The council of the European Union is asking technology companies for technical solutions for the authorities to gain access to the data. The cryptocurrency ecosystem is waiting for regulatory proposals.
A resolution calling for new rules to regulate end-to-end encryption (E2E) in Europe saw the light of day on December 14 by the Council of the European Union; a body made up of ministers from the 27 eurozone countries.
The document is seeking to create pressure on the European Commission to propose legislation against data encryption. In this sense, it justifies the need for new rules by stating that “law enforcement increasingly depends on access to electronic evidence to effectively fight terrorism, organized crime and child sexual abuse online.”
Therefore, the Council asks technology companies to find ways to limit data encryption so that police and security agencies can quickly access a suspect’s messages or devices.
In its resolution, the Council of the European Union indicates that, although it agrees to take advantage of the advantages that the encryption system offers, it considers it preferable to develop technical solutions that could allow the authorities to use their researching powers.
Therefore, it considers that using encryption should be subject to proportionality, needs, and judicial control of the authorities, following the current legislation in Europe.
“Electronic evidence can be essential, not only for successful investigations but also for protecting victims and helping to ensure safety. There are cases in which encryption allows access and analysis of the content of communications in the context of access to extremely challenging or practically impossible electronic evidence even though access to such data would be lawful.”Council of the European Union.
The Idea of The Organism is that Messaging Applications, Such as Whatsapp or Telegram, Allow the Authorities Access to Back Doors.
These companies use an encryption system that scrambles each message. End-to-end encrypted messages do not remain on the servers, so they are not accessible to anyone, not even the police. This is exactly what worries the European Union, and that is why it wants to have access to all this encrypted data.
The main argument is that E2E encryption poses “serious public safety risks.” Consequently, they see as something negative that this type of encryption “prevents legal access to the content of communications in any circumstances.”
The request set its argument on the conclusions of the European Council in October this year. The funds from the Recovery and Resilience Service will be useful to promote goals such as improving the EU’s ability to protect itself against cyber threats.
Encryption occupies the authority of various governments around the world.
It is not the first time that European Union countries dared to consider the creation of legislation against encryption. There were attempts in 2015, with the European Agenda on Security; and several regulatory petitions in 2016. Nothing materialized due to protests from tech companies, academics, and ordinary people.
This is why it is believed that the EU Council now takes a more subtle approach and does not present clear proposals in its resolution, limiting itself only to asking for a new legal framework and technical solutions. It is an interest in regulating the E2E encryption that not only occupies the authorities of the European Union but of various parts of the world.
Two months ago the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, India, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, issued a joint statement. They expressed concern about using this technology, even though they consider that it “plays a crucial role in the protection of personal data, privacy, intellectual property, trade secrets, and cyber security.”
The controversy is also present in the United States with the draft of the so-called “EARN IT law.”The proposal, approved in October by the Senate, calls for digital messages to go through government-approved scanning software first to grant easier access to malicious criminal activity.
By: Jenson Nuñez.
