On the European Day on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (#EndChildSexAbuseDay) on 18 November 2023, civil rights activist and MEP Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party, Greens/EFA) calls for a rational debate on effective child protection rather than embracing mass surveillance solutionism:

“Paedocriminals can circumvent any form of surveillance, but a society tackling child protection in a rational way can make a real difference. As long as surveillance projects such as chat control and blanket data retention are confused with child protection, there will be a lack of political will to invest in direct and genuine child protection. Europe urgently needs a rational debate about effective child protection rather than embracing mass surveillance solutionism.

Statistically speaking, there are one or two children in every school class who have suffered sexualised violence (“Vor unseren Augen”, 2023, German only). In 70 to 85% of all cases, according to the Council of Europe, child sexual abuse is committed by someone the child knows and trusts. Perpetrators mainly lurk in the immediate vicinity and use strategies to gain trust and extort secrecy. In 90% of cases, the sexual offences are not reported to the police. Perpetrators benefit from the lack of awareness, education and professional handling of the issue of child sexual abuse.

On the Internet, organised criminals, unlike the majority of citizens, technically protect themselves from surveillance measures. The journalist and darknet expert Daniel Moßbrucker has succeeded in disrupting a paedocriminal forum and force it to give up. He calls on law enforcement agencies to initiate a paradigm shift. Their current tactics are allowing the darknet forums to grow, even though this could be curbed by proactive removal.

For better child protection, Europe needs mandatory protection programmes and responsible experts in schools, churches and sports clubs. Europe urgently needs long-term and well-funded awareness campaigns and counselling services, child and youth work as well as a strong civil society. When it comes to investigation, the solutions are raising public awareness, specially trained experts, long-term investigations, removal of child sexual exploitation content, targeted investigation orders and login traps.

It is misleading, inappropriate for the topic and contradicts the available science to claim that programmes of mass surveillance have an effect on structures and strategies of paedocriminality. Rather, the issue of child protection is being used as a pretext to politically enforce surveillance measures such as the lobbying project Chat Control or the blanket data retention of internet addresses. Our children and abuse victims deserve real, effective, court-proof and rights-respecting protection. Let’s stop spying and start protecting.”

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Siamo nell’epoca della guerra al cambiamento climnatico e all’inquinamento.

Siamo sulla soglia di non ritorno (chi parla del 2030, ma per altri l’abbiamo già superata) che decreta il futuro del mondo quale lo conosciamo e la nostra stessa esistenza come specie. Risorse, mancano, bisogna trovare fonti alternative, bisogna ottimizzare quelle che abbiamo, bisogna cambiare paradigma: d’altro canto è scritto nei testi di antropologia che solo chi si sa adattare sopravvive.

Fatto questo preambolo ecco uno spunto di riflessione.

Versione semplificata da alcuni esempi e macro evidenze di un contesto più articolato in cui il modello è sempre quello: un mondo di squali e guerra alle risorse (siano esse materie prime, siano vite ed esseri umani).

Poi ognuno può trarre le proprie conclusioni.

Da una parte abbiamo che:

“Le navi da crociera inquinano più delle auto circolanti in Europa. Le 218 navi per il turismo marittimo di lusso hanno emesso nel 2022 4,4 volte più inquinanti di tutte le automobili del continente (253 milioni).”

L’Italia è il Paese dove le navi da crociera inquinano di più, al primo posto in Ue.

Dall’altro abbiamo personaggi e realtà come ad esempio Elon Musk e la Tesla che vendono macchine ellettriche per inquinare meno, per rendere più green il pianeta.

Personalmente la prima cosa che mi chiedo è che sostenibilità nel medio lungo periodo avranno le auto elettriche?

Riusciranno a sostenere il mercato ed il confronto con quelle a combustibili fossili?

In fatto di sostenibilità c’è da ricordare anche come vengono realizzate e costruite le machine elettriche, con una batteria: le materie prime sono essenziali e fondamentali. Dove, come e chi le estrae?

Per esempio un componente per le batterie possiamo parlare di cobalto.

Spostiamoci in Africa, in RDC – Repubblica Democratica del Congo e scopriremo gironi dantestchi in cui persone di ogni sesso ed età sono intenti inn attività di estrazione mineraria, scavando, spostando sacchi, nelle peggiori situazioni infanganti i diritti fondamentali di ogni individuo.

