The Dangers of the EU’s “Chat Control” Plan for Encryption and User Privacy

The European Union’s proposed “Chat Control” regulation, officially known as CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material Regulation), aims to detect, report, and remove illegal content on digital platforms.

Although the plan’s stated goal is to protect children online, cybersecurity experts warn that its implementation could weaken end‑to‑end encryption and lead to an unprecedented invasion of digital privacy.

 

The Conflict Between Encryption and Mandatory Scanning

Beniamin Shielz, CEO of Wire, states that mandatory content‑scanning mechanisms are inherently incompatible with end‑to‑end encryption.

According to him, Chat Control essentially introduces a public backdoor into every secure communication system — once such a door exists, it will inevitably be exploited.

He explains: forcing mandatory scanning is like asking everyone to leave a spare key under their doormat so authorities can enter any time they wish — but criminals will find and misuse the same key.

 

False Reports and Legal Responsibility

Shielz argues that if governments mandate private message scanning, they must also take responsibility for its predictable failures.

False positives — mistaken identification of messages as illegal — are not accidental but statistically inevitable. European data protection authorities and the German Parliament have already warned that current content and behavior detection systems are highly inaccurate, potentially flooding judicial institutions with false criminal reports.

 

Compliance Burden and New Risks for Tech Companies

While Chat Control doesn’t directly alter data‑protection laws, it places a heavy compliance and operational burden on companies — including managing governmental access requests, data retention, and auditing requirements.

From a threat‑modeling perspective, this policy creates a highly attractive target for both state‑sponsored hackers and organized cybercrime groups.

Consequently, user and business data could be extracted and repurposed for future attacks.

Moreover, large U.S. platforms can afford these costly compliance demands, but small European developers and open‑source projects cannot, leading to the collapse of domestic innovators and greater reliance on foreign cloud services — exactly the opposite of the EU’s goal of digital sovereignty.

 

Suppression of European Innovation and Digital Independence

Shielz believes that Chat Control is not “targeted surveillance,” but rather mass monitoring based on an unachievable technical premise.

Using the label “targeted” is misleading, since true lawful surveillance must rely on reasonable suspicion — not on monitoring entire populations.

 

Ethical Approaches to Prevent Online Abuse

If the real goal is protecting children, the ethical and technically feasible solution lies in focused early intervention, network‑level detection, international cooperation, and investment in education and prevention — not mass surveillance.

Shielz concludes:

“Europe, which has been a global leader in digital rights and data protection, risks losing the trust and security that underpin its position if it mandates scanning of private communications.”

Source: MedadPress
www.medadpress.ir