On May 11, 2022, the European Commission proposed a proposal that would require all email and communication providers to enforce chat control searches, even for end-to-end encrypted communication services that have been secure so far.
Originally, in November last year, a European Parliament committee voted against large-scale screening of encrypted communications, but the recent revision introduced "upload review" as an alternative way to combat the spread of child sexual abuse materials online.
Signal President blasts: New regulatory law reviews private chat records on a large scale, privacy is gone
Signal President Meredith Whittaker released a statement on the 17th introducing "upload auditing", formerly known as "client scanning". She believes that this renaming is misleading and emphasizes that such methods undermine encryption by scanning messages before encryption.
Whittaker stressed that end-to-end encryption is essential to protecting privacy from increasing state and corporate surveillance. She warned that any method that involves scanning private communications at scale will create vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers and hostile states.
The draft amendment to the Chat Control Law proposes mandatory "upload review" for telecom operators to detect and block content related to child abuse. This method involves using artificial intelligence models to scan private chat records and may compromise the integrity of encrypted communications.
Whittaker asks lawmakers to stop playing "word games"
Whittaker urged lawmakers to recognize the impact of these measures, whether they are backdoors, frontdoors or what. These methods undermine the security foundation provided by encryption and replace it with major vulnerabilities.
People from all walks of life have expressed their agreement with Whittaker's views
In this regard, European Parliament member Patrick Breyer agreed with Whittaker's views. Breyer emphasized: "We still have one day to stop this madness of mass surveillance, especially if you are from IT, FI, CZ, SE, SV, EST, GR, PT. Take action now!"
John Scott-Railton, a well-known technology researcher at the University of Toronto, also agreed with Whittaker. John Scott-Railton said that when you build a system that scans private communications at scale, you irreversibly undermine security and privacy, no matter where the scanning occurs.
The debate over the Chat Control Act highlights the ongoing tension between privacy advocates and efforts to combat illegal content online. Whittaker’s criticism reflects that it’s crucial to understand that the proposal is not just a technical tweak, but a major change that strikes at the foundations of privacy.
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