Analysis: European Union regulatory threat to chat control will lead to risk of centralized surveillance

Recently, Europe came close to passing a proposal for mass surveillance of private communications called "chat control". The proposal was strongly opposed by all sectors of society because it would force service providers to scan all private information. The proposal was ultimately rejected because Germany refused to support it. Only nine European Union member states opposed the proposal, 12 supported it and six were undecided.
The narrow margin vote highlights the fragility of the legal consensus around privacy. Even within the European Union, which has a Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Declaration of Digital Rights and Principles, and some of the world's strictest personal data protection laws, policymakers are increasingly inclined to view privacy and encryption as issues to be scrutinized rather than as key attributes of digital infrastructure to be defended. This false argument that security requires and justifies mass surveillance is gaining traction on the regulatory agenda, a worrying development.