E-privacy: even what is said in video conferences could be searched in the future
In the fight against child pornography, the EU wants to have the Internet screened. Pirate politician Patrick Breyer warns that innocent people could come under suspicion - and that's not even the only problem. Question: Mr. Breyer, what are the EU's plans for monitoring Internet communications? Breyer: The EU Commission is planning to screen all private electronic messages without any prior warning and across the board, in order to search for child pornography. There is a current draft law on this, which the European Parliament is negotiating with the EU governments this Thursday. It provides that e-mails, messages and chats may be searched by the providers of these services for allegedly suspicious photos or texts. The big U.S. companies - Google, Facebook, Microsoft - already practice chat control, as came out last year. Question: They wouldn't be allowed to do that at the moment? Breyer: That's right, the General Data Protection Regulation doesn't allow it, ...