TZUTC: -0500   
   MSGID: 1729.consprcy@1:2320/105 2d8453b7   
   PID: Synchronet 3.21a-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.28-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0   
   BBSID: CAPCITY2   
   CHRS: ASCII 1   
   FORMAT: flowed   
   Chat Control "brings high risks to society" say privacy experts   
      
   Date:   
   Wed, 19 Nov 2025 16:54:25 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   While welcoming voluntary CSAM scanning, scientists warn that some aspects of   
   the revised bill "still bring high risks to society without clear benefits    
   for children."   
      
   FULL STORY   
      
   Chat control legislation "still brings high risks to society without clear   
   benefits for children," according to an open letter recently published by a   
   group of European academics.    
      
   After failing once again to obtain the required majority, Denmark has   
   withdrawn the mandatory scanning clause included in the original Chat Control   
   bill, making it voluntary instead.    
      
   The move was initially hailed as a victory by privacy and security experts,   
   but it was short-lived, with people warning that the text could still   
   introduce mandatory scanning " through the backdoor ."    
      
   A group of 18 top cybersecurity and privacy academics from Europe has   
   reiterated these concerns in an open letter published this week.    
      
   The letter addressed the European Council two days ahead of the November 19   
   meeting with the Committee of Permanent Representatives, with adoption   
   expected as early as December 8, 2025.   
      
   Expanding scope concerns privacy advocates   
      
   Originally, only URLs, pictures, and videos were going to be the target of   
   CSAM scanning. Now, however, lawmakers have widened the scope of the bill to   
   also include text, in a move that echoes previous versions of the bill.    
      
   In their open-letter, academics warn that broadening the scope of the   
   legislation will lead to unintended consequences. Notably, they argue that   
   "expanding the scope of detection only opens the door to surveil and examine    
   a larger part of conversations, without any guarantee of better protection."    
      
   They also highlight the potential of false positives, writing: "current AI   
   technology is far from being precise enough to undertake these tasks with   
   guarantees for the necessary level of accuracy."   
      
   Concerning mandatory age verification   
      
   The new proposal would also lead to age verification being introduced on app   
   stores and encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp. According to the   
   experts, this not only fails to help the main objective of the bill, it also   
   exposes everyone to new privacy and security risks.    
      
   "Age assessment cannot be performed in a privacy-preserving way with current   
   technology due to reliance on biometric, behavioral or contextual   
   information," they argue. "In fact, it incentives (children's) data    
   collection and exploitation."    
      
   Experts warn that even adopting an alternative approach  such as using   
   official documents for age verification  would cut off a "substantial    
   fraction of the population" from essential online services.    
      
   What's more, these provision would be easy to bypass. They "can be easily   
   evaded, by using providers outside the EU or VPNs to avoid geolocation   
   checks," experts note.   
      
   Voluntary detection still comes with risks    
      
   It appears that shifting CSAM scanning from mandatory to voluntary has been   
   enough to gain bipartisan agreements among lawmakers and end over three years   
   of failed negotiations.    
      
   But many cryptography experts and data scientists are still convinced that   
   even voluntary detection will harm security and privacy, particularly due to   
   the belief that the technology is not currently accurate or effective enough.    
      
   All in all, "on-device detection technologies cannot be considered a   
   reasonable tool to mitigate risks, as there is no proven benefit, while the   
   potential for harm and abuse is enormous," they conclude.   
      
   The open letter seems to have already influenced today's meeting.    
      
   As a leaked cable shared by a Former MEP for the German Pirate Party and   
   digital rights jurist, Patrick Breyer, shows, EU governments are removing    
   Chat Control from today's COREPER agenda because a majority has not yet been   
   reached.    
      
   This could seriously delay the adoption of the new rules, expected as early    
   as December 8, 2025.    
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/chat-control-brings-high-ri   
   sks-to-society-say-privacy-experts   
      
   $$   
   --- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux   
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)   
   SEEN-BY: 105/81 106/201 128/187 129/14 305 153/7715 154/110 218/700   
   SEEN-BY: 226/30 227/114 229/110 206 300 307 317 400 426 428 470 664   
   SEEN-BY: 229/700 705 266/512 291/111 320/219 322/757 342/200 396/45   
   SEEN-BY: 460/58 633/280 712/848 902/26 2320/0 105 304 3634/12 5075/35   
   PATH: 2320/105 229/426