Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

techradar.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 259 posts

Re: The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

#151

Post by azalemeth »

emptysongglass wrote: post #102
westpfelia wrote: post #14

"the EU wants to scan your messages" implies its every member state and not one freak from Denmark putting this forward where it will die. The EU has always been 90 days from passing mass surveliance for the last decade. Until member states start actually backing this these articles are nothing but click bait.

It's not clickbait. Many member states do support this. Much of the disagreement is on just how rights-violating the scanning should be. The situation here in Denmark is dire: nobody in the Danish media reports on it, so everybody just shrugs. I've gone out of my way to educate my coworkers and most are unaware many members of our parliament want this. The number of parties that support it outnumber those who don't.…

Denmark is very liberal in some ways but very much not in others. MitID -- digital id-- is a gateway to everything and is very much gated in terms of access; it took me months to sort out. It's a crime to not tell the state where you live, or to have too many people living in your house (I'd love to know what happens if you give birth on a "full" house -- is there a grace period, or do you have to move?). The work laptop I have been issued with is filled with invasive spyware that no British university employee would tolerate, and it is run (very well) as a benign dictatorship. You can't get a phone SIM card without personal registration. The tax agency know exactly to the øre how much money you received and what you spent it on in a given year as basically every transaction is recorded.

I'm not complaining that much about it -- you have a fantastic social security system, low inequality, high pay and high taxes, leading to a happy and well educated population and great food (no upf!) -- but it is a vision of the 1960s nanny state that really does think it knowd best.

Re: The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

#152

Post by fwn »

EagnaIonat wrote: post #57
an_ko wrote: post #17

Why does this stupid idea have to be killed so many times? Being watched constantly means living in fear, but seeing it almost become legally mandated practice over and over again is itself a form of living in fear. I'm so tired.

It was more misunderstood than stupid. Ironically when Apple introduced their solution it was actually better than what we have now. It was interesting to watch people lose their minds because they didn't understand how the current or proposed system worked. Current system everything can be decrypted on the cloud and is scanned for CSAM by all ISPs/service providers. Apple wanted the device to scan for CSAM and if it…

> CSAM is also a list of hashes for some of the worst CP video/images out there. It doesn't read anything, just hash matching.

The list presumably contains CSAM hashes. However, it could also include hashes for other types of content.

AFAIK the specific scope at any point in time is not something that can be fully evaluated by independent third parties, and there is no obvious reason why this list could not be extended to cover different types of content in the future.

Once it is in place, why not search for documents that are known to facilitate terrorism? What about human trafficking? Drug trafficking? Antisemitic memes spring to mind. Or maybe memes critical of some government, a war, etc.

This is because, despite the CSAM framing, it is essentially a censorship/surveillance infrastructure. One that is neutral with regard to content.

Re: The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

#153

Post by cpa »

john_the_writer wrote: post #115
cpa wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really depends on the "use case." Regulators are primarily concerned about grooming, which involves criminals using apps that teenagers frequent. Also, criminals usually have poor operational security—far from perfect. The seriousness of the offense isn't related to the quality of their opsec. Regulators and law enforcement are generally rational. They may be short-sighted, but they often have reasonable explanati…

As a parent, I can tell you it's insanely easy to manage allowing kids online. Don't.. or 100% supervised. Done

And if you tell people that quitting smoking, drinking, and walking 10,000 steps a day would make them healthier, that’s true, but it’s not helpful on a national scale—especially for issues where the cost is not only borne by the individual but also by the rest of society.

Re: The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

#154

Post by VikingMiner »

busssard wrote: post #4

it seems it is the general Zeitgeist in Europe. Also in Switzerland and generally erosions of Privacy laws all across the continent. The governments are scared of insurgencies from the right, from the left, from immigrants, from foreign nations. Paranoia and fear are quite prominent.

The irony is that they cannot deal with an insurgency if it was organised offline or via secure messaging platforms. They simply don't have the man power to deal with it. At the moment only a few people realise this, if that changes and any insurgent activity actually do halfway decent OPSEC they are finished.

Re: The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

#155

Post by FerretFred »

raverbashing wrote: post #123
FerretFred wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure this is what they said about the UK Inline Safety Act (2023) but guess what, it's here, and live.

Wow I didn't know the UK cared so much about inline functions /s Do you know what's even funnier with the UK? Parliament has most of the power

Bl*dy autocorrect!

Ironically, my commandline skills may yet save me :)

Re: The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

#157

Post by BSDobelix »

azalemeth wrote: post #151
emptysongglass wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clickbait. Many member states do support this. Much of the disagreement is on just how rights-violating the scanning should be. The situation here in Denmark is dire: nobody in the Danish media reports on it, so everybody just shrugs. I've gone out of my way to educate my coworkers and most are unaware many members of our parliament want this. The number of parties that support it outnumber those who don't.…

Denmark is very liberal in some ways but very much not in others. MitID -- digital id-- is a gateway to everything and is very much gated in terms of access; it took me months to sort out. It's a crime to not tell the state where you live, or to have too many people living in your house (I'd love to know what happens if you give birth on a "full" house -- is there a grace period, or do you have to move?). The work la…

>>Denmark is very liberal in some ways

True like not banning bestiality until 2015....

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-32411241

Re: The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

#158

Post by saubeidl »

geertj wrote: post #130
saubeidl wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is an absurd position to take when people are literally being snatched off the street and being sent to torture camps in the US. The tyranny is much closer there than in the EU.

> I feel like this is an absurd position to take when people are literally being snatched off the street and being sent to torture camps in the US. That is of course a gross misrepresentation of what is happening (and I'm being charitable here).

You're either poorly informed or are purposefully spreading misinformation then.

Re being dragged off: https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2025/05/alabama-worker-says-i...

Re torture: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alligator-alcatraz-flor...

Re: The EU could be scanning your chats by October 2025

#160

Post by BSDobelix »

brabel wrote: post #149
emptysongglass wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clickbait. Many member states do support this. Much of the disagreement is on just how rights-violating the scanning should be. The situation here in Denmark is dire: nobody in the Danish media reports on it, so everybody just shrugs. I've gone out of my way to educate my coworkers and most are unaware many members of our parliament want this. The number of parties that support it outnumber those who don't.…

> Everyone looking to Denmark as a model state should beware what happens when you have a population with such high trust in its government: the roots of autocracy are allowed to grow unfettered. Denmark is currently one of the nicest places you can find in the world. If that’s what happens when you trust the government then sign me up! PS. I know the situation can quickly deteriorate if you’re not constantly monitor…

>If that’s what happens when you trust the government then sign me up!

Like that?

https://cphpost.dk/2024-05-05/news/climate/danish-companies-...

>>Danish companies breach EU law, dump toxic waste into sea – Environment Ministry waves it through

Or that?

https://eos.org/thelandslideblog/nordic-waste-1

>>The Nordic Waste landslide scandal in Denmark

Maybe how about that? (50 years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K--KsfrEhPI

>>How Denmark forced young women in Greenland to get IUDs

Post reply on HN