to Bill C-22!

    Hello Gary Anandasangaree

    I’m writing to ask you to oppose Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act, and call on the government to withdraw it entirely.

    Bill C-22 would require internet providers, messaging platforms, and cloud services to build and maintain surveillance capabilities inside their own systems — capabilities that create serious security risks for every Canadian. We already know what happens when governments mandate these backdoors: state-backed Chinese hackers exploited similar loopholes in the United States in 2024’s Salt Typhoon attack, compromising millions of people’s private communications.

    C-22 doesn’t just replicate those vulnerabilities: it greatly expands them. It would compromise a much wider range of digital services. And it does something that compromises everyone’s safety and protection privacy both online and in-person further: companies would be forced to store a full year of metadata about every Canadian — records of where we go, who we contact, and when we did it — without us ever having been under investigation. Everything from which family members you talked to, conversations with your therapist, if you talked with your lawyer potentially exposing what you discussed.

    The limited safeguards C-22 contains are both overly narrow, and are compromised by a clause that lets future governments reinterpret basic terms like “encryption” and “systemic vulnerability” by future regulations, with no parliamentary debate required. That means the very limited protections in this bill are only as strong as the government decides they are, on any given day.

    Bill C-22 cannot pass in its current form. Please join me in calling on the government to withdraw it in full.

    Sincerely, Your name here Your address here with postal code

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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      13 hours ago

      Signing with your name and address is actually important. They don’t pay attention to mail without identity info.