Private communications are a cornerstone of democratic society and must be protected. That’s why the Privacy and Access Council of Canada (PACC) joins 35 civil society organizations in calling on the European Commission to ensure that the forthcoming Legislation to effectively tackle child sexual abuse preserves and protects fundamental rights and freedoms.
We are seriously concerned that proposed online harms regulations are not proportional to the harms the laws themselves will cause — and that the legislation would set a dangerous precedent for mass spying on private communications, including communications sent to and from Canada. Passage of the law in its current form would also support Canadian government efforts to pass equivalent encryption-busting and privacy-invasive laws it proposes to regulate the internet under the guise of tackling child sexual abuse and other conduct that is criminal or critical.
Without substantive changes, people’s private communications would become collateral damage of the forthcoming legislation — because the only way platforms can identify illegal or hurtful text and images is by inspecting all content. And that requires breaking the very encryption that protects children’s communication and those of everyone else.
People around the world routinely rely on private communications for everything from chatting with family and friends, to contacting doctors and lawyers, to blowing the whistle on corruption and organizing for social change.
Secure and genuinely private communications are essential for data protection professionals to have confidence that the personal information communicated by their organization will only be seen by the intended recipient. Encryption-busting laws that require every communication be examined and evaluated automatically — by an unknown technology company that could be anywhere in the world — makes it impossible for organizations and governments to comply with governing privacy laws.
As we have seen in the past three weeks of armed conflict, privacy and safety are mutually reinforcing rights. People under attack, and those who question or oppose their governments, depend on privacy-preserving technologies to coordinate protection for their families, communicate with journalists and politicians, and fight for their own safety and rights.
Laws to identify criminal activity without undermining privacy can indeed be crafted without jeopardizing commerce, innovation, or careers. It takes enlightenment about the unintended consequences of encryption-busting laws, a bit of imagination and fortitude, and the political will to write laws that genuinely safeguard personal privacy.
Read more in EDRi’s blogpost: https://edri.org/our-work/private-communications-are-a-cornerstone-of-democratic-society-and-must-be-protected-in-online-csam-legislation/
Read the open letter: https://edri.org/our-work/protecting-digital-rights-and-freedoms-in-the-legislation-to-effectively-tackle-child-abuse/
Learn more about why privacy matters: https://www.pacc-ccap.ca/privacy-matters
