[HN Gopher] EU parliament agreement to remove chat control and s...
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       EU parliament agreement to remove chat control and safeguard secure
       encryption
        
       Author : teichmann
       Score  : 189 points
       Date   : 2023-10-26 15:55 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.patrick-breyer.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.patrick-breyer.de)
        
       | theshrike79 wrote:
       | Just in case people don't read the article:                   the
       | European Parliament's position removes indiscriminate chat
       | control and allows only for a targeted surveillance of specific
       | individuals and groups reasonably suspicious of being linked to
       | child sexual abuse material, with a judicial warrant. End-to-end
       | encrypted messengers are exempted.
        
         | thesnide wrote:
         | even more:                   In detail, our position will
         | protect young people and victims of abuse much more effectively
         | than the EU Commission's extreme proposal:
         | 
         | (...)                   At the same time, we are pulling the
         | following poisonous teeth out of the EU Commission's extreme
         | bill:
        
         | SenAnder wrote:
         | How does this differ from the status quo? I would assume
         | targeted surveillance, without requiring 3rd parties sabotage
         | the security of their products, is already a legal law
         | enforcement procedure?
        
           | ponderings wrote:
           | The EU standardizes a lot of laws that a lot of countries
           | should have had already. I'm sure there must be bad examples
           | but I've really only seen improvements in action. Countries
           | have to part with their idiotic version or give up on their
           | idiotic proposals. NL for example had some issues wanting
           | forced labor for unemployed people with social support but
           | that would be called a job and require minimum wage.
        
           | derefr wrote:
           | Doesn't have to be different from the status quo. EU law acts
           | upon member countries like the US federal constitution acts
           | upon member states: it prevent individual members from ever
           | changing their own laws to take _more extreme_ positions than
           | the recognized consensus position.
        
             | g-b-r wrote:
             | To my knowledge EU Regulations are simply laws that
             | overrule local EU countries' laws, so whether it's possible
             | or not for local laws to be more extreme only depends on
             | such laws being at odds with what the Regulation prescribes
             | (but I'm not a lawyer and only looked into that years ago).
        
           | vaylian wrote:
           | Correct. But the chatcontrol proposal would have changed
           | that. The proposed law mandates untargeted surveillance and
           | bypassing of encryption through client-side scanning.
        
           | ExoticPearTree wrote:
           | The status quo now is that each country does as it sees fit.
           | This will unify legislation across the whole of EU and
           | basically forbid countries to have laws that contravene to
           | this.
        
           | ls612 wrote:
           | It doesn't really. Much like the UK, the EU appears to have
           | blinked when faced with the loss of both WhatsApp and
           | iMessage.
        
         | Condition1952 wrote:
         | so, priests, mainly
         | 
         | https://elpais.com/sociedad/2023-06-26/base-de-datos-de-el-p...
         | 
         | If the EU wants to protect the children, they should ban
         | religious institutions, first and foremost
         | 
         | "Because of religion's institutional standing, religious
         | grooming frequently takes place in a context of unquestioned
         | faith placed in sex offenders by children, parents and staff,"
         | they found. https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2020/08/researchers-
         | reveal-pat...
         | 
         | in all the major religions, there are groups of people who see
         | themselves as doing God's work as commanded by the bible. They
         | advocate using the harshest punishments possible. What is
         | particularly disturbing about this issue is that religious
         | belief is used as an excuse or rationalization for beating
         | children. For some people, corporal punishment is given a
         | legitimacy that is rapped in faith. The parents who do this are
         | convinced they are doing God's work as prescribed in the bible.
         | https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/radical-religious-belief-an...
         | 
         | A too-passive attitude in dealing with child abuse has rubbed
         | off on Muslim communities in Britain, too. I have heard many
         | stories at first hand of child sexual abuse and rape, which
         | show that the issue is not being addressed at all. Those who
         | have had the courage to speak out have been met with reactions
         | of denial and shame. Such attitudes mean that children will
         | continue to suffer in silence. Sexual abuse of children happens
         | in all communities, as has been revealed by the recent Catholic
         | church scandal.
         | https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/25/middle...
        
         | matthewdgreen wrote:
         | It seems like this is a proposal, but it hasn't been adopted
         | and it's not clear this coalition will prevail. It's hard to
         | tell because the language of the article makes it seem like a
         | "done deal", but I'm less optimistic.
        
       | greatgib wrote:
       | The proposal looks equilibrated in my opinion.
       | 
       | I think that it is a good example of why voting for Pirate party
       | representative might make a difference with law changes designed
       | to help citizens.
        
         | atoav wrote:
         | At least on the EU level, this certainly had its merits.
         | Additionally I think having good informed representatives like
         | that can even have a bigger impact than their seat alone,
         | because they can often influence the opinion of other
         | representatives around them.
        
