The German Data Protection Conference (DSK) has expressed concerns about the European Commission’s proposed regulations to prevent and combat child sexual abuse. According to the DSK, the proposed regulations lead to excessive surveillance of electronic communications.
The Commission’s proposed measures aim to enable the monitoring of electronic communications to detect child abuse content. DSK criticises the scope of this surveillance as disproportionate. It provides that ISPs will have to check all data processed through their services for potential child sexual abuse, even if the data is sent in encrypted form.
The DSK points out that such an approach would amount to a de facto move away from end-to-end encrypted communications. Furthermore, mass surveillance without prior warning violates the fundamental rights to privacy, confidentiality of communications and protection of personal data.
In the context of these concerns, DSK calls for the rule of law to be upheld when regulating against serious crime, paying particular attention to the necessity and proportionality of the proposed measures.