{"id":22115,"date":"2022-10-21T02:21:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T09:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=22115"},"modified":"2025-03-28T22:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-03-29T05:22:22","slug":"eu-mass-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/eu-mass-surveillance\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU Is Tackling a Serious Problem with the Wrong Approach: Real-Time Mass Surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the most serious new threats to online privacy is currently working its way through the European Union\u2019s legislative system. No decent person can be against a regulation \u201claying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse<\/a>\u201d in principle, but the way the proposed legislation aims to do this is problematic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The risk is that, if passed, the new law\u2019s damaging ideas will be taken up around the world, following the EU\u2019s example. A useful page on what has become known as \u201cChat Control<\/a>\u201c, put together by Patrick Breyer<\/a>, a Member of the European Parliament for the German and European Pirate Party, lays out the law\u2019s far-reaching impact:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The EU Commission proposes to oblige providers to search all private chats, messages, and emails automatically for suspicious content \u2013 generally and indiscriminately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other aspects of the proposal include ineffective network blocking, screening of personal cloud storage including private photos, mandatory age verification resulting in the end of anonymous communication, appstore censorship and excluding minors from the digital world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Both Experts and the Public Have Doubts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every one of the approaches suggested by Chat Control is bad idea, and the public knows it. In 2021, the EU conducted a public consultation on the proposed law. As a detailed analysis revealed, only 34 of the 414 comments were in favor<\/a>, and 24 of those came from NGOs involved in child protection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A larger sample size was used in a public opinion poll carried out on behalf of the Greens\/EFA in the European Parliament. It found that 72% of people across the EU were against<\/a> the legislation, while only 18% were in favor. German citizens in particular are concerned: an online petition has gathered over 160,000 signatures against the proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the European Commission\u2019s own experts have doubts. An internal document worries that Chat Control could not survive a legal challenge <\/a>at the EU\u2019s highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has previously prohibited \u201cgeneral monitoring\u201d of the kind the new law clearly requires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the EU\u2019s main data protection bodies, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), say that the proposal presents \u201cserious risks for fundamental rights<\/a>\u201c. In particular, \u201cThe EDPB and EDPS consider that the Proposal, in its current form, may present more risks to individuals, and, by extension, to society at large, than to the criminals pursued for CSAM [child sexual abuse material]\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n