EU now one step away from reviving private message scanning rules(cyberinsider.com) |
EU now one step away from reviving private message scanning rules(cyberinsider.com) |
The trajectory is crystal clear: access to information (AI), control over personal finance (CBDC), privacy of personal communications (handful of big tech MITM in everything), metered social interactions (today China, tomorrow the world over).
The worst thing I have to hide is knowledge about my intentions, none of which are bad/illegal/immoral.
Scan away, I'd rather try to protect my children, other children from unscrupulous characters.
Correction: None of which are bad/illegal/immoral _right now_. The "I have nothing to hide" crowd will surely change their tune the moment any of their data starts to be used against them.
Chat Control 2.0 is the worrying one because it mandates scanning and bans E2EE.
These two things should not have both been given the same branding.
the confusion is purposeful, because it is easier to convince people that 1.0 is okay, which makes 2.0 appear like a version bump of the same thing.
Easier to push through if the only thing they're changing is "may" to "must".
It already was in force, and EU states are presumably using it right now despite that being illegal. Only to protect the children, of course.
On the other, they need access to all of your data.
[0] https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/
[1] https://edri.org/our-work/european-commission-must-uphold-pr...
[2] https://freiheitsrechte.org/en/themen/freiheit-im-digitalen-...
In good faith this could be summarized as "Personal data should be used for public safety but not for profit" - but that philosophy is definitely a strong contrast with the basic American philosophy towards civil liberties.
Errrr, america does not look like country that cares about that. It does care about liberties of rich companies tho.
It's entirely possible that politicians just want to do something about CSAM and young people having their mind twisted by social media. The electorate do seem to be keen on some sort of action.
Personally, the politics of Europe is really not for me, but I can see why others might find it attractive. In the end, history will show us which path is adaptive.
Children protection and russian propaganda are the tried and tested covers at enforcing age verification, message scanning, and probably any future pan-european surveillance network.
For example, Palantir gets access to "large and diverse (government) databases with Dutch citizens’ data for analysis" (including mental health treatment data) under the GPDR to help police in the Netherlands do terror investigations (from 2012 to 2019). I'm sure you can appreciate the wisdom and privacy-enhancement in that just as much as me!
There are large lists of private organizations that get access to government data about citizens ... every country has multiple (public and secret ones).
Oh, they also "failed to mention" this to parliament, and this was only discovered after a journalist got a tipoff and requested financial data about the deal ... for about 5 years. Of course, there was never even the slightest investigation into this.
https://nltimes.nl/2025/08/22/dutch-police-also-use-controve...
(paywalled) https://www.volkskrant.nl/tech/ook-nederlandse-politie-gebru...
(not even joking https://www.csam.be/en/index.html )
Fantastic quotes for services the Belgian government offers:
"Make your life easier with CSAM"
"CSAM ensures that everyone follows the same rules"
"If you are interested in a service CSAM has to offer, please go straight to our Contact page"
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/07/two-teens-learn-the-har...
Let's not forget that these are the people and laws that are supposed to represent and help you, not the other way around. While private companies have no such obligation.
> supposed to represent and help you, not the other way around. While private companies have no such obligation.
Exactly my point.
The probability of a (my or your) child enduring harmful content, perpetuated and enabled by Meta/Google (in particular) is almost a certainty.
that is why police already have access to mechanisms to remove privacy from people suspected of being a pedophile.
i suppose the times have changed from when most people on the internet were cypherphunk. now it's common to see people say "i have nothing to hide, please scan all of my communications", unironically invoking "please think of the children".
You are agreeing with me :)
i am absolutely not :)
you want to provide unfettered warrantless access to all of your communications. ive been fighting against that sort of thing for approaching 40 years now.