Bad, very bad news for end-to-end encryption advocates in our country, although by scope also in the rest of the European Union, due to a regulatory movement that threatens to compromise the privacy of all citizens of the common space. According to a leaked document obtained by Wired, the Spanish executive advocates its ban in the European Union, the position of the hardest line, manifested by the members of the common space.
The context of this document is found in the open debate for years in the EU that confronts security with privacywhen affirming that the latter, in the form of the use of technologies such as end-to-end encryption, can make it impossible to prosecute crime, while its defenders, who are generally defenders of privacy, affirm that this type of measures can put in the hands of anyone, including governments, all kinds of information that should remain exclusively in the private sphere.
According to the document obtained by Wired, the Spanish position is summed up in a truly forceful sentence, is “imperative that we have access to the data«a position that is stated in said document as «Ideally, in our opinion, it would be desirable to legislatively prevent EU-based service providers from implementing end-to-end encryption.“, that is, that it urges the European Union to prohibit technology companies from offering products and services that provide end-to-end encryption.
This response from the Spanish executive occurs when Europe studies measures to combat CSAM, which is precisely one of the most forceful battering rams used by those who advocate strict regulation or a complete ban on end-to-end encryption. And this is a quite effective technique, since it is one of the crimes that logically provokes greater rejection and a greater social response.
However, as has been stated for many years by critics of these measures, your implementation will not solve such problem, because in the absence of privacy of the connections, alternative means will quickly be found to continue guaranteeing that their conversations, files, etc., continue to be kept hidden from the scrutiny of the authorities. However, citizens who have nothing to hide will see their right to privacy evaporate, since their communications will become fully visible to security forces and bodies, as well as third parties, who will be able to gain access to the themselves in multiple ways.
Consulted by Wired, Daniel Campos de Diego, spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior of Spain, stated “the country’s position on this matter is widely known and has been publicly disseminated on several occasions“, which means one more of the many confirmations of the veracity of the leaked document and the opinions expressed therein.
Other proposals, less extreme, pose automatic scanning of files on devices, in line with what was proposed by Apple with NeuralHash, a proposal that was so widely rejected that, finally, it forced those from Cupertino to rule out its implementation. A smaller but still significant part of European executives affirm that these types of measures are too extreme, and that the violation of the privacy of citizens is a red line that should not be crossed.
Do away with end-to-end encryption, according to experts consulted by Wired, will compromise both the privacy and the security of the users, without this being translated into solving the problem that is being pursued. Either by disabling it out of obligation, or by forcing technology companies to enable back doors that allow access to communications, this can be exploited by cybercriminals, totalitarian governments and spy companiesgroups that would really benefit from a regulation of this type.