Solo a me sembra che ci sia qualcosa che stona in tutto questo contesto?
Una visione generale dei minatori che lavorano presso la miniera artigianale di Shabara vicino a Kolwezi il 12 ottobre 2022. Circa 20.000 persone lavorano uno Shabara, a turni di 5.000 alla volta. [Junior Kannah / AFP] RDC Repubblica Democratica del Congo

tommasin.org/blog/2023-11-15/a…

Today the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in the European Parliament adopted by a large majority (51:2:1) a mandate to negotiate the controversial EU draft law on chat control. The Commission’s bill proposes bulk scanning and reporting of private messages for allegedly suspicious content by using error-prone algorithms, including „artificial intelligence“. But the European Parliament’s position removes indiscriminate chat control and allows only for a targeted surveillance of specific individuals and groups reasonably suspicious of being linked to child sexual abuse material, with a judicial warrant. End-to-end encrypted messengers are exempted. Instead, internet services will have to design their services more securely and thus effectively prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

EU lawmaker Patrick Breyer of the Pirate Party, a long-time opponent of chat control who negotiated the EU Parliament‘s position on behalf of his group, explains:

“Under the impression of massive protests against the looming indiscriminate chat control mass scanning of private messages, we managed to win a broad majority for a different, new approach to protecting young people from abuse and exploitation online. As a pirate and digital freedom fighter, I am proud of this breakthrough. The winners of this mandate are on the one hand our children, who will be protected much more effectively and in a court-proof manner, and on the other hand all citizens, whose digital privacy of correspondence and communication security will be guaranteed.

Even if this compromise, which is supported from the progressive to the conservative camp, is not perfect on all points, it is a historic success that removing chat control and rescuing secure encryption is the common aim of the entire Parliament. We are doing the exact opposite of most EU governments who want to destroy digital privacy of correspondence and secure encryption. Governments must finally accept that this highly dangerous bill can only be fundamentally changed or not be passed at all. The fight against authoritarian chat control must be pursued with all determination!

In detail, our position will protect young people and victims of abuse much more effectively than the EU Commission’s extreme proposal:

1. Security by design: In order to protect young people from grooming, internet services and apps shall be secure by design and default. It must be possible to block and report other users. Only at the request of the user should he or she be publicly addressable and see messages or pictures of other users. Users should be asked for confirmation before sending contact details or nude pictures. Potential perpetrators and victims should be warned where appropriate, for example if they try to search for abuse material using certain search words. Public chats at high risk of grooming are to be moderated.
2. In order to clean the net of child sexual abuse material, the new EU Child Protection Centre is to proactively search publicly accessible internet content automatically for known CSAM. This crawling can also be used in the darknet and is thus more effective than private surveillance measures by providers.
3. Providers who become aware of clearly illegal material will be obliged to remove it – unlike in the EU Commission’s proposal.
4. Law enforcement agencies who become aware of illegal material must report it to the provider for removal. This is our reaction to the case of the darknet platform Boystown, where the worst abuse material was further disseminated for months with the knowledge of Europol.

At the same time, we are pulling the following poisonous teeth out of the EU Commission’s extreme bill:

1. We safeguard the digital secrecy of correspondence and remove the plans for blanket chat control, which violate fundamental rights and stand no chance in court. The current voluntary chat control of private messages (not social networks) by US internet companies is being phased out. Targeted telecommunication surveillance and searches will only be permitted with a judicial warrant and only limited to persons or groups of persons suspected of being linked to child sexual abuse material.
2. We safeguard trust in secure end-to-end encryption. We clearly exclude so-called client-side scanning, i.e. the installation of surveillance functionalities and security vulnerabilities in our smartphones.
3. We guarantee the right to anonymous communication and remove mandatory age verification for users of communication services. Whistleblowers can thus continue to leak wrong-doings anonymously without having to show their identity card or face.
4. Removing instead of blocking: Internet access blocking will be optional. Under no circumstances must legal content be collaterally blocked.
5. We prevent the digital house arrest: We don’t oblige app stores to prevent young people under 16 from installing messenger apps, social networking and gaming apps ‘for their own protection’ as proposed. The General Data Protection Regulation is maintained.“

The mandate is not expected to be voted on in plenary. The Council could make a further attempt to position itself on 4 December, after which the European Parliament’s negotiations with the Council and the European Commission (“trialogue”) can begin. The majority of EU governments have so far stuck to the plan for mass chat control without suspicion and the undermining of secure encryption. Other governments are firmly opposed to this. A legal opinion published yesterday by a former ECJ judge concludes that neither chat control nor an end to secure encryption would stand up in court.

