The European Union (EU) will vote on a proposal that could make messaging apps mandatory to scan their users’ private messages.
On Thursday the EU will vote on new proposed regulation, which follows in the footsteps of previous attempts by the UK government and Apple to scan messages for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). None of these plans came to fruition, but the chat control law could still come into effect.
Under the proposed regulation, users of messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal and iMessage will have to agree to new terms and conditions. This will allow app makers to scan images and URLs in chats for suspicious content.
What is the response to the message scanning mandate?
As might be expected, both privacy experts and app makers are concerned about the plans. Messaging app Signal has publicly stated that this would force communications to go through a surveillance system.
Chat with Hacker NewsMeredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, said: “Mandating mass scanning of private communications fundamentally undermines encryption. Full stop.”
He further added, “Whether this is through tampering, for example, through the random number generation of the encryption algorithm, or through implementing a key escrow system, or by forcing communications to pass through a monitoring system before they are encrypted.”
According to the EU, these regulations can only be used “for the purpose of detecting child sexual abuse”.
“Providers must use technologies that are minimally intrusive to privacy, in line with the state-of-the-art in the industry, and that limit the error rate of false positives to the maximum extent possible,” the EU explains.
Previous efforts by the U.K. government as part of an online safety bill led to both WhatsApp and Signal threatening to withdraw their apps from the U.K. market due to the proposal. As a result of this and other pressures, the bill did not pass.
Featured Image: Ideogram
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