> ...resolution on security through encryption and security despite encryption
People in government, be it in the EU or elsewhere, have a different idea of what privacy means and a citizen having privacy from state powers is antithetical to it. EU mopes believe their own marketing material regarding privacy, which is why the above phrase can be found in a Council publication, along with the always present "competent law enforcement". Nevermind that when it comes our privacy, a competent law enforcement officer is as much a mythical being as is an "ordinary citizen" who has nothing to fear or hide.
The Council is tasked with "setting" the agenda for the EU. The latest one is from last summer and the first item in it reads "protecting citizens and freedoms". That is exactly how I would imagine someone working at the Council to think of the act of stripping their "fellow" citizens of their privacy, while convinced that they're the good guy. There is no privacy without encryption today. As soon as you mandate that someone with special powers has to have the ability to force their way in and read the thoughts I exchange then you'll have killed privacy. It doesn't matter who that person is, it doesn't matter how you justified it and it doesn't matter what the consequences of privacy are.
We don't yet know what the "regulatory framework" (kill me please) will look like but whatever it is I don't think it's far fetched to expect things like running a Tor relay to get you in trouble, running an IRC server over TLS will be lots of fun too, and so on and so on. How long till you're required to have a license to run nc -l 1234? I'm sure it will be a decade or two but eventually that's where we'll be.
People in government, be it in the EU or elsewhere, have a different idea of what privacy means and a citizen having privacy from state powers is antithetical to it. EU mopes believe their own marketing material regarding privacy, which is why the above phrase can be found in a Council publication, along with the always present "competent law enforcement". Nevermind that when it comes our privacy, a competent law enforcement officer is as much a mythical being as is an "ordinary citizen" who has nothing to fear or hide.
The Council is tasked with "setting" the agenda for the EU. The latest one is from last summer and the first item in it reads "protecting citizens and freedoms". That is exactly how I would imagine someone working at the Council to think of the act of stripping their "fellow" citizens of their privacy, while convinced that they're the good guy. There is no privacy without encryption today. As soon as you mandate that someone with special powers has to have the ability to force their way in and read the thoughts I exchange then you'll have killed privacy. It doesn't matter who that person is, it doesn't matter how you justified it and it doesn't matter what the consequences of privacy are.
We don't yet know what the "regulatory framework" (kill me please) will look like but whatever it is I don't think it's far fetched to expect things like running a Tor relay to get you in trouble, running an IRC server over TLS will be lots of fun too, and so on and so on. How long till you're required to have a license to run nc -l 1234? I'm sure it will be a decade or two but eventually that's where we'll be.