"On Wednesday, 11 May 2022, the EU Commission is expected to publish the draft law on so-called chat control. An AI-based check of all message content and images directly on our devices is planned. The so-called client-side scanning would be an attack on all confidential communication."
The draft provides for all communication content to be examined directly on our devices and to be diverted in case of suspicion. This client-side scanning would not be the first exaggerated and misguided surveillance method justified by the fight against child abuse.
Undoubtedly, those affected by child abuse need to be better helped, but chat control is an exuberant approach, easy to circumvent and starts in the completely wrong place. Without expected success in the sense of the actual goal, an unprecedented monitoring tool is to be introduced.
Completely missed the target
The proposed bill provides for each device to examine every message for images of child abuse and criminals contacting children. If such content is detected in a message, it should be forwarded directly to a control body or the police. Mass scanning not only attacks confidential communication at its foundations, but would also be ineffective: Criminals already use distribution channels that would not be affected by these scans today and will easily escape the scans in the future: The perpetrators use public hosters instead of the messengers targeted by the Commission – not least because messengers are completely unsuitable for exchanging large file collections. Before the exchange, they also encrypt the data additionally. For this reason alone, the planned surveillance will not prevent the dissemination of abuse images.
No trusted communication without trusted devices
Not only journalists and whistleblowers are dependent on trustworthy communication – it is a fundamental right and an important cornerstone of all our IT security. For communication to be truly trustworthy, two conditions must be met:
• Your own device must have integrity and must not divert content to third parties
• The encryption must be secure so that we do not have to trust the network
With the secrecy of telecommunications and the fundamental right to guarantee the confidentiality and integrity of information technology systems, chat control overrides two fundamental rights. Users lose control over which data they share with whom and how. They lose basic trust in their own devices. So far, it is not clear who should define and control the detection algorithms and databases. Such a non-transparent system can and will be easily expanded after its introduction. It is already foreseeable that the rights exploitation industry will be just as keenly interested in the system as anti-democratic governments. All the more frightening is the innocence with which it is now to be introduced.
Error rates lead to a flood of images at control points
An "artificial intelligence" that examines for abuse content will also falsely mark content as illegal. Even the smallest error rates would lead to massive amounts of incorrectly "detected" and diverted messages: In Germany alone, far more than half a billion messages are sent per day. Even enormously "good" detection rates would lead to the rejection of several thousand messages per day. Of course, the probability of rejection increases with private, completely legal and consensual image exchange among adults and adolescents. Young adults can already look forward to the assessment of their age by the control bodies. The dull concern about whether our messages are being diverted, who is looking at them, and how safe they are from abuse there will affect us all. At the same time, mountains of irrelevant material will accumulate at the checkpoints and prevent the officials from carrying out important investigative work. Investigative authorities are already overloaded with the data generated today. Investigation successes are missing, and found materials are not even deleted. Effectively eliminating these shortcomings would be the most important goal in the fight against child abuse. Instead, the Commission wants to rely on mass surveillance and the promises of salvation of "artificial intelligence".
Chat control is fundamentally to be rejected as a fundamentally misguided technology.
Any bets on when people start ditching their smart phones?
Some important safeguards need to be put into place. . . something like a FISA warrant. Oh! Wait! . . ..
All of them? That’s a pretty tall order.
Better find a clean white cloth to polish all those Algo-rhytms up a little bit.
Eff, the new world order!
NSA: “That’s our job!”
Is it just me, or reading it in German makes it sound even more totalitarian...
Just want to make sure they know I'm not a threat to anyone.
Governments will and do snoop to the extent technology and manpower admits. The law has no effect on this. All the so-called “provacy” laws and constitutional provisions are there to facilitate the goverment LYING that it practices restraint in snooping. It may practice restraint in opening cases and record keeping, but that is also to maintain an illusion of privacy.
From the U.S. government’s CARNIVORE and ESCHLON to this EU crap and the social media platforms censorship. Add in a corrupt corporate media in the DNC pockets and guess what?
George Orwell was a prophet.
5.56mm