The head of messaging app Signal has criticized a revised EU proposal that seeks to monitor encrypted chats under “rebranding”.
The European Commission first proposed the Chat Control Act in mid-2022, aiming to adopt rules that would effectively force messaging apps to create a backdoor to end-to-end encrypted messages.
A European Parliament committee voted against widespread monitoring of encrypted communications in November last year, but a revised bill now considers an alternative method to blanket monitoring – called ‘download moderation’ – to combat child pornography content in line.
In a June 17 statement, Signal President Meredith Whitaker said the “download moderation” tag was just another tactic to “undermine encryption,” allowing hackers and nation states to hostiles to more easily exploit private discussions.
“Instead of using the old term “customer-side inspection,” they renamed it and now call it “loading supervision.” Some argue that “download moderation” does not compromise encryption because it happens before your message or video is encrypted. this is not true.
Whittaker stressed that end-to-end encryption is the technological key to privacy “in an unprecedented era of state and corporate surveillance” and must be protected at all costs.
The proposed revised Chat Monitoring Act would require telecommunications service operators to implement “download moderation” in an effort to combat child exploitation.
Ideas include subjecting everyone’s private chats to comprehensive analysis and comparing them to a state-run database and artificial intelligence model to detect objectionable speech and content.
However, Whitaker said these “clunky branding exercises” don’t fool crypto experts, urging lawmakers to stop playing “puns.”
Whitaker said it doesn’t matter whether the hack was the result of tampering, forcing chats to go through a monitoring system before encryption, or through other means.
“We can call it a backdoor, a front door, or ‘load supervision.’ » But whatever we call it, each of these approaches creates a vulnerability that can be exploited by hackers and hostile nation states, removing the unbreakable mathematical protection and replacing it with a high-value vulnerability.
“Let us be very clear once again: imposing blanket scanning of private communications fundamentally undermines encryption. a point.”
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The Signal messaging app uses elliptic curve cryptography as a public key encryption system to support end-to-end encrypted messaging, voice, and video services.
Last year, the company hinted it would exit the UK market after passing the Online Security Bill, which could allow authorities to access end-to-end encryption services.
Signal has embraced cryptocurrencies – which use encryption to verify transactions – to the same extent as one of its competitors, Telegram, in recent months.
However, it began accepting donations in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and ten other coins in March 2021 to support the Signal Technology Foundation.
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