Chat Control Is Back On The Menu In The EU. It Still Must Be Stopped
The European Union Council isonce again debatingits controversial message scanning proposal, aka Chat Control," that would lead to the scanning of private conversations of billions of people.
Chat Control, which EFFhas strongly opposedsince it wasfirst introducedin 2022, keeps being mildly tweaked and pushed by one Council presidency after another.
Chat Control is a dangerous legislative proposal that would make it mandatory for service providers, including end-to-end encrypted communication and storage services, to scan all communications and files to detect abusive material." This would happen through a method called client-side scanning, which scans for specific content on a device before it's sent. In practice, Chat Control is chat surveillance and functions by having access to everything on a device with indiscriminate monitoring of everything. In a memo, the Danish Presidencyclaimed this does not break end-to-end encryption.
This is absurd.
We have written extensivelythat client-side scanning fundamentally undermines end-to-end encryption, and obliterates our right to private spaces. If the government has access to one of the ends" of an end-to-end encrypted communication, that communication is no longer safe and secure. Pursuing this approach is dangerous for everyone, but is especially perilous for journalists, whistleblowers, activists, lawyers, and human rights workers.
If passed, Chat Control would undermine the privacy promises of end-to-end encrypted communication tools, like Signal and WhatsApp. The proposal is so dangerous that Signal has stated itwould pull its app out of the EUif Chat Control is passed. Proponents even seem to realize how dangerous this is, because state communicationsare exempt from this scanningin the latest compromise proposal.
This doesn't just affect people in the EU, it affects everyone around the world, including in the United States. If platforms decide to stay in the EU, they would be forced to scan the conversation of everyone in the EU. If you're not in the EU, but you chat with someone who is, then your privacy is compromised too. Passing this proposal would pave the way for authoritarian and tyrannical governments around the world to follow suit with their own demands for access to encrypted communication apps.
Even if you take it in good faith that the government would never do anything wrong with this power, events likeSalt Typhoon showthere's no such thing as a system that's only for the good guys."
Despite strong opposition, Denmark is pushing forward and taking itscurrent proposalto the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on October 14th.
We urge the Danish Presidency to drop its push for scanning our private communication and consider fundamental rights concerns. Any draft that compromises end-to-end encryption and permits scanning of our private communication should be blocked or voted down.
Phones and laptops must work for the users who own them, not act as bugs in our pockets" in the service of governments, foreign or domestic. The mass scanning of everything on our devices is invasive, untenable, and must be rejected.
Republished from the EFF's Deeplinks blog.