European Court of Human Rights rules that mandating backdoors for messaging apps will strengthen government surveillance and lead to human rights violations



The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that ``It is a violation of human rights for governments to require messaging app developers to introduce a mechanism that allows them to remove end-to-end encryption.''

CASE OF PODCHASOV v. RUSSIA
https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng/?i=001-230854

European Court of Human Rights bans weakening of secure end-to-end encryption – the end of EU's chat control CSAR mass surveillance plans? – Patrick Breyer
https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/european-court-of-human-rights-bans-weakening-of-secure-end-to-end-encryption-the-end-of-eus-chat- control-csar-mass-surveillance-plans/

Many messaging apps have adopted end-to-end encryption technology, which prevents communication content such as texts and images from being viewed by anyone other than the person involved. However, it has been pointed out that ``strong end-to-end encryption hinders investigations by the police,'' and several countries are discussing the establishment of rules that would require regulatory authorities to provide a means to remove end-to-end encryption. I am.

For example, in the EU, discussions are progressing on a ``chat regulation law'' that would require monitoring of communication content on messaging apps in the name of ``preventing child sexual abuse.'' However, in order to be able to monitor the content of end-to-end encrypted communications, it is necessary to take measures such as ``installing a backdoor in the encryption system that allows decryption,'' and it is necessary to avoid weakening security. I can't. For this reason, there has been a lot of opposition to regulations requiring the provision of decryption methods.

Criticism of the EU's ``chat regulation law'' that risks weakening the encryption of online services in the name of preventing child sexual abuse - GIGAZINE



In addition, in Russia, the Russian government is requesting the messaging app Telegram to provide information during a criminal investigation, and Telegram says, ``In order to provide information, we need to install a backdoor into the message encryption system.'' ” and is protesting. The European Court of Human Rights' decision was based on a complaint by Anton Valeryevich Podchasov, who lives in Russia, claiming that ``the Russian government's obligation to provide Telegram with decryption technology is a human rights violation.''

The European Court of Human Rights has said that creating backdoors in encryption systems could lead to the 'weakening of all communications'. Furthermore, it warns that creating backdoors not only invites increased government surveillance, but also significantly degrades security and invites exploitation by cyber attackers.

In addition, the European Court of Human Rights acknowledged that message encryption makes criminal investigations difficult, but pointed out that the disadvantages to users outweigh the benefits of creating bagdoors. concluded that it constitutes infringement.

Patrick Breyer of the Pirate Party, which has opposed the EU's anti-chat law, said, ``The European Court of Human Rights' ruling is a victory for civil liberties. ”, indicating that they will continue to propose amendments to the chat regulation law based on the European Court of Human Rights judgment.




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in Software,   Security, Posted by log1o_hf