       | jeroenhd wrote:
       | This is great news, I hope this will be the end of the stupid
       | E2EE ban attempts, for a few years at least.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | More discussion a few days ago:
       | 
       |  _EU Chat Control Bill Postponed_
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37982655
        
         | arlort wrote:
         | To add context to the link, this isn't a repost, just related.
         | 
         | The post linked is about the Council (think US senate or
         | Bundesrat) not having enough votes to pass the text (they're
         | still looking for internal compromises)
         | 
         | This post is about the European Parliament's committee
         | examining the draft (well, one of the 5, but LIBE is the lead
         | one)
        
           | ChrisArchitect wrote:
           | Yeah, meant that it was Related, a lot of related discussion
           | in there
        
       | WA wrote:
       | > _We safeguard trust in secure end-to-end encryption. We clearly
       | exclude so-called client-side scanning, i.e. the installation of
       | surveillance functionalities and security vulnerabilities in our
       | smartphones._
       | 
       | What does "exclude" mean in this context? Should client-side
       | scanning be allowed or not?
        
         | arlort wrote:
         | > Should client-side scanning be allowed or not?
         | 
         | That's up to you if it "should" (personally, no, horrible most
         | likely illegal idea)
         | 
         | Patrick has been a pretty vocal opponent of the draft so if
         | he's content that's good
        
         | andersa wrote:
         | They're trying to say it's not going to be required, and also
         | they don't like it.
        
       | attah_ wrote:
       | On the one hand this makes me very happy that democracy can
       | actually work things out (and quite well at that)... but on the
       | other hand i'm still horrified people seriously tried to push the
       | original proposal. Not sure what i feel summing up the two.
        
         | SahAssar wrote:
         | My takeaway is that the EU as a whole is somewhat responsive to
         | public feedback but it is still too far removed from the people
         | and our will.
        
           | attah_ wrote:
           | Too far removed or just too technologically inept? Not only
           | was it technologically impossible; but they keep wanting to
           | do things to people's online life that everyone that would
           | never fly in offline life. It's like they think technology is
           | somehow an optional extra, or even a passing fad that doesn't
           | deserve the same rights and safeguards.
        
           | dotandgtfo wrote:
           | I feel like it's pretty obvious the bill wouldn't pass. It's
           | just so off-base from all other EU tech policy. Banning end
           | to end encryption is both ineffective and practically
           | impossible. And sending "CSAM" (in a lot of cases
           | teenagers/young adult nudes) to a presumably American tech
           | company for manual screening is just so unequivocally wrong
           | on a privacy level.
           | 
           | It seems like a lot of money went into making this get to the
           | vote. My impression is that lobbyists have worked for this
           | through the European commission - which is distasteful as it
           | should never have been proposed. But it never stood a chance
           | in the parliament. There seems to be checks and balances.
           | 
           | I have to credit the great work of people like Patrick Breyer
           | and everyone who has demonstrated and organized across the EU
           | these last months. Passivity leads to the worst outcomes.
        
           | richarme wrote:
           | I think you're probably right, but sometimes I wonder if a
           | bit of distance can be a good thing. Perhaps a slight
           | distance can make populism less viable while still being
           | effective at representing the low-pass filtered will of the
           | people in a sense.
           | 
           | And perhaps the lower public mindshare might help insulate
           | against people with ambitions but not people's best interest
           | at heart. Or this is crazy talk, not sure which one it is :)
        
       | moogly wrote:
       | Hmm, call me a cynic but this sounds a bit too good to be true.
       | What's the catch?
        
       | pmontra wrote:
       | > Security by design: In order to protect young people from
       | grooming, internet services and apps shall be secure by design
       | and default. It must be possible to block and report other users.
       | Only at the request of the user should he or she be publicly
       | addressable and see messages or pictures of other users. Users
       | should be asked for confirmation before sending contact details
       | or nude pictures. Potential perpetrators and victims should be
       | warned where appropriate, for example if they try to search for
       | abuse material using certain search words. Public chats at high
       | risk of grooming are to be moderated.
       | 
       | The "publicly addressable" part is feasible and already
       | implemented by many messengers.
       | 
       | Asking for "confirmation before sending contact details" is
       | feasible but easily circumvented as is my mail is joe at example
       | dot com.
       | 
       | Asking for "confirmation before sending [...] nude pictures" is
       | where it gets interesting. How without scanning every file one is
       | about to share?
        
         | 9dev wrote:
         | > Asking for "confirmation before sending contact details" is
         | feasible but easily circumvented as is my mail is joe at
         | example dot com.
         | 
         | I'm pretty confident this is a task where LLMs will shine.
        
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       (page generated 2023-10-26 23:02 UTC)