Encrypted backup violates GDPR's right to data portability

[sorsasampo]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
• This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

GDPR article 20 Right to data portability, emphasis mine:

The data subject shall have the right to receive the personal data concerning him or her, which he or she has provided to a controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from the controller to which the personal data have been provided

Recently Signal android app stopped offering SignalPlainTextBackup.xml. Currently only an encrypted backup can be done, and there are no clear instructions how to extract the plaintext messages. This is a clear violation of GDPR article 20.

Signal app should provide, or prominently document, a way to extract plaintext messages from the device, to honor the right to data portability.

[igor2x]

According to new rules for bug reporting, this issue is not a bug, because it violates the rule "If you disagree with the way that a feature is working that's not a bug". And another problem is this GDPR is not related to Signal-Android alone, but whole Signal project, so the issue also violates the "If you feel like you are unable to make an idea fit within the confines of the template, that might be a sign that you are about to submit something that isn't a bug."

@sorsasampo, I am not saying that your ideas are not good (there actually are), but for this kind of issues it should not be opened a bug report.

May I kindly suggest this issue to be closed down as bug report and continue discussion on community forum.

• Clear text export is discussed in topic: Lets talk about backups
• GDPR is discussed in topic: Europe implements GDPR in may 2018
  and answer from Signal official is in Is there such a thing as “terms of service”?