Mark Dain bits.blogs.nytimes... -- I'm so numb to this I'm starting to not care. If the government passes this law, how can they realistically stop people from using encrypted chat programs?

Martijn Actually it wouldn't be to hard. Make it illegal to provide a certain service and then force the providers and the app stores to region lock the software or face fines. You have now stopped the majority of people from using encryption. The only people who are going to bother side loading a chat app are the same people who would use GPG anyway. I do wonder what this means for HTTPS? Websites will no longer be allowed to offer HTTPS to UK visitors?

Mark Dain That wouldn't affect desktops but with people buying iPads and Chromebooks to replace their computers, it seems we're heading towards trusted computing after all. Then all the nasty crypto can be outlawed. What a grim future.

Martijn The general public isn't using encrypted messaging on desktop anyway. It is basically Skype and Facebook chat everywhere I look, and those are both trivially accessed by a government.