Greens/EFA secure huge win for privacy
ChatControl extension
Today, the European Parliament has just voted to extend the temporary derogation from the ePrivacy Directive, also called ‘ChatControl 1’. A crucial amendment tabled by the Greens/EFA Group was able to implement more privacy-friendly, targeted solutions to protect children online instead of indiscriminatory and ineffective mass scanning of citizens' private communication.
The same solutions were previously agreed on in the European Parliament’s mandate for ‘ChatControl 2’, the permanent legislation, which is currently being negotiated between institutions.
Greens/EFA and Pirate Party MEP Markéta Gregorová, Greens/EFA shadow rapporteur for the legislation, comments:
"Until now, this system represented a completely disproportionate intrusion into our privacy. Platforms were scanning millions of private messages of innocent citizens without any reasonable suspicion. Thanks to the amendment we proposed and which the European Parliament supported today, the report now clearly moves toward a targeted approach. Monitoring should only apply to the communications of suspected individuals and only with judicial authorisation. This is an important step forward for protecting Europeans’ fundamental rights.
"However, this is not the end of the story. The proposal now goes into trilogue negotiations, and we will have to make sure that these safeguards remain in the final law and that a temporary exception does not turn into a permanent system of mass scanning of Europeans’ private communications."
