Comment on the UK Gov Proposal to Ban “Bespoke” “Sophisticated” Encrypted Phones
There are some good arguments in here, but I think it misses the broader picture.<p>Clearly someone at GCHQ has told the UK government that if they want to ban secure apps like Signal, they first need to get the apps taken out of the app stores, then they need to mandate that phone OSes don&#x27;t allow side-loading, then finally they need to ban &quot;bespoke&quot; phones, i.e. ones that allow general purpose computing.<p>Not only Stallman[0], but Doctorow[1] was right too.<p>After implementing this, they&#x27;ll do the same for desktops, using something like Apple&#x27;s Gatekeeper software[2].  Linux distros will gain support for this using &quot;Secure Boot&quot; and something like systemd-censord, which Microsoft might get Lennart to implement for them.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gnu.org&#x2F;philosophy&#x2F;right-to-read.en.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gnu.org&#x2F;philosophy&#x2F;right-to-read.en.html</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;boingboing.net&#x2F;2012&#x2F;01&#x2F;10&#x2F;lockdown.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;boingboing.net&#x2F;2012&#x2F;01&#x2F;10&#x2F;lockdown.html</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.apple.com&#x2F;en-gb&#x2F;guide&#x2F;security&#x2F;sec5599b66df&#x2F;web" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.apple.com&#x2F;en-gb&#x2F;guide&#x2F;security&#x2F;sec5599b66df&#x2F;...</a>