FZI Position on Chat Control
Initiative jeopardizes fundamental right to security and confidentiality of digital communication
Research Focus: Safety, Security and the Law
According to our analysis, the EU draft on combating child sexual abuse online, also known as chat control, jeopardizes the digital security of all citizens. Instead of protecting children, it enables mass surveillance and abusive exploitation, threatening the fundamental right to confidential communication in the EU.
The draft “Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse”, currently being prepared by the Council of the European Union, aims to better protect children and young people from sexual abuse in the digital space. This goal is undisputed. According to our scientific analysis, the planned implementation fails to achieve this very aim. It suggests a technical solution that, due to the state of the art, currently does not exist.
Instead, the implementation of what is better known as the CSA Regulation or Chat Control EU initiative will, in the future, allow state security authorities new possibilities unintended by the legislator, such as mass surveillance. On entry into force of the draft regulation, a massive infringement of the fundamental right to security and confidentiality of digital communication will occur, affecting all European Union (EU) residents and shaking a cornerstone of our democratic community of values.
We, therefore, demand the preservation and continued protection of the fundamental right to security and confidentiality of digital communication. The envisaged technical implementation of chat control massively jeopardizes the confidentiality of even end-to-end encrypted chat messages. The European Union should, therefore, not transform the CSA Regulation in its current form into an EU Directive or Regulation.
The complete position paper can be downloaded as PDF.
About the FZI
The FZI Research Center for Information Technology, with headquarters in Karlsruhe and a branch office in Berlin, is a non-profit institution for information technology application research and technology transfer. It delivers the latest scientific findings in information technology to companies and public institutions and qualifies individuals for academic and business careers or the leap into self-employment. Supervised by professors from various faculties, the research groups at the FZI develop interdisciplinary concepts, software, hardware and system solutions for their clients and implement the solutions found as prototypes. The FZI House of Living Labs provides a unique research environment for application research. The FZI is an innovation partner of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and strategic partner of the German Informatics Society (GI).
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