European Commission Revives Push for Encryption Backdoors in ProtectEU Strategy • Hacker News Board

Re: European Commission Revives Push for Encryption Backdoors in ProtectEU Strategy

#201

Post by bethekidyouwant » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

dmix wrote: post #139

bethekidyouwant wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The word for what you just described is not technocracy…

In practice it is. The whole idea of technocracy comes with a bunch of levers you can easily exploit with a bit of power and money (not just external corporations or donors, but internal like intelligence agencies). As long as you make an appearance of following the process of evidence being collected and experts being involved. And there is never a careful process to check if it was actually done right after the fac…

no true technocracy/nepotism wearing a cloak.

Re: European Commission Revives Push for Encryption Backdoors in ProtectEU Strategy

#202

Post by plufz » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 2:47 PM UTC

ablob wrote: post #94

plufz wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that historically very bureaucratic countries have been worse to live in than dictatorships? Not sure I follow actually. It sounds very strange to me. Isn’t also the first move of all dictators to take over all institutions with their own people?

They are saying that in bureaucratic countries there is not a single entity that can be held accountable, which means that "bad" decisions, are not easily undone. Likewise it means that "good" decisions are hard to change. It is a statement about the momentum of change, not about it's worth or intention. There is no further comparison made between these governmental forms and how they affect their subjects. Why would…

Red herring how exactly? The conversation is literally:

”> In reality, they want to be dictators. Its much worse than that. They want to be unaccountable bureaucrats.”

Edit: to expand on what I mean. I read so much negativity and hyperboles here on the EU. It is full of problems absolutely but ”With a dictator you have full responsibility concentrated in a single person” is simply not true. Dictorships are master minds of shifting blame. EU has problems but what large organization works better? US? India? China? Brazil? I’m obviously biased as a European but I’d pick the eu any day.

Re: European Commission Revives Push for Encryption Backdoors in ProtectEU Strategy

#203

Post by 7bit » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 3:55 PM UTC

trinsic2 wrote: post #102

betteryet wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dictators part is false, the EU is not a structure you can easily dictate. But this encryption backdoor thing is somebody's pet project and extremely alarming. The UK has a similar bend they've already put in place with IPA and TCNs. The US is way gone on decrypted stored data and metadata, but not on encryption backdoors yet, though legislators have tried.

Can you please explain to me why you think this is the case? Can parliament make law or not? Why is the commission the only body that can make law? Its staffed with people that appear to serve special interests. I saw this during the Stop Killing Games Where the EU commission meet with the game industry privately in EU before the decision on the Stop Destroying Video games Initiative. If there is no way to challenge…

A dictatorship needs a dictator. The EU parliament is made of several bodies. There never can be a dictatorship. People who claim "dictatorship!" should learn to express themselves properly

Re: European Commission Revives Push for Encryption Backdoors in ProtectEU Strategy

#204

Post by glub » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

How is this not an indication of a failed system? Why does EU/EC/etc system even allow for the same failed initiative to be pushed again and again under a different candy wrap with a rate of a machine gun?

Not always a different wrap even. They can essentially do "let's end the encryption this quarter, eh?" "No? Okay, we'll try in 3 months".

Sure, this may be a topic that flies under the radar of common people, because they mostly do not understand implications well enough, but what if it was a push for something that is understandable as very sinister by everyday person?

Would the system allow that?