[cottonnick]

Apparently, the way the OSB limits things is by preventing big tech companies from providing useful encrypted messaging services to UK citizens. These duties of care are aimed at preventing users from communicating illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material.

So, we've realized that the government has the power to access those chat histories even when they are encrypted by service providers like Signal, WhatsApp, Element, and Session (these companies have already been spied on by multiple governments).

I personally doubt that the government's intention was only to limit illegal communication. I think there are other intentions:

1. To spy on powerful entities/companies, so the government becomes the sole authority ruling the country and establishing a monopoly.
2. To spy on their citizens, detect their interests, manipulate the media, and control citizens' minds.

I can only think of these two possibilities, and to answer my own question, the OSB is making us more vulnerable online for sure.

[cottonnick]

These tech companies that I mentioned above are being investigated and controlled by the OSB because they operate in a centralized manner.
Trust me, they will eventually comply with the Bill to enter the market for their own benefit. While they claim our messages are encrypted, the truth is that since messages are stored centrally on a central server, their developers can decrypt and save chat histories, photos, files, etc. This allows the government access to detailed user content.

To be honest, I think the OSB is just an excuse for the UK government in case their dealings with big tech companies are exposed. Data leaks are easier for people to detect, and online privacy concerns are at an all-time high.

The only way to avoid these types of issues is to use services that operate on a peer-to-peer decentralized network because they are inherently resistant to censorship. All messages are sent directly between peers and stored distributed on users' local devices, eliminating the need for a central server to store data. This makes it difficult for the government to conduct investigations.

[Negotiator]

Its of course dangerous, but what else would you expect from our politicians ?

Right now almost every politicians here in the west is corrupt and incompetent.

[MistyTiger]

Online Safety? It doesn't exist. Once you do a lot of business online, you open yourself up to risk and danger. It's safer not to have an online presence actually. It's just unavoidable though.

[Puffer Fish]

There are trade-offs. Public safety and better being able to fight crime, versus civil liberties concerns.
When government officials are handed huge amounts of spying powers, there will inevitably be abuses that occur.

This should be totally obvious for anyone who knows how things in more totalitarian countries work.
Or the U.S. history with the CIA.

If we think about two of the most totalitarian countries in history, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin, the government made it illegal to do many what would be considered rather ordinary things without forking over information to the government about doing those things. The classic example was that even to travel within the country, you needed to show paperwork at checkpoints.

Many on the Left seem to be oblivious what is wrong with that, or how this information can be used for things that are not good.

Germans had a memory of living under the Stassi (East German secret police) so it was clear in their minds why things like this were bad. But now the generation of Germans who lived through those times are beginning to die off.
As the saying goes, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

[Negotiator]

No there are no trade-offs. Making encryption illegal is simply idiotic, and will do damage, at no benefit.

Its on the same intellectual level as the law here in Germany that outlaws hacker tools. Correspondingly, Germany is now an easy target for hackers. Because all the knowhow is lacking. Those who still have it cant teach it, those who dont have it cannot gain it. Couldnt make this bullshit up if I tried.