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   France rejects controversial encryption backdoor provision   
      
   Date:   
   Wed, 12 Mar 2025 11:10:46 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   Encryption is saved in France, but this protection may be at risk in other   
   European countries. Here's what at stake.   
      
   FULL STORY   
   ======================================================================   
      
   Digital privacy advocates saved encryption in France last week, yet again, as   
   MPs finally rejected a controversial provision to create a backdoor for law   
   enforcement.    
      
   The infamous Article 8 of the proposed Drug Trafficking Act  which is   
   currently passing to the country's National Assembly  would have required all   
   encrypted messaging apps and secure email services to decrypt user data upon   
   an authority's request.    
      
   The decision to preserve people's privacy and security is certainly a victory   
   for the tech industry. Yet, "we must keep fighting for privacy and keep   
   raising our voices  as long as there are still politicians trying to break   
   encryption," press officer at Tuta Mail , Hanna Bozakov, told TechRadar. The   
   dangers of an encryption backdoor    
      
   Previously passed by the Senate, the bill aimed at "freeing France from the   
   trap of drug trafficking" came as an attempt to create a strong framework to   
   investigate these types of crimes.    
      
   As mentioned earlier, requiring the installation of encryption backdoors into   
   the likes of ProtonMail , Signal, and WhatsApp has attracted strong criticism   
   in and out of the political benches.    
      
    Encryption refers to scrambling data into an unreadable form to prevent   
   third-party access. End-to-end encryption is the reiteration that messaging   
   apps and secure email services, among other tools like today's best VPNs ,    
   use to protect data in transit by keeping it private between the sender and   
   the receiver  end to end.    
      
   As cryptographers and other experts have long argued, however, it's not   
   possible to create an encryption backdoor that only good guys can exploit.    
      
   Commenting on the French case, CEO of Tuta Mail, Matthias Pfau, said: "A   
   backdoor for the good guys only is a dangerous illusion. Weakening encryption   
   for law enforcement inevitably creates vulnerabilities that can  and will  be   
   exploited by cybercriminals and hostile foreign actors." Do you know? (Image   
   credit: Getty Images) In 2016, France also rejected an amendment to its   
   Digital Republic law requiring the creation of an encryption backdoor. The   
   provision was introduced as an attempt to fight against terrorism but was   
   deemed a "vulnerability by design" by France's digital minister at the time,   
   Axelle Lemaire  The Register reported .    
      
   As the Global Encryption Coalition warned in an open letter published on    
   March 4, a backdoor would have also weakened the French messaging app Olvid,   
   which was officially certified by the country's cybersecurity agency and   
   recommended to French ministers and government officials.    
      
   Considering the Salt Typhoon hack in the US  which sparked a warning to    
   switch to encrypted services  and France's concern for Russian alleged   
   cyberattacks, as Politico reported , "the reliance by the French government,   
   citizens, and businesses on end-to-end encryption to keep themselves safe and   
   secure has never been greater," noted experts.    
      
   The National Assembly eventually listened to concerns from the industry and   
   scraped the encryption backdoor requirement in the bill on March 6.    
      
   Despite the widespread criticism, however, France's Interior Minister Bruno   
   Retailleau confirmed his support for the encryption backdoor provision as a   
   necessity to ensure "maximum efficiency" in combating organized crimes, Le   
   Monde reported .    
      
   Commenting on this point, Bozakov from Tuta Mail told TechRadar: "I am    
   worried that politicians still do not understand anything about cybersecurity    
    even though there are enormous foreign threats right now targeting our   
   societies mainly from Russia and China."   
      
   Not just France    
      
   France's attempt to undermine encryption may have been halted once again.   
   However, the country isn't alone in pushing to pick the lock of encrypted   
   communications to facilitate criminal investigations.    
      
   Sweden is also considering passing a similar requirement for the likes of   
   Signal, WhatsApp, and iMessage. If successful, the new rules could come into   
   force as early as March 2026.    
      
   Side-client scanning is just an encryption backdoor but with a fancy name   
    - Romain Digneaux, Proton   
      
   These plans have already attracted strong criticism from the tech industry,   
   with Signal President Meredith Whittaker reiterating that Signal would rather   
   leave the country than undermine its encryption protections.    
      
   On February 21, 2025, Apple was even forced to kill its iCloud's end-to-end   
   encryption feature in the UK following a government order to create an   
   encryption backdoor.    
      
   Since 2022, the EU has also been trying to pass its Chat Control proposal to   
   scan citizens' private communications, including encrypted messages, to halt   
   the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).    
      
   As Romain Digneaux, Public Policy Manager at Proton (the provider behind   
   Proton VPN and Proton Mail), points out, while these efforts are nothing new   
   and tend to fail (as in the case of France), they consistently come back.    
      
   "What we see is creativity from law enforcement to try to push the same old   
   concept with new names  and that's concerning," Digneaux told TechRadar.    
      
   "The side-client scanning is a clear example of that. That's just an   
   encryption backdoor but with a fancy name. Something that sounds more   
   technical and more acceptable to people who don't necessarily understand how   
   the tech works."   
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/france-rejects-controversia   
   l-encryption-backdoor-provision   
      
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