Canada’s online – As Canada debates Bill C-22, Apple and Google are pushing for changes they say would preserve encryption and prevent secret orders from undermining transparency. The companies argue the bill’s enforcement approach could pressure tech firms into handing over da
Canadian lawmakers are weighing an online safety bill that carries a familiar tension for the tech world: how far governments can go to reach encrypted data, and what happens when companies simply can’t open the lock.
The bill in question is C-22, being debated in the House of Commons. It is intended, in part, to give law enforcement access to encrypted data. In public remarks as the legislation moved through debate. Apple and Google made a blunt case for judicial oversight and specific protections for encryption.
Apple’s position starts with a simple technical reality. The bill does not explicitly require companies to build encryption backdoors. but it also does not spell out how companies are expected to hand over encrypted information in the first place. If a request comes for data protected by Apple’s end-to-end encryption. Apple says it cannot provide that data because it does not hold the key.
That argument landed in the room with a warning about transparency. Google’s director for government affairs and public policy in Canada. Jeanette Patell. said the bill could allow officials to request data through secret orders. She warned that such orders could “severely restrict companies’ ability to be transparent with users about how their data is protected.”.
Apple took the floor next through Erik Neuenschwander, Apple’s senior director for user privacy and child safety. A representative asked whether Apple would leave Canada if the government required the company to build a backdoor.
Neuenschwander declined to make a hypothetical threat. “I can’t speculate what would happen in that situation,” he said. He added that the point of Apple’s engagement was to shape what the bill becomes: “Through this engagement and the continued dialogue. we hope to have positive amendments made to the bill.”.
There’s an added pressure point behind Apple’s stance. The company has already shown it is willing to pull back features in response to government backdoor demands—after it had to remove safety features in the UK when regulators pushed for backdoor access.
All of this is now tied to what happens next. If C-22 passes as it currently stands. it may be some time before Apple. Google. or Meta are directly confronted about encrypted data. When that moment comes. the question won’t be only whether the law demands something—it’s whether it expects companies to do something they can’t do. and whether the public will ever be told how their protections are affected.
Canada online safety bill C-22 encryption Apple Google judicial oversight end-to-end encryption law enforcement access secret orders privacy user data
So wait they want companies to just magically decrypt stuff? That’s not how encryption works lol.
This sounds like one of those bills where they say “transparency” but then it’s secret orders. Like how is that not the opposite.
Apple and Google keeping “locks” is convenient but also… don’t they already work with police sometimes? I saw something about warrants before. Also Canada is basically asking for backdoors, like they don’t even hide it, they’re just calling it oversight.
I don’t get why everyone is freaking out like the government is going to read everyone’s messages. If they’re doing it for child safety or whatever then fine, but the “secret orders” part is sketchy. And isn’t Meta already doing whatever anyway? Not sure, just sounds like politicians trying to control tech.