Three of the biggest names in privacy say they would rather leave Canada than comply with a new surveillance bill. Signal, DuckDuckGo, and NordVPN have all warned they could pull their services if Bill C-22 passes in its current form.
The bill, officially titled the Lawful Access Act, 2026, would force digital service providers to retain certain user metadata for up to a year and hand it over to authorities when lawfully required.
Critics say that requirement turns private apps into a surveillance network. Reddit users were quick to share their thoughts on Canada’s new surveillance bill.
Why NordVPN, Signal, and Others Want Out
Signal executive Udbhav Tiwari told Canadian lawmakers the bill would “force us to rewrite our code, dismantle our robust privacy architectures and design surveillance into our systems.”
He warned the powers are broad enough to compel Signal to “silently create hidden accounts and slip them into private group conversations,” and said the company would rather pull out of the country than break its privacy promises.
DuckDuckGo confirmed it would remove its VPN from Canada if the law passes as written, and NordVPN raised the same concern.
Security firm Tailscale put the risk plainly: “Once a law requires a company to retain more metadata, the company now has a new database. The safest database is the one you never created.” Every stored database of metadata has to be secured and maintained, which makes it a honeypot for hackers.
The Backdoor Debate
Police argue lawful access helps investigators locate missing children and track extremist threats. Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree says the bill will be amended so providers are not forced to break encryption, but critics counter that mandatory retention still introduces real risks.
Hide Your Digital Fingerprint
As Tiwari put it, a “backdoor for the good guys” is “simply a vulnerability waiting for the bad guys to find it.”
Final Thoughts from Troy
When companies like Signal say they would abandon an entire country rather than store a year of metadata, that tells you how much weight this one rule carries. We’ve seen this fight before, when Apple beat back a similar UK push to backdoor iCloud last year.
Anyone who values their privacy online should use a reliable VPN to keep their data their own, no matter how the vote lands.
For more information on this story refer to the official Bill C-22 and the report from Cybernews.
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