Chat control is back. Now they want to scan your entire phone.
Chat control is back on the EU agenda: Brussels proposes scanning your phone to protect minors. Is it security or mass surveillance? An analysis of the different positions.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The EU plan to scan your phone: protection or total surveillance?
The European Union is once again pushing its controversial proposal to scan private communications for illegal content. The measure, known as chat control, aims to gain access to encrypted messages under the pretext of protecting minors. But the question dividing analysts and citizens alike is whether this is a security measure or another step towards mass surveillance.
The same old strategy: crisis as an excuse
Critics point out that every crisis – from terrorism to the pandemic – has been used to expand surveillance powers. Chat control would be no exception: it is presented as an indispensable tool for child safety, but its scope goes far beyond that. The roadmap of the 2030 Agenda includes these control mechanisms, and this proposal is another step in that direction.
The paradox of the 'proge right': freedom of choice, but tied to Big Tech
Some analysts point to the contradiction of those who oppose state control yet blindly trust big tech companies. Their devices already collect massive amounts of data in the name of the market; the state merely wants to join the collection. The 'proge right', a term coined to describe those who embrace pogre rhetoric while using products from companies that spy on them, would be the first to accept chat control without complaint, seeing no danger in a system that already normalises corporate surveillance.
Chat control: real threat or smokescreen?
The positions are not mutually exclusive. On the one hand, the risk of it becoming a tool of generalised control is real and documented in other countries that have implemented similar systems. On the other, some argue that the debate over chat control distracts from more pressing economic and social problems. The reality is that the proposal is slowly moving forward in Brussels, while civil society tries to stop it.
The debate remains open. As the EU processes the legislation, privacy is being traded away in the name of security. How much we are willing to give up is the question nobody fully answers.
Related discussions in the forum
The European Union is once again pushing its controversial proposal to scan private communications for illegal content. The measure, known as chat control, aims to gain access to encrypted messages under the pretext of protecting minors. But the question dividing analysts and citizens alike is whether this is a security measure or another step towards mass surveillance.
The same old strategy: crisis as an excuse
Critics point out that every crisis – from terrorism to the pandemic – has been used to expand surveillance powers. Chat control would be no exception: it is presented as an indispensable tool for child safety, but its scope goes far beyond that. The roadmap of the 2030 Agenda includes these control mechanisms, and this proposal is another step in that direction.
The paradox of the 'proge right': freedom of choice, but tied to Big Tech
Some analysts point to the contradiction of those who oppose state control yet blindly trust big tech companies. Their devices already collect massive amounts of data in the name of the market; the state merely wants to join the collection. The 'proge right', a term coined to describe those who embrace pogre rhetoric while using products from companies that spy on them, would be the first to accept chat control without complaint, seeing no danger in a system that already normalises corporate surveillance.
Chat control: real threat or smokescreen?
The positions are not mutually exclusive. On the one hand, the risk of it becoming a tool of generalised control is real and documented in other countries that have implemented similar systems. On the other, some argue that the debate over chat control distracts from more pressing economic and social problems. The reality is that the proposal is slowly moving forward in Brussels, while civil society tries to stop it.
The debate remains open. As the EU processes the legislation, privacy is being traded away in the name of security. How much we are willing to give up is the question nobody fully answers.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (5 replies).
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