European Court of Human Rights declares backdoored encryption is illegal::Surprising third-act twist as Russian case means more freedom for all

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[–] 54 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

"With this outstanding landmark judgment, the 'client-side scanning' surveillance on all smartphones proposed by the EU Commission in its chat control bill is clearly illegal," said Breyer.

"It would destroy the protection of everyone instead of investigating suspects. EU governments will now have no choice but to remove the destruction of secure encryption from their position on this proposal – as well as the indiscriminate surveillance of private communications of the entire population!"

I hope he's right, but I'll believe it when I see it.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Just the fact that they tried is a huge warning sign to me. This is the future they think we should live in.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    "They" in this case isn't the entire EU tho. There's a lot of different politicians there and Patrick Breyer, for example, was against this from the start. That's probably also who I'll vote for (or the Pirate Party, which he's a part of, I don't know how exactly voting works for the EU).

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  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago

    Politicians probably:

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    I speak American, so perhaps I missed a nuance, it the premise seems clear: it’s not encryption if Eve has the keys one way or another.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Laughs in Australian.

    I wonder if Albo or Dutton will look at reversing the law change to force backdoors here?

    = Press F for doubt.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Does signal have said backdoor here? Cos otherwuse wouldnt it be illegal?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)
  • [–] [B] 7 points 2 years ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Russia joined the Council of Europe – an international human rights organization – in 1996 and was a member until it withdrew in March 2022 following its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

    While the ECHR decision is unlikely to have any effect within Russia, it matters to countries in Europe that are contemplating similar decryption laws – such as Chat Control and the UK government's Online Safety Act.

    Chat Control is shorthand for European data surveillance legislation that would require internet service providers to scan digital communications for illegal content – specifically child sexual abuse material and potentially terrorism-related information.

    Efforts to develop workable rules have been underway for several years and continue to this day, despite widespread condemnation from academics, privacy-oriented orgs, and civil society groups.

    Patrick Breyer, a member of the European parliament for the Pirate Party, hailed the ruling for demonstrating that Chat Control is incompatible with EU law.

    EU governments will now have no choice but to remove the destruction of secure encryption from their position on this proposal – as well as the indiscriminate surveillance of private communications of the entire population!"


    The original article contains 455 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 59%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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