- Experts are once more caution in opposition to the EU’s plans to weaken encryption
- On May 26, 2025, 89 signatories revealed a joint letter to induce the European Commission to “reframe its approach.”
- Unveiled remaining April, ProtectEU targets to discover a criminal solution to create a backdoor into encrypted communications
The EU plan to create a criminal backdoor into encrypted communications assists in keeping elevating considerations.
This time, 89 signatories coming from the tech business – together with civil society organizations, one of the most easiest VPN and e mail suppliers, and cybersecurity mavens – are caution in opposition to the privateness and safety risks of the Technology Roadmap on encryption integrated within the ProtectEU technique.
In a joint letter revealed on Monday, May 26, 2025, mavens are actually urging the European Commission to “reframe its approach” and give protection to robust encryption practices.
The want for robust encryption
“While we recognize the importance of elevating security efforts during moments of increased geopolitical instability, we are concerned by the framing of the technology roadmap,” mavens wrote.
Encryption, the scrambling of knowledge into an unreadable shape to stop undesirable get right of entry to, is the spine of ways products and services like Signal, WhatsApp, and Proton Mail paintings. Yet, regulation enforcement has lengthy argued that this era is a disadvantage to prison investigations.
As cyberattack incidents stay emerging international, despite the fact that, even executive our bodies, just like the FBI and CISA in the United States, have began to inspire electorate to swicth to end-to-end encrypted products and services to struggle again those threats.
The European Commission itself prior to now said encryption as wanted to offer protection to the integrity of our on-line world, too.
This is why, for the signatories, who come with the likes of Proton, Surfshark, Tuta Mail, Mozilla, and Element, along main cryptographers and virtual rights teams, this era stays a “key cybersecurity tool” that can not be compromised.
“Undermining encryption weakens the very foundation of secure communications and systems, leaving individuals, businesses, and public institutions more vulnerable to attacks,” they wrote.
🔒 𝐄𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐲𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐧-𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 🔒Together with ~90 orgs & folks, we have despatched an open letter to the EU Commission to uphold robust encryption.No executive can trade the regulations of math.Read the open letter ⤵️https://t.co/pdyoSEjoCH percent.twitter.com/CdP1WYjpyZMay 26, 2025
ProtectEU comes as step one within the EU Commission’s plan to strengthen the safety of the European bloc within the future years. While we do not know a lot on the time of writing, we do know the tactic comprises discovering a technical solution to create encryption backdoors into tool. That’s precisely what maximum worries the tech benches.
They wrote: “We are deeply concerned by the Commission’s continued focus on identifying ways to weaken or circumvent encryption. This undermines its own security objectives under the ProtectEU strategy.”
The European Commission has already attempted to weaken encryption with its proposal to scan all electorate’ communications to halt the unfold of kid sexual subject matter, actually. Deemed through critics as Chat Control, the invoice has been failing to draw the wanted majority since 2022.
Along the way in which, the European Court of Human Rights even dominated “unlawful destroy encryption,” a troublesome blow for the supporters of client-side scanning applied sciences to observe encrypted communications.
Did you realize?
While messaging apps and e mail suppliers are set to be the primary goal of lawmakers, an EU knowledgeable team explicitly lately referred to VPN products and services as “key challenges” to the investigative paintings of regulation enforcement businesses for the first actual time, along encrypted gadgets, apps, and new communications operators.
Now, mavens imagine that what lawmakers intention to do below the ProtectEU technique will result in the similar safety, human rights, and responsibility problems.
They then urge to reframe the Technology Roadmap on Encryption through bearing in mind additionally the business considerations, now not handiest the ones of regulation enforcement.
“Any future roadmap that aspires to be credible and balanced must consider the feasibility of any potential technological capabilities and their societal, technical, and legal impact,” they conclude.
This is the second one time virtual rights and tech mavens have got in combination to name at the European Commission to not undermine encryption with the brand new ProtectEU plan since April 1, 2025, the day the plan used to be first unveiled. Also on that instance, mavens advised lawmakers to cause them to an energetic a part of the method.
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