Europol wants to keep all data forever for law enforcement, says unnamed(!) official. E.U. Court of Human Rights backed encryption as basic to privacy rights in 2024 and now Big Brother Chat Control is on the agenda again (EU consultation feedback link at end)

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Robin Edgar

While some American officials continue to attack strong encryption as an enabler of child abuse and other crimes, a key European court has upheld it as fundamental to the basic right to privacy. […] While some American officials continue to … Continue reading →

EU Chat Control Plan Gains Support Again, Threatens Encryption, mass surveillance, age verification

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Robin Edgar

A controversial European Union proposal dubbed “Chat Control” is regaining momentum, with 19 out of 27 EU member states reportedly backing the measure. The plan would mandate that messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, must scan every message, photo … Continue reading →

UK Effort to Keep Apple Encryption Fight Secret Is Blocked

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Robin Edgar

A court has blocked a British government attempt to keep secret a legal case over its demand to access Apple Inc. user data in a victory for privacy advocates. The UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a special court that handles cases … Continue reading →

EU: These are scary times – let’s backdoor encryption and make everyone unsafe!

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Robin Edgar

The EU has shared its plans to ostensibly keep the continent’s denizens secure – and among the pages of bureaucratese are a few worrying sections that indicate the political union wants to backdoor encryption by 2026, or even sooner. While … Continue reading →

Apple Says ‘No’ to UK Backdoor Order, Will Just Disable E2E Cloud Encryption Instead

Posted on February 24, 2025 by Robin Edgar

Good work, Britain. Owners of Apple devices in the United Kingdom will be a little less safe moving forward as the company pulls its most secure end-to-end (E2E) encryption from the country. The move is in response to government demands … Continue reading →

EU Trys to Implement Client-Side Scanning, death to encryption By Personalised Targeting of EU Residents With Misleading Ads

Posted on November 2, 2023 by Robin Edgar

The EU Commission has been pushing client-side scanning for well over a year. This new intrusion into private communications has been pitched as perhaps the only way to prevent the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Mandates proposed by … Continue reading →

Cult of Dead Cow hacktivists design distributed encryption system for mobile apps

Posted on August 2, 2023 by Robin Edgar

Once known for distributing hacking tools and shaming software companies into improving their security, a famed group of technology activists is now working to develop a system that will allow the creation of messaging and social networking apps that won’t … Continue reading →

TETRA Military and Police Radio Code Encryption Has a Flaw: A built in Backdoor

Posted on July 26, 2023 by Robin Edgar

For more than 25 years, a technology used for critical data and voice radio communications around the world has been shrouded in secrecy to prevent anyone from closely scrutinizing its security properties for vulnerabilities […] The backdoor, known for years … Continue reading →

Samsung Screwed Up Encryption on 100M Phones

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Robin Edgar

Samsung shipped an estimated 100 million smartphones with botched encryption, including models ranging from the 2017 Galaxy S8 on up to last year’s Galaxy S21. Researchers at Tel Aviv University found what they called “severe” cryptographic design flaws that could … Continue reading →

Revealed: UK Gov’t Plans Publicity Blitz to Undermine Chat Privacy, encryption. Of course they use children. And Fear.

Posted on February 16, 2022 by Robin Edgar

The UK government is set to launch a multi-pronged publicity attack on end-to-end encryption, Rolling Stone has learned. One key objective: mobilizing public opinion against Facebook’s decision to encrypt its Messenger app. The Home Office has hired the M&C Saatchi … Continue reading →

WhatsApp begins rolling out end-to-end encryption for chat backups

Posted on October 16, 2021 by Robin Edgar

The wait is over. It’s now possible to encrypt your WhatsApp chat history on both Android and iOS, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday. The company plans to roll out the feature slowly to ensure it can deliver a … Continue reading →

Zoom to pay $85M for lying about encryption and sending data to Facebook and Google

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Robin Edgar

Zoom has agreed to pay $85 million to settle claims that it lied about offering end-to-end encryption and gave user data to Facebook and Google without the consent of users. The settlement between Zoom and the filers of a class-action … Continue reading →

Bombshell Report Finds Phone Network Encryption Was Deliberately Weakened

Posted on June 18, 2021 by Robin Edgar

It was a closed source backdoored system. This goes to show that weakening encryption for political reasons and trusting software that can’t be audited independently is a Bad Idea ™ A weakness in the algorithm used to encrypt cellphone data … Continue reading →

ProtonMail, Tutanota among authors of letter urging EU to reconsider encryption rules

Posted on January 29, 2021 by Robin Edgar

Encrypted service providers are urging lawmakers to back away from a controversial plan that critics say would undercut effective data protection measures. ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota — all European companies that offer some form of encrypted services — issued … Continue reading →

No, Cellebrite cannot ‘break Signal encryption.’

