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Signal to Ottawa: We'll Leave Canada Before We Help You Spy on Users
(www.iphoneincanada.ca)
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this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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Privacy
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The Canada-region app stores like Apple or Android would be unwilling to let you download the app if the law passes. So without sideloading, it just wouldn’t be accessible.
i'll never cease to be amazed how much sideloading has become synonymous with obscurity at best and app-death at the worst.
And by side loading you mean installing software on a device you own, like PCs have been forever. Side loading is a 100% bullshit term created by Apple and Google to try and make sure you don't think you actually own your devices
Ok, I'm on board. So like what do we call installing an app outside of a store?
Installing a downloaded application.
Installing for short
Installing an apk, installing directly, ...
As opposed to installing from Fdroid, from gplay, ...
You can also go by source, like with the stores. For example Signal android can be installed from their website (by downloading an apk).
It's not sideloading.
we called it installing in our days
installing and Installing^TM^ have become different things and the people who grew up on mobile devices never installed anything but they did Install^TM^ plenty.
Any reason Signal couldn't offer a web app client?
cuz they dont store msgs on a server. feature, not a bug
Web browsers have a local storage API.
Signal mentioned that their apps were best for security and a web browser had too many vulnerabilities that they couldn't guarantee.
They prefer to manage their own apps - a signal desktop app being one of them.
Am I the only one who has app store accounts for multiple regions?
But actually, if this happens (and it won’t, at least this time), the next bill to go through would have to be for the right to sideload. Because all of the politicians use Signal and would need a way to install it.
Or people could just install it from fdroid.
Oh wait, signal isn't FOSS so it isn't allowed on fdroid.
Molly is on fdroid I believe
Not the official repo...because they couldn't meet it's acceptance criteria. Which is a red flag
Yep and Molly is even better :)
I think it used to, but unfortunely Molly is not on Fdroid's repo. You can download it from the app, but you'd need to add Molly's repo
GrapheneOS frowns upon fdroid because of apk security reasons
And we frown upon grapheneOS because of numerous human concerns
I get it from FDroid via the Guardian repo. No issues.
Security issues. guardian repo has no acceptances criteria. Closed source blobs? Allowed.
what about Molly, then?
Molly is Foss, but it's not on fdroid for likely other sketchy reasons
Its on Accrescent though
You can import the repo into F-Droid.
...and make yourself less secure, sure