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Alec is a technologist, writer & security consultant who has worked in host and network security for more than 30 years, with 25 of those in industry.
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[Europe] voted today to end chat monitoring 1.0. This ends an exception that was used, in particular, by US Big Tech companies to monitor billions of people’s private messages without suspicion

2026-03-27 02:18:03

The European Parliament has thus formally concluded the legislative process . The Digital Society Association and many individuals had previously contacted the Members of Parliament, appealing to them to end this indiscriminate mass surveillance

More:

https://digitalegesellschaft.de/2026/03/pressemitteilung-chatkontrolle-1-0-endet/

MEPs block tech firms from scanning for child sexual abuse material | POLITICO

2026-03-26 21:50:01

“perhaps there’s a different approach they could try taking, other than surveilling everybody’s messages?”

https://www.politico.eu/article/european-parliament-rejects-child-sexual-abuse-bill-blocking-tech-firms-scanning-meta-google/

I am very much looking at the Apple Age Verification (AV) approach as the least bad way to do something terrible

2026-03-26 18:55:55

  • AV itself is tantamount to Digital Identity, it is illiberal to deploy everywhere and it is misconceived to imagine that it solves social problems
  • The least bad way of getting AV is for people to be able to choose providers who can attest to the user’s age bracket; Apple is starting to provide this
  • Politicians & Security Services will be torn: it’s easier to have “one throat to choke” (like Apple) when surveilling / attributing speech, but they risk losing the rich control opportunities if this is done in a privacy preserving way; also the toxic extant AV industry will be lobbying hard to prevent competition from supposed “monopolies”
  • Yet big players like Apple have the best leverage to deploy a privacy preserving solution; the interests of civil society are best served by ensuring openness of Apple APIs and that other age attestation providers can plug into it

Remember that big win on ChatControl a couple of weeks ago? It turns out they didn’t like  the result and they want to vote on it again, TODAY. Sorry.

2026-03-26 17:08:23

The Conservatives (EPP) are attempting to force a new vote TODAY (March 26) seeking to reverse the European Parliament’s NO on indiscriminate scanning of ALL your private messages, emails and photos … If you’re European contact your representatives now, with this handy form:

This cybersecurity tweet from @SciTechgovuk / DSIT is getting *brigaded* by people pointing out how the UK Government is actively undermining cybersecurity

2026-03-26 12:09:20

Examples; remember to check both quotes & replies:

Human rights chief warns against banning social media for kids | POLITICO

2026-03-25 14:36:13

It turns out that kids are people too.

Whoda thunk it?

https://www.politico.eu/article/michael-oflaherty-human-rights-council-of-europe-children-social-media-ban/

Via