- Experts again warn against EU’s plans to weaken encryption
- On May 26, 2025, 89 signatories published a joint letter to urge the European Commission to “rethink its approach.”
- Presented last April, Protectuu aims to find a legal way to create a back door in encrypted communications
The EU plan to create a legal back door in encrypted communications continues to raise concerns.
This time, 89 signers from the technology industry, including civil society organizations, some of the best VPN and email suppliers, and cybersecurity experts, are warning against the privacy and safety hazards of the technological road map in the encryption included in the protection strategy.
In a joint letter published on Monday, May 26, 2025, experts now urge the European Commission to “rethink their approach” and protect strong encryption practices.
The need for strong encryption
“While we recognize the importance of raising security efforts during moments of greater geopolitical instability, we are concerned about the frame of the technological road map,” experts wrote.
Encryption, data struggle in an illegible way to avoid unwanted access, is the backbone of how services such as the signal, WhatsApp and protons mail work. However, the police have long argued that this technology is an obstacle to criminal investigations.
However, as cyber incidents continue to increase worldwide, even government agencies, such as FBI and CISA in the United States, have begun to encourage citizens to SwICTH to extremely to extreme encrypted services to fight these threats.
The European Commission itself previously recognized encryption as necessary to protect the integrity of cyberspace as well.
That is why, for the signatories, which include the tastes of Proton, Surfshark, Tuta Mail, Mozilla and Element, together with the main cryptographers and digital rights groups, this technology remains a “key tool of cybersecurity” that cannot be compromised.
“The undercover weakens the communications and safe systems base, leaving individuals, companies and public institutions more vulnerable to attacks,” they wrote.
🔒 𝐄𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐲𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐧-𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 🔒 ~ 90 or individuals, we have sent an open letter to the EU commission to defend a solid encryption.May 26, 2025
Protectu arrives as the first step in the EU commission plan to reinforce the security of the European bloc in the coming years. While we do not know much when writing, we do know that the strategy includes finding a technical way to create encryption rear in the software. That is exactly what most worries technological banks.
They wrote: “We are deeply concerned about the continuous approach of the commission to identify ways of weakening or avoiding encryption. This undermines its own security objectives under the protection strategy.”
The European Commission has already tried to weaken encryption with its proposal to scan the communications of all citizens to stop the spread of child sexual material, in fact. Considered by critics as chat control, the bill has not been attracting the necessary majority since 2022.
Along the way, the European Court of Human Rights even ruled “illegal rupture encryption”, a hard blow for supporters of the scanning technologies on the client’s side to monitor encrypted communications.
Did you know?
Although the messaging applications and email suppliers will be the main objective of legislators, a group of EU experts explicitly recently referred to VPN services as “key challenges” for the investigation work of the agencies for the application of the law for the first time, together with encrypted devices, applications and new communications operators.
Now, experts believe that what legislators seek to do under Protectu’s strategy will lead to the same security, human rights and responsibility problems.
Then they urge to rethink the technological roadmap in the encryption also taking into account the concerns of the industry, not just those of the police.
“Any future road map that aspires to be credible and balanced should consider the viability of any potential technological capacity and its social, technical and legal impact,” they conclude.
This is the second time that digital rights and technology experts have gathered to ask the European Commission not to encode with the new Protectu Plan since April 1, 2025, the day the plan was presented for the first time. Also on that occasion, experts urged legislators to turn them into an active part of the process.
You may also like
