Representatives of law enforcement and judicial authorities from the USA and the EU recently gathered in Stockholm to call for access to unencrypted communication data to be integrated directly into programs like messenger services. They want to counter the principle of “data protection through technology” with the counterpart “lawful access by design”. However, the Global Encryption Coalition is now defending itself against this new turn in the ongoing Crypto Wars.
According to the association’s steering committee, the general public benefits from encryption multiple times a day, whether it be visiting websites via HTTPS, using mobile phones, or making electronic payments. It took years of hard work to make encryption ubiquitous, and it’s the “heart of a trustworthy Internet, which enables both economic advantages and the protection of human rights”.
The planned campaign against a secure network and secure data could be “fatal worldwide”, especially in view of “imprudent” legislative initiatives such as chat control in the EU or Great Britain’s online safety bill of a similar nature.
The commitment to protecting customers and other users should not be branded as “hypocrisy”, as was apparently the case at the transatlantic meeting, but as an acceptance of corporate responsibility in the name of human rights independent of individual jurisdictions. Instead of trying to undermine encryption, governments should focus on making appropriate use of the extensive powers law enforcement already has.
The civil rights organization European Digital Rights (EDRi) has criticized the EU and USA’s concepts for security in the digital society, stating that they are apparently prepared to “deliberately disregard international human rights standards”. According to EDRi, this is an “unacceptable, clear intention to undermine the end-to-end encryption, privacy, and confidentiality of communications essential to democratic digital societies.”
The many years of commitment in this area show that “lawful access by design” can only lead to a “systematic weakening of encryption worldwide”. This would make all users “unsafe and vulnerable to unlawful access” to their communications. A renewed attack on encryption is also one of the goals of the Commission’s proposal for online surveillance for child sexual abuse.
In conclusion, the focus should be on protecting human rights and confidentiality in communications, rather than undermining encryption and privacy. Governments should strive to make appropriate use of the extensive law enforcement powers they already possess, instead of risking the security of billions of people’s private data.