Posted on December 27, 2020 by Robin Edgar

Yesterday, the BBC ran a story with the factually untrue headline, “Cellebrite claimed to have cracked chat app’s encryption.” This is false. Not only can Cellebrite not break Signal encryption, but Cellebrite never even claimed to be able to. Since … Continue reading →

EU Takes Another Small Step Towards Trying To Ban Encryption; New Paper Argues Tech Can Backdoor Encryption Safely. It can’t.

Posted on November 10, 2020 by Robin Edgar

In September, we noted that officials in the EU were continuing an effort to try to ban end-to-end encryption. Of course, that’s not how they put it. They say they just want “lawful access” to encrypted content, not recognizing that … Continue reading →

Five Eyes governments, India, and Japan make new call for encryption backdoors – insist that democracy is an insecure police state

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Robin Edgar

Members of the intelligence-sharing alliance Five Eyes, along with government representatives for Japan and India, have published a statement over the weekend calling on tech companies to come up with a solution for law enforcement to access end-to-end encrypted communications. The … Continue reading →

Zoom will offer proper end-to-end encryption to free vid-chat accounts – not just paid-up bods – once you verify your phone number…

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Robin Edgar

Zoom today said it will make end-to-end (E2E) encryption available to all of its users, regardless of whether they pay for it or not. The videoconferencing overnight-sensation has walked back its initial plan to limit E2E cryptography to schools and … Continue reading →

Zoom’s Flawed Encryption Linked to China

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Robin Edgar

Meetings on Zoom, the increasingly popular video conferencing service, are encrypted using an algorithm with serious, well-known weaknesses, and sometimes using keys issued by servers in China, even when meeting participants are all in North America, according to researchers at … Continue reading →

US, UK and Australia want Zuckerberg To Halt Plans For End-To-End Encryption Across Facebook’s Apps – because they want to be able to spy on you. As will other criminals. What happened to the “Free world”?

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Robin Edgar

Attorney General Bill Barr, along with officials from the United Kingdom and Australia, is set to publish an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking the company to delay plans for end-to-end encryption across its messaging services until it … Continue reading →

House Antitrust Investigators Now Scrutinizing Google’s Plans to Add DNS Encryption to Chrome

Posted on September 30, 2019 by Robin Edgar

Antitrust investigators with the House Judiciary Committee are looking into Google’s plans to add Domain Name System over Transport Layer Security (DNS over TLS) to its Chrome browser, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, in the latest escalation of … Continue reading →

Facebook, WhatsApp Will Have to Share Messages With U.K. Police, breaking encryption. Don’t they realises this gives criminals access too?

Posted on September 29, 2019 by Robin Edgar

Social media platforms based in the U.S. including Facebook and WhatsApp will be forced to share users’ encrypted messages with British police under a new treaty between the two countries, according to a person familiar with the matter. The accord, … Continue reading →

up to 2% of all Apple iPhones Hacked, says Google, and Breaks ALL messaging Encryption as well as sending location data

Posted on September 2, 2019 by Robin Edgar

The potential impact of the latest attack on iPhones is massive, not to mention hugely concerning for every user of Apple’s famous smartphone. That simply visiting a website can lead to your iPhone being hacked silently by some unknown party … Continue reading →

Facebook’s answer to the encryption debate: install spyware with content filters! (updated: maybe not)

Posted on July 29, 2019 by Robin Edgar

The encryption debate is typically framed around the concept of an impenetrable link connecting two services whose communications the government wishes to monitor. The reality, of course, is that the security of that encryption link is entirely separate from the … Continue reading →

Germany thinks about resurrecting the Stasi, getting rid of end-to-end chat app encryption and requiring decrypted plain-text.

Posted on May 30, 2019 by Robin Edgar

Government officials in Germany are reportedly mulling a law to force chat app providers to hand over end-to-end encrypted conversations in plain text on demand. According to Der Spiegel this month, the Euro nation’s Ministry of the Interior wants a … Continue reading →

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