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Chat control: EU data protection commissioners warn against mass surveillance

The planned chat control within the EU, under which all digitally sent messages are to be automatically scanned, is provoking massive criticism: EU data protection authorities warn of mass surveillance.

Risks outweigh benefits

A joint opinion from the EU’s data protection commissioner and the European Data Protection Board said “the proposal in its current form may pose more risks to individuals, and thus to society in general, than to criminals.” While the goals and intentions of the proposal are worthy of support, it aims to combat child abuse, but the path is the wrong one, it said. Privacy and the protection of individuals’ personal data would fall by the wayside under the proposal: “There is a risk that the proposal could become the basis for general and indiscriminate scanning of the content of virtually all types of electronic communications,” the two institutions’ report says.

The statement also reiterates the importance of end-to-end encryption, which would be effectively eliminated with chat control. Both institutions see end-to-end encryption as an important way to enforce basic digital rights. In this context, it was also highlighted that chat control would violate the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and would most likely lead to numerous false suspicions. The criticism of the data protection authorities thus largely corresponds to that voiced by a wide variety of organizations after the plans became known.

The Federal Data Protection Commissioner joins in

Federal Data Protection Commissioner Ulrich Kelber has renewed his criticism of chat control on the occasion of the now-published report, fully endorsing the remarks: “I will continue to campaign for chat control not to be implemented in this form. Germany and the federal ministries involved must now show that they uphold fundamental rights and that this is also evident in data protection and the protection of telecommunications secrecy.” Kelber also made it clear that he considered the planned mass surveillance to be an instrument of authoritarian states and accordingly inappropriate. Instead, he called for “effective and targeted measures.”

Before a decision is made regarding chat control, the member states as well as the EU Parliament will discuss the proposal. Subsequently, a compromise must be found so that the regulation can come into force.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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The planned chat control within the EU, under which all digitally sent messages are to be automatically scanned, is provoking massive criticism: EU data protection authorities warn of mass surveillance. Risks outweigh benefits A joint opinion from the EU’s data protection commissioner and the European Data Protection Board said „the proposal in its current form … (Weiterlesen...)

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