Deeplinks
An upcoming proposal from the European Union Commission could make government scanning of user messages and photos mandatory throughout the E.U. If that happens, it would be inconsistent with providing true end-to-end encryption in Europe. That would be a disaster, not just for the privacy and security of citizens in the E.U., but worldwide.
The excuse for this attack on basic human rights is the same one we have seen used repeatedly in the U.S. over the last few years: crimes against children. This is the same excuse that sponsors of the anti-encryption EARN IT Act used in 2020, and again earlier this year. It’s the same excuse that was used to put overwhelming pressure on Apple to develop a phone-scanning plan that disrespected user rights. Neither of these plans have advanced, because the public is overwhelmingly opposed to such surveillance.
The plan in both the U.S. and E.U. is similar: coerce private companies to scan all user data, check what they find against government databases, and report their findings to the authorities. It’s unacceptable, and no matter what they say, it’s completely incompatible with end-to-end encryption.
Today, EFF has joined European Digital Rights (EDRi) and dozens of other civil liberties and human rights organizations, sending a EFF Tells E.U. Commission: Don’t Break Encryption