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April 12, 2023 - The Electronic Frontier Foundation is warning that the European Union has plans to monitor all internet based activies. This includes monitoring messages sent via encrypted apps such as Telegram and Signal.
Exactly how the EU's monitoring scheme would work isn't quite clear yet. The messaging apps mentioned above provide digital end-to-end encryption. This means that the content of messages sent should only be legible to the person sending the message and the person receiving it. Anyone intercepting such a message shouldn't actually be able to decipher it.
Presumably, any EU law that would allow for monitoring of messages sent via these platforms would also require the platforms to build in some sort of back door for the government to monitor. Whether thes apps would comply with such an order isn't clear at this point. In the past, Telegram has refused the requests of some governments to assist them.
Supposedly, the EU's push for monitioring is for the purpose of stoping the spread of child pornography. But government programs such as this inevitably see mission-creep. And given the fact that encrypted apps are often used by groups of people who value their privacy and may be engaged in anti-governmental conversations, there is a very legitimate concern that governments around the globe would use this monitoring to censor what are otherwise perfectly legal conversations.
The EFF has called for the EU to put a halt to their plan. They were joined by more than 120 other organizaions. The has denied their request and continues to move forward with the project.
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