EFF vs Chat Control we don't want bedbugs in our pockets

The Regulation on the Prevention and Combating of Child Sexual Abuse, also known as “Chat Control", is a regulation proposed to the European Commission in 2022.

There are some challenges to its implementation, but it essentially imposes a framework that allows technology companies and platform providers to identify and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) stored on phones. The bill has faced strong criticism and opposition from many privacy groups. Now, the debate over its implementation has resumed.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published a detailed article criticizing the regulation when it became known that Denmark (which holds the EU presidency) would bring the proposal back to the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on October 14.

The non-profit organization argues that it is absurd that the Danish Presidency claims that Chat Control does not violate end-to-end encryption (E2EE), when it is so obvious that it does so through device scanning and surveillance.

It stresses that the inevitable abuse of Chat Control by governments could be devastating for whistleblowers, activists, journalists and human rights workers who rely heavily on privacy and confidentiality.

The EFF also reports that Signal has threatened to withdraw its app from the EU if Chat Control becomes law.

It's worth mentioning that it's not just the EU that will be affected by Chat Control. If you're outside of Europe but are communicating with someone in Europe, your conversations will automatically be compromised.

So the EFF says there is a high potential for abuse, especially by governments that would require access to messaging apps to spy on high-profile citizens.

The team states:

We call on the Danish Presidency to abandon its push for the scanning of our private communications and to consider fundamental rights issues. Any draft that compromises end-to-end encryption and allows the scanning of our private communications should be blocked or voted down.

Phones and laptops should work for the users who own them, not act as “bugs in our pockets” in the service of governments, foreign or domestic. Mass scanning of all the data on our devices is invasive, unwarranted, and must be rejected.

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Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.