7 comments

  • random3 9 minutes ago
    And, of course, no thought is given to the implications this could have in conjunction with the next Orban. Europe is aligning against Russia as a threat, while at the same time shooting itself in the foot by disabling basic rights like privacy with absolutely no memory of how much more basic lack of privacy (enabled by Facebook) was leveraged with relatively simple tools (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook–Cambridge_Analytica_d...) to help Brexit happen (effectively breaking Europe apart).

    This quote from Apocalypto stuck with me "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."

  • bradley13 6 minutes ago
    The European Commission has far too much power, and answers far too little to the populace. In reality, they want to be dictators.

    If you don't know, the unfortunate way thf EU is structured, the Parliament cannot initiate legislation. They can only vote on whatever the Commission puts in front of them.

    If the Parliament votes "wrong", the Commission just repackages the idea in a new bill, pulls a couple of dirty tricks, and tried again. They only have to succeed once. See ChatControl for a prime example.

    So the EU will eventually require backdoors in encryption. It's only a question of how many tries it takes...

  • Kim_Bruning 41 minutes ago
    Meanwhile the latest gen ai agents are able to crack everything not nailed down. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49494301

    Leaving holes might not be the best plan atm

  • microtonal 1 hour ago
    Is the actual text of the workplan somewhere? The linked article refers to the text

    more effective tools for law enforcement

    in the press release and then infers or implies that this means more encryption backdoors, but I could not find that in an actual EU text?

    (Edit: I'm not doubting that they want to make backdoors mandatory, I'd just like to see the actual text.)

    • petre 1 hour ago
      It's linked in the second paragraph of article.

        More effective tools for law enforcement and stronger JHA agencies
      
        Law enforcement needs the right tools to be effective. And with 85% of criminal investigations relying on digital information, this includes lawful access to data:
      
        …
        · A Roadmap on lawful and effective access to data for law enforcement,
        · A Technology Roadmap on encryption, and an impact assessment with a view to updating the EU's data retention rules.
      
      This is pushing for encryption backdoors in eurocrat speech: lawful access to data, roadmap, impact assesment, updating rules.
      • microtonal 56 minutes ago
        What you are citing from is an older press release from April 2025.
      • yyny 27 minutes ago
        "Law enforcement need lawful ways to enter a home"

        "See! The government is trying to pick all our locks"

        Okay dude. Taking off the tinfoil hat for a second here, but maybe they're just trying to do the thing they say they are doing, namely, lessen friction to obtain things like camera footage, financial data, and internet usage.

        • ChrisMarshallNY 21 minutes ago
          Maybe. I think that strengthening laws that force servers to be more diligent would be unpopular (especially with this crowd), but it's a lot different from forcing backdoors.

          The idea of backdoors needs to be drawn and quartered, and the pieces buried under crossroads.

  • jruohonen 1 hour ago
    Google "security despite encryption" etc. It is some good rhetorical manipulation a'la EU over again.
    • dgellow 1 hour ago
      We see it in the EU here but the groups pushing for that are everywhere, including the US, UK, Australia, etc

      So frustrating to go though that exact same debate every few years

      • microtonal 1 hour ago
        Indeed. This is also why we should resist getting locked further into the Apple/Google duopoly. In such closed systems it will be straightforward to require backdoors. Much harder if we have general-purpose computers that we can run our own software on.
        • nerdalytics 55 minutes ago
          That's why for wallet features only Apple and Google are allowed. Condition everyone picking only iOS or Android, but not Linux, or others.
  • nekusar 34 minutes ago
    I came from the oldschool cypherpunk cryptogeeks when it meant secure comms and not shitcoin.

    There was a subset of us who thought that encryption wasn't the final goal, but steganography was needed to HIDE the encrypted comms. Else simple encryption could be attacked legally, or with a crowbar.

    And with every bloody week a large government is "let's backdoor encryption haha" its high time to really develop stego that can overlay on top of text, pictures, audio, and video. Only then can they play fuck-fuck games about spying on our comms, and they'll see innocuous banter - but its really stego'd comms overlay.

    • notpushkin 22 minutes ago
      The point was never to make it impossible to have E2E communication. They just want to make it too inconvenient so that they can spy on the ordinary people. Criminals will, of course, find a way to have secure conversations – this is just a pretext.
  • miroljub 1 hour ago
    Only a fascist like totalitarian government would keep pushing for more and control and les freedoms.

    Their biggest ploy was they convicted people 1984 was a description of a communist dictatorship, and not an execution manual for European democracies on how to strengthen their grips.

    • tokai 51 minutes ago
      I'm so tired of reading stuff like this under any article covering the political struggle over surveillance in EU. While US posts about surveilling journalists, letting 'law' enforcement run wild with no oversight, and so on, either gets flagged to death or talked down.
      • watwut 0 minutes ago
        It has nothing to with EU itseld and a lot of to do with far right trying to turn people against EU.

        EU in general is the last hope for democracy and it is kinda at risk. They want to push it over the line and break down.

      • DarmokTanagra 38 minutes ago
        When you stop seeing it is when you know there is a real problem.
      • baal80spam 49 minutes ago
        Funny, I see something completely opposite.