WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram always repeat the same promise: the conversations that are held on their platforms are private and only the sender and the receiver can read or listen to the messages that are sent on them. It is what is known as end-to-end encryption (E2EE), a kind of security system that ensures that our conversations “do not fall into the wrong hands.”
But that security barrier could disappear with the new law prepared by the European Commission (EC), aimed at curbing the content of sexual abuse of minors. At least, that is the proposal of the Spanish executive, who defends the elimination of end-to-end encryption, according to a document to which the prestigious technology magazine Wired has had access.
“The ideal, in our opinion, would be to legislatively prevent providers in Europe from implementing end-to-end encryption,” says Pedro Sánchez’s executive in an internal document that includes the allegations of the different governments of the European Union (EU). ) to the regulation prepared by the commission to control this type of crime in social networks.
Spain maintains the strongest position regarding this mechanism. Of the twenty EU countries represented in the document leaked to Wired, most said they favor some form of encrypted message scanning. However, only the Sánchez executive is in favor of this change.
Of the twenty countries included in the document, 15 expressed support for the idea of ​​scanning end-to-end encrypted communications to curb the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Many defend this intermediate measure as a vital tool that would allow authorities to win the fight against child abuse.
The current bill calls for creating algorithms that scan communications, particularly sexually explicit material, to detect pedophilic material or behavior. Its promoters assure that it would be a kind of “neutral technologyâ€, which would only act in suspicious cases and ignore all others, to preserve the privacy of users.
There is no consensus among member countries. In paragraph 26 of the regulation proposed by the EC, which is not yet final and which may undergo several changes, it is ensured that end-to-end encryption is an “important tool to guarantee the security and confidentiality of user communications”. , but its use is not categorically shielded. A proposal that would clash with the position of the Spanish executive.
Europe questions end-to-end encryption (E2EE), a security measure implemented by different communication platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram to protect the privacy of users, because it considers that it prevents criminal investigations from being carried out by not facilitating access to content interchanged.
The EU considers that some users, such as criminals or terrorists, could use it for harmful purposes, such as organized crime or pedophilia, because the E2EE prevents criminal exchanges that they carry out in the apps from being accessed, making it difficult to police investigations.
On the other hand, digital security specialists do not like the regulations prepared by the EC. The Xnet citizen platform for the protection of digital rights has shown its rejection of the regulations promoted by the commission against pedophilia on the internet because they consider it to be “invasive” with privacy due to its encryption of conversations.
This group denounces that the technology would pose security breaches as it would track information from encrypted conversations and would therefore lead to “massive surveillance” of telecommunications. Something that is denied by both the European Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson, and the speaker in the European Parliament, the PP MEP Javier Zarzalejos, who maintain that the regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse is not intended to erode the right to privacy.
