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   Chat Control is "like a malware on your device"  Signal slams the EU proposal   
   to scan your private chats   
      
   Date:   
   Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:00:04 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   Signa said it could leave Europe instead of weakening encryption if the   
   controversial Child Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR) proposal were to pass.   
      
   FULL STORY   
      
   Secure encrypted messaging app Signal said that the EU proposal to scan all   
   citizens' private messages would work as targeted spyware.    
      
   What's been nicknamed by its critics, Chat Control, is the European   
   Commission's response to online child safety. As per the latest iteration of   
   the text, all messaging platforms operating in the EU would be obliged to    
   scan all URLs, pictures, and videos shared by their users in the lookout for   
   child sexual abuse material (CSAM).    
      
   This mandatory scanning is expected to occur directly on the device and, in   
   the case of encrypted apps, before messages are encrypted. A requirement    
   that, according to Signal , cannot be compatible with how encryption works.    
      
   "Apart from the legal bit, that's exactly how malware works. It compromises   
   your device in order to gain access to information," said Signals   
   vice-president for global affairs, Udbhav Tiwari.    
      
   "Very simply put, the idea that a device will scan content before it is   
   encrypted for us negates the very purpose of encryption."    
      
   First unveiled in 2022, the EU has never been closer to agreeing to the Child   
   Sexual Abuse Regulation (CSAR) proposal, with a crucial meeting set for   
   October 14.   
      
   Signal could leave Europe   
      
   Signal has repeatedly said that if a requirement to create an encryption   
   backdoor were to become law, the company would rather leave that market than   
   weaken encryption. A position that Meredith Whittaker, President of the   
   non-profit Signal Foundation, behind the encrypted service, recently   
   reiterated to a German news outlet .    
      
    Speaking during an online event organized by the European Greens Party,   
   Tiwari also confirmed that there are no plans "to make two versions of   
   Signal." One that does client-side scanning and one that doesn't.    
      
   "For Signal, this is an existential catastrophic risk for providing our   
   services in the European Union. It would negate the primary promises to our   
   users, and I think that's a risk that many people are going to face," he    
   said.    
      
   Signal and other experts have long argued that client-side scanning would   
   break encryption protection, which is used by the best VPN and other    
   encrypted apps to protect your data from unauthorized access. Ultimately,    
   this will also create a vulnerable endpoint that malicious actors can    
   exploit, too.   
      
   Germany: the deciding factor    
      
   Ahead of a crucial Chat Control meeting set for October 14 , Germany remains    
   a decisive vote. Yet, the government continues to send mixed messages.    
      
   Germany is among the countries that have been shifting their positions ahead   
   of the important day, in fact. After joining the countries opposing mandatory   
   chat scanning in September, the nation is now among the undecided countries   
   again, according to the latest data .    
      
   This is why Whittaker urges German citizens to "let German politicians know   
   how harmful, counterproductive, and self-sabotaging their reversal would be."    
      
   Signal is certainly not alone in feeling this way. Cryptographers,   
   technologists, digital rights experts, and even some politicians have long   
   warned against the implications such a scanning of all citizens' confidential   
   chats will have for their privacy and security.    
      
   Some European government bodies, including those of Sweden and the    
   Netherlands , have also deemed the deployment of so-called client-side   
   scanning on all devices an unacceptable cybersecurity risk to national   
   security. The outcry pushed Chat Control lawmakers to add a provision   
   excluding all governments and military accounts. Evidently, though, the risk   
   is worth it for all of us.    
      
   According to Tiwari, continuing to push for mandatory scanning regardless of   
   the risks is ultimately a "slippery slope with global consequences." What    
   will start with CSAM scanning could extend to terrorism, intellectual   
   properties, and, who knows, what else. A capability that could also give a    
   new and more disruptive way for authoritarian governments to restrict their   
   citizens' rights.    
      
   "There are global consequences to building these technological capabilities.   
   We should very strongly push back against it because if that ends up being   
   implemented, we would have crossed a threshold from which I don't think we   
   will be able to come back as a society."   
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/chat-control-is-like-a-malw   
   are-on-your-device-signal-slams-the-eu-proposal-to-scan-your-private-chats   
      
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