- More than 200 experts urge Sweden to reject a bill that would require encryption rear doors
- If approved, the legislation could go into force since March 2026
- The Swedish army also warns that a back door would create vulnerabilities that third parties could exploit
More than 200 experts have asked the Swedish Parliament to reject a proposed law that would force Signal, WhatsApp and email service to create a rear encryption door on its software.
The bill seeks to introduce new obligations on data retention and access to electronic information for the application of the law while “guaranteeing respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.”
However, the coalition, composed of some of the best suppliers of VPN email services and insurance, cryptographers and defenders of digital rights, warns that the new rules “would largely undermine the safety and privacy of Swedish citizens.”
The security risk of weakening encryption
As experts pointed out in a joint open letter published on April 8, 2025, “the legislation presents a dangerous approach that would instead create vulnerabilities that criminals and other malicious actors could easily exploit.”
The encryption refers to the fighting of the data, which makes it illegible and avoids the access of third parties. Specifically, end -to -end encryption (E2E) is the technical infrastructure that encrypted messaging applications that use to maintain your private messages between you and the receiver, from extreme to the end.
Swedish legislation proposal seeks to facilitate that forces of order fight crime forcing companies to store and provide access to the private communication of people on request.
However, experts have argued for a long time that this is not possible without creating a rear door that fundamentally breaks the security infrastructure on which the encryption is built.
It is like building “a master key that unlocks all the doors of a building,” said the coalition, added that “compromising encryption would leave citizens and institutions of Sweden less safe than before.”
Sweden wants #backdoor #enrryption. But we, along with more than 230 or or say no.April 8, 2025
The Swedish armed forces also echoed such security concerns, arguing that the new requirements proposed for E2E services “cannot be met without introducing vulnerabilities and rear positions that third parties can exploit.”
In February, the Swedish army even supported the use of the signal among its employees to make it more difficult for calls and messages not classified to be intercepted.
Out of Sweden, recent events such as Typhoon salt attack in all the main US telecommunications have also caused a promise for all citizens to change to encrypted services.
Ironically, however, the president of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, already said that the company would prefer to leave Sweden than undermine its encryption protections.
If the bill is approved, the new rules could be applied at the beginning of March 2026.
Experts are now asking the Swedish Parliament to reject the law and prioritize the policies they strengthen instead of weakening cybersecurity. They wrote: “Security, prosperity and freedom of Sweden depend on it.”
Not only Sweden
Sweden is not the only EU member who strives to make people data more easily accessible to the authorities during the investigations.
After more than three years of trying to approve a law to scan all messages of citizens in the search for child sexual abuse (CSAM), what is known as chat control for its critics, the EU commission has just published a new strategy on rear postures of encryption and legal data access.
Outside the EU, Apple currently faces the United Kingdom in the Court for the request to make ICLOUB encrypted data access at all times by the application of the law.
Once it is believed to be a paradise of privacy, even Switzerland now wants to amend your surveillance law to add new types of monitoring and collection of information. A change that would expand the scope of the authorities to VPN without registration and other safe messaging suppliers.
You may also like
