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Comment by Havoc | Hacker News Reader

About f time. Europe was leaning heavily into the we need watch everything to keep you safe there for a bit

This won't stop them and the respite from "ChatControl" is only temporary. This isn't over, they will try again and again. It'll come back under a different name, just like Google keeps coming up with tracking initiatives when they're shut down. They just perk it up, add some 'privacy safeguards' and a cool new branding, perhaps find some way to tie it in to the latest scandal in the news, and try again and hope the next one sticks.

It's not even a conspiracy, there's just a huge lobby profiting from this and they will keep pushing. It's business.

And this was far from a decisive victory. It came very close to being implemented, unlike previous attempts. This was already attempt 2 and that's in this particular push only https://european-pirateparty.eu/chatcontrol-the-sequel-nobod...

We have to stay vigilant. Don't forget this is the organisation that tried to push software patents through during a meeting of farming ministers.

The European court is on our side here but the commission is not.

Ps I don't really understand the downvotes. I don't think I'm saying anything untoward. And in EU privacy circles (which I follow strongly) the feeling is very much "we won this battle but not the war". I'm not complaining, just wondering.

Don't forget here in Europe freedom isn't as huge a selling point as it is in the US. And even that has made several attempts over the years including the infamous clipper chip.

The fundamental problem is that the EU's regulatory bodies do not understand technology. Regulation in the EU has turned into a bona-fide industry, and it's a massive train of the blind leading the blind.

Whether it's with Article 45 trying to break PKI [1], or with the AI Act trying to regulate the transformer model itself [2], or with ChatControl trying to surveil everyone, EU regulation is clearly a clownshow at this point where you get cheered on as long as you propose some regulation, any regulation!

[1]:https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/article-45-will-roll-b...

[2]: https://twitter.com/arthurmensch/status/1725076260827566562?...

There have been positive changes at EU commission lately regarding this Article 45 thing:

https://securityriskahead.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Mozi...

eIDAS is also a bad thing for privacy in my opinion because it's going to make it much easier for websites you request identification online. I believe identification should remain a barrier, the same way you don't ID yourself at every physical store you enter. eIDAS doesn't mandate this but it does prepare the technological foundations to do that online.

And it doesn't have much to do with PKI breaking, though it's nice that tangential link was removed, it's indeed good that that attempt was called out.

Removing the most objectionable content doesn't make it a good thing though.

And again this is a big business lobby championed by Thierry Breton. This is not something the voters asked for, it's something the industry wants.

> This was already attempt 2

Agree with almost everything else, but if you're counting attempt number one as the one a couple years ago allowing services to do the scanning if they wanted it's a bit disingenuous to put it in the same category as mandating that they do

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