Table published by Patrick Breyer comparing the EU Commission‘s proposal and the Council‘s draft mandate to the adopted mandate of the EU Parliament

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In another blow to the EU Commission’s proposed child sexual abuse regulation, a former judge of the EU’s top court of justice finds that the proposed mass scanning of private messages for suspected content would likely be struck down by the Court for violating the fundamental right to privacy. The ex judge dismisses the defence put forward by the Commission in response to similar findings by the EU Council’s legal service earlier this year. Adding to those findings, the former judge concludes that the proposed extension of scanning obligations to end-to-end encrypted communications services also violates EU law for lacking legal certainty (pages 35-37 of the legal analysis).

“EU governments in Council must accept now that the only way forward with this dystopian Chat Control bill, both politically and legally, is to remove indiscriminate mass scanning and end-to-end encrypted services from the proposal. I call on EU governments to stop pursuing chat control and the destruction of secure encryption! An overwhelming majority in the EU Parliament will tomorrow propose limiting surveillance to suspects and safeguarding secure encryption. No child is helped with legislation that will inevitably fail in court even before its implementation. Do you really want to repeat the disaster caused by the Data Retention Directive?” comments Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer, who commissioned the legal opinion and co-negotiated the European Parliament’s position on the proposed Chat Control regulation.

The author of the legal opinion Christopher Vajda is a long-time judge of the CJEU (2012-2020).

In his legal opinion he finds that «the provision for DOs [detection orders] in the Regulation is likely to be unlawful on grounds of proportionality, lack of reasoning, legal certainty, as well as the requirement that such interferences should be provided by the law.»

In response to the Commission, he concludes that he “cannot see how a DO [detection order], and the process leading up to it, can preclude it being considered to require general and indiscriminate monitoring of electronic communications.”

The ex-judge calls the Detection Orders of the proposal “a major inroad into the fundamental right to the protection of privacy and data guaranteed by Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter which is, so far as I am aware, far greater than contained in any previous legislation”.

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The EU Parliament and EU Council yesterday struck a political deal on the reform of the EU Digital Identity Regulation (eIDAS 2). A new digital identity wallet app is to allow EU citizens to access public and private digital services such as Facebook or Google, and pay online. The deal was made even though more than 500 scientists and numerous NGOs in an open letter „strongly warn against the currently proposed trilogue agreement, as it fails to properly respect the right to privacy of citizens and secure online communications“ – criticism which the Pirate Party Members of the European Parliament underline.

“This regulation is a blank cheque for surveillance of citizens online, endangering our privacy and security online”, comments Pirate Party lawmaker Patrick Breyer. “Browser security is being undermined, and overidentification will gradually erode our right to use digital services anonymously. Mark Zuckerberg should have no right to see our ID! Entrusting our digital lives to the government instead of Facebook and Google is jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. This deal sacrifices essential requirements the European Parliament had put forward to make the eID app privacy-friendly and secure. The EU misses the opportunity to establish a trustworthy framework for modernization and digitization. We will watch the implementation very closely.”

Pirates Mikulas Peksa and Patrick Breyer worked until the last minute to try and fix at least some of the numerous risks of the EU digital identity scheme. In a major victory, Member States will not be obliged to assign a single unique ID number to every citizen. Signing up for the eID app will be voluntary, and it will remain possible to access public and private services by other existing identification and authentication means. The app client will be open source.

Overall though the scheme remains a blank cheque for surveillance of citizens online: As hundreds of scientists publicly warn and contrary to what the EU claims, web browser manufacturers could be forced to expose our securely encrypted Internet use (including intimate and sensitive activities) to government surveillance. This is an unacceptable attack on secure encryption. The eID apps can also be used to monitor our digital lives because there is no requirement of unobservability. The content of our eID wallets (potentially bringing together personal banking data, medical prescriptions and criminal records) could be monitored via central databases because we have no right to store documents exclusively on our personal devices.

The lure of conveniently signing in to private digital services using a single official eID app is a trap. Overidentification will gradually erode our right to use digital services anonymously which currently keeps us safe from criminal activity, unauthorised disclosure, identity theft, stalking and other forms of abuse of personal data. The eID app will not allow for multiple, truly separate user profiles which vulnerable persons rely on.

The server-side code of the eID wallet will not have to be open source, meaning the public cannot know what the code actually does and if it is safe.

In view of all this, the new EU eID app will not be trustworthy and will fail to sufficiently encourage the development of digital and eGovernment services in Europe – much to the Pirates regret.

See also the assessment of the deal published by NGO epicenter.works

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