A group of European cybersecurity and privacy scholars has warned that the EU's revised "Chat Control" legislation still poses significant privacy and security threats. While the mandatory scanning clause was changed to a voluntary approach, the bill now expands its scope to include text, introduces age‑verification requirements for apps and messaging services, and relies on AI technologies that experts say are insufficiently accurate. The academics argue that these changes could lead to widespread surveillance, false‑positive detections, and new data‑collection risks for children, despite the bill's stated goal of protecting them from illegal content. Read more →

The European Union Council received a revised Child Sexual Abuse Regulation proposal that shifts mandatory content scanning to a voluntary model, with limited exceptions for high‑risk services. While the change garnered broad support among lawmakers, privacy advocates, including digital‑rights jurist Patrick Breyer and encrypted‑email provider Tuta, warn that loopholes could undermine the voluntary nature and threaten encryption. The debate continues as member states that previously opposed indiscriminate scanning watch the next steps closely. Read more →