19 EU countries propose monitoring communications in the EU, but what would that mean for privacy?
Led by Denmark, several EU countries have proposed monitoring online communication to combat child abuse. The so-called “Chat Control” would allow surveillance of private emails and social media messages. The proposal lacks majority support in the EU and faces strong criticism from some EU member states, including Czechia.
A contentious proposal from the European Union, often referred to as “Chat Control,” is gaining renewed support, with 19 of the 27 EU member states reportedly in favor.
Czechia remains opposed to the idea, with Prime Minister Petr Fiala, arguing that reading private communication would create huge risks of abuse and seriously endanger people’s privacy.
The plan would require messaging services such as WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram to scan all messages, photos, and videos sent by users, starting in October, even if those communications are protected by end-to-end encryption. Denmark revived the proposal on July 1, coinciding with the start of its presidency of the EU Council.
Petr Koubský from Deník N argued that, according to its proponents, the monitoring would function by building control mechanisms directly into our phones and computers, which would continuously scan for child pornography. According to Koubský, however, this would constitute an invasion of privacy:
“Once this technology is built in, it basically allows anything to be monitored. It's an invasion of privacy that can't be reversed. Once it's created and becomes mandatory, everyone would have to use it.”
The service operator would oversee these conversations, whether on WhatsApp or on cloud services that store files remotely, such as Google Drive or iCloud.
According to the proposal's proponents, the operator would be the first to see the content and would then be required to report it to the police or another law enforcement agency, Koubský explains. However, Koubský clarifies that service operators already monitor communications to some extent:
“All cloud service operators monitor what we use and don't use to some extent, because they all have rules about what can and cannot be used there. However, there are powerful protection tools, known as end-to-end encryption, which prevent this.
“They prevent others from seeing what we do there. This is exactly the case with WhatsApp, when encryption is enabled, or with applications like Signal. And this is precisely the most controversial aspect, because even these platforms would have to forfeit that protection. In other words, the privacy of internet communication would effectively cease to exist for citizens of the European Union.”
Critics of the regulation also note that it could be easily bypassed using VPN applications or other methods:
“Not only with VPN applications, there are several other ways to circumvent it. This means, as is always the case in similar situations, that those who want to circumvent and abuse the system will always find a way. And while the rest of us are doing nothing wrong, our privacy will be violated and the trust in our communications will be broken.”
According to Koubský, the provision would go against the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which is one of the documents to which the European Union refers. Proponents instead argue that it would be better to protect children from predators and harmful content online.
