MARKÉTA GREGOROVÁ
In recent years, civil-society organizations and industry players have joined forces to protect encrypted messaging from government intrusion. In an age of surveillance, notes the former Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, encryption is “a vital human rights tool.” In my own work on security and foreign affairs as a member of the European Parliament, I have seen firsthand why this is true. Activists, journalists, human-rights defenders, and ordinary citizens all rely on the right to privacy, viewing it as a core European value that underpins freedom of expression and democracy itself.
Encryption is one of the most important privacy-enabling technologies in today’s world, which is why most essential online services – messaging apps, calls, emails, file sharing, payments – rely on it. The most effective form, end-to-end encryption, ensures that only the communicating parties can decrypt and see the content of their messages, making unauthorized access impossible (as with Signal or WhatsApp).
But governments and law-enforcement agencies have been increasingly eager to access encrypted communications, even if that means undermining public confidence in privacy protection. Across EU member states, several governments want to weaken encryption technologies under the guise of fighting terrorism and other crime.
No comments:
Post a Comment