Open letter calling on EU Member States to defend encryption
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 6:47 am
ew year, old debate: This year the EU will start the three-way debate on the European Commission's Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR), which proposes to scan all EU citizens' messages for abuse material. Last year, the EU Parliament already took a stand against such customer-side scanning, which was a great success for privacy advocates in Europe. Now it is time for EU Member States to take a stand in this battle of privacy versus surveillance. We, a coalition of European companies that put privacy first, call on our ministers to stand up for citizens' right to privacy and strong encryption.
Last year we were thrilled to see the EU Parliament’s historic agreement against chat monitoring surveillance . We would like to applaud the EU Parliament for its decision to defend people’s right to privacy and maintain strong encryption in Europe. In its decision, the EU Parliament followed the advice of 300 scientists and cryptography experts and the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) who strongly criticised chat monitoring for its broad surveillance powers that would destroy the right to privacy online, as well as harm freedom of expression and thus undermine our democratic values.
As the world faces more surveillance trends night clubs and bars email list than ever before – as seen in the UK's Online Safety Bill , Australia's surveillance legislation and the US's FISA reform – the European Union now has a unique opportunity to become a beacon of hope for freedom of expression and democracy.
With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU has set a very high standard for data protection and privacy in the EU. It is now important to maintain this high level of privacy by advocating strong encryption so that EU citizens and businesses can continue to enjoy online privacy and confidentiality at the highest possible level.
Open letter to EU Member States on the proposed CSA Regulation
Dear Ministers of the Interior, Justice and Economy of the EU Member States,
We are writing to you as small and medium-sized businesses and organisations across Europe, concerned about the proposed Regulation on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). Collectively, we ask you to ensure that your country's position on this dossier is as close as possible to that of the European Parliament (EP). We all agree that ensuring the safety of children online is one of the most important duties of technology companies and for this reason we find the European Commission's proposed Regulation extremely worrying. If implemented as proposed, it would have a negative impact on children's privacy and safety online, while having dramatic unintended consequences on the EU cybersecurity landscape, as well as creating an ineffective administrative burden. The European Parliament has recently adopted its position on the dossier, recognising that scanning technologies are not compatible with the goal of confidential and secure communications. The crucial changes it presents to the proposal therefore reflect the views of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the Council’s legal services, as well as countless cryptography and cybersecurity experts. It also reflects the views of 63-69% of businesses, public authorities, NGOs and citizens consulted by the European Commission in its impact assessment. As small and medium-sized businesses and technology organisations, we share their concerns, as we know that searching for specific content – such as text, photos and videos – in an end-to-end encrypted communication would require the implementation of a backdoor, or a similar technology called “client-side scanning”. Even if this mechanism is created for the purpose of fighting online crime, it would also be quickly exploited by criminals themselves, putting citizens and businesses at greater risk online by creating vulnerabilities for all users alike.
Last year we were thrilled to see the EU Parliament’s historic agreement against chat monitoring surveillance . We would like to applaud the EU Parliament for its decision to defend people’s right to privacy and maintain strong encryption in Europe. In its decision, the EU Parliament followed the advice of 300 scientists and cryptography experts and the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) who strongly criticised chat monitoring for its broad surveillance powers that would destroy the right to privacy online, as well as harm freedom of expression and thus undermine our democratic values.
As the world faces more surveillance trends night clubs and bars email list than ever before – as seen in the UK's Online Safety Bill , Australia's surveillance legislation and the US's FISA reform – the European Union now has a unique opportunity to become a beacon of hope for freedom of expression and democracy.
With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU has set a very high standard for data protection and privacy in the EU. It is now important to maintain this high level of privacy by advocating strong encryption so that EU citizens and businesses can continue to enjoy online privacy and confidentiality at the highest possible level.
Open letter to EU Member States on the proposed CSA Regulation
Dear Ministers of the Interior, Justice and Economy of the EU Member States,
We are writing to you as small and medium-sized businesses and organisations across Europe, concerned about the proposed Regulation on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). Collectively, we ask you to ensure that your country's position on this dossier is as close as possible to that of the European Parliament (EP). We all agree that ensuring the safety of children online is one of the most important duties of technology companies and for this reason we find the European Commission's proposed Regulation extremely worrying. If implemented as proposed, it would have a negative impact on children's privacy and safety online, while having dramatic unintended consequences on the EU cybersecurity landscape, as well as creating an ineffective administrative burden. The European Parliament has recently adopted its position on the dossier, recognising that scanning technologies are not compatible with the goal of confidential and secure communications. The crucial changes it presents to the proposal therefore reflect the views of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the Council’s legal services, as well as countless cryptography and cybersecurity experts. It also reflects the views of 63-69% of businesses, public authorities, NGOs and citizens consulted by the European Commission in its impact assessment. As small and medium-sized businesses and technology organisations, we share their concerns, as we know that searching for specific content – such as text, photos and videos – in an end-to-end encrypted communication would require the implementation of a backdoor, or a similar technology called “client-side scanning”. Even if this mechanism is created for the purpose of fighting online crime, it would also be quickly exploited by criminals themselves, putting citizens and businesses at greater risk online by creating vulnerabilities for all users alike.