The EU Council seems to agree to the new compromise “without further changes”
The EU Council has received new Chat Control proposal with broad support
CSAM scanning would now be voluntary, but with some exceptions
Lawmakers met today (November 12) for further discussion
It’s official, a revised version of the CSAM scanning proposal is back on the EU lawmakers’ table − and is keeping privacy experts worried.
The Law Enforcement Working Party met again this morning (November 12) in the EU Council to discuss what’s been deemed by critics the Chat Control bill.
This follows a meeting the group held on November 5, and comes as the Denmark Presidency put forward a new compromise after withdrawing mandatory chat scanning.
As reported by Netzpolitik, the latest Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR) proposal was received with broad support during the November 5 meeting, “without any dissenting votes” nor further changes needed.
The new text, which removes all provisions on detection obligations included in the bill and makes CSAM scanning voluntary, seems to be the winning path to finally find an agreement after over three years of trying.
Privacy experts and technologists aren’t quite on board, though, with long-standing Chat Control critic and digital rights jurist, Patrick Breyer, deeming the proposal “a political deception of the highest order.” Chat Control − what’s changing and what are the risk
As per the latest version of the text, messaging service providers won’t be forced to scan all URLs, pictures, and videos shared by users, but rather choose to perform voluntary CSAM scanning.
There’s a catch, though. Article 4 will include a possible “mitigation measure” that could be applied to high-risk services to require them to take “all appropriate risk mitigation measures.”
According to Breyer, such a loophole could make the removal of detection obligations “worthless” by negating their voluntary nature. He said: “Even client-side scanning (CSS) on our smartphones could soon become mandatory – the end of secure encryption.”
Breaking encryption, the tech that security software like the best VPNs, Signal, and WhatsApp use to secure our private communications, has been the strongest argument against the proposal so far.
Continue Reading - https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/this-is-a-political-deception-new-chat-control-convinces-lawmakers-but-not-privacy-experts-yet
I’m not shocked that Danish politicians sincerely believe they know what is good for EU citizens more than EU citizens do.
Tolkien didn’t whip up Lothlorien elves contemptuousness out of thin air. I’ll go ahead and apologize globally for my unabashed prejudice here. Sorry.
What shocks me is the shameless lack of concern for the democratic ideals of the EU by the leadership of the EU which I normally have broad respect for.
Propose a vote, get a NO. Propose it again! NO. Propose it again, NO. Find another way, force it. It’s tantamount to abuse and its shameful.
I can only hope against hope that the “all measures” verbiage doesn’t include all the worst interpretations that we fear. I’m so fucking sick of worrying about this issue. It feels like abuse, it really does.
I’m sorry for my prejudicial attitude against Danish politicians. You are free to arguably justifiably make me feel bad about it. One time I was in Copenhagen and other than Christiana being kind of cool, they had hot dogs in a kind of baguette tube and I thought that had some merit.