EU’s proposal to combat child abuse carries risks for individual rights – Data protection authorities
EU’s proposal to combat child abuse is criticized by Data protection authorities for risking individual rights due to indiscriminate scanning of electronic communications. The proposal intends to enforce strict measures on service providers to tackle online child sexual abuse material. The authorities emphasize the importance of encryption in safeguarding privacy, freedom of expression, and digital growth, suggesting not discouraging end-to-end encryption to maintain its integrity.
In a Joint Opinion on the Proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) said that the EU’s proposal in the present form poses more risk to individuals, and society, including risk of infringing on individuals’ privacy and personal data through indiscriminate and generalised scanning of all types of electronic communication.
The proposal aims to impose stringent obligations for detecting, reporting, removing and blocking online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on hosting service providers, software application stores, internet access services, other service providers.
The joint opinion says that since encryption helps to protect confidentiality of communications, freedom of expression, innovation and growth of the digital economy, end-to-end encryption should not be discouraged as it will weaken encryption.
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