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.
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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.
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In the Russian case, the users relied on Telegram’s optional “secret chat” functions, which are also end-to-end encrypted. Telegram had refused to break into chats of a handful of users, telling a Moscow court that it would have to install a back door that would work against everyone. It lost in Russian courts but did not comply, leaving it subject to a ban that has yet to be enforced.The European court backed the Russian users, finding that law enforcement having such blanket access “impairs the very essence of the right to respect for private life” and therefore would violate Article 8 of the European Convention, which enshrines the right to privacy except when it conflicts with laws established “in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country.”The court praised end-to-end encryption generally, noting that it “appears to help citizens and businesses to defend themselves against abuses of information technologies, such as hacking, identity and personal data theft, fraud and the improper disclosure of confidential information.”In addition to prior cases, the judges cited work by the U.N. human rights commissioner, who came out strongly against encryption bans in 2022, saying that “the impact of most encryption restrictions on the right to privacy and associated rights are disproportionate, often affecting not only the targeted individuals but the general population.”High Commissioner Volker Türk said he welcomed the ruling, which he promoted during a recent visit to tech companies in Silicon Valley. Türk told The Washington Post that“encryption is a key enabler of privacy and security online and is essential for safeguarding rights, including the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, security, health and nondiscrimination.”[…]Even as the fight over encryption continues in Europe, police officials there have talked about overriding end-to-end encryption to collect evidence of crimes other than child sexual abuse — or any crime at all, according to an investigative report by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, a consortium of journalists in Southern and Eastern Europe.“All data is useful and should be passed on to law enforcement, there should be no filtering … because even an innocent image might contain information that could at some point be useful to law enforcement,” an unnamed Europol police official said in 2022 meeting minutes released under a freedom of information request by the consortium.
Source: E.U. Court of Human Rights backs encryption as basic to privacy rights – The Washington Post
An ‘unnamed’ Europol police official is peak irony in this context.
Remember to leave your feedback where you can, in this case: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14680-Impact-assessment-on-retention-of-data-by-service-providers-for-criminal-proceedings-/public-consultation_en
Robin Edgar
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