Saving the Internet in Europe: Defending Privacy and Fighting Surveillance

This post is part three in a series of posts about EFF’s work in Europe. Read about how and why we work in Europe here. 

EFF’s mission is to ensure that technology supports freedom, justice, and innovation for all people of the world. While our work has taken us to far corners of the globe, in recent years we have worked to expand our efforts in Europe, building up a policy team with key expertise in the region, and bringing our experience in advocacy and technology to the European fight for digital rights.  

In this blog post series, we will introduce you to the various players involved in that fight, share how we work in Europe, and discuss how what happens in Europe can affect digital rights across the globe. 

Implementing a Privacy First Approach to Fighting Online Harms

Infringements on privacy are commonplace across the world, and Europe is no exemption. Governments and regulators across the region are increasingly focused on a range of risks associated with the design and use of online platforms, such as addictive design, the effects of social media consumption on children’s and teenagers’ mental health, and dark patterns limiting consumer choices. Many of these issues share a common root: the excessive collection and processing of our most private and sensitive information by corporations for their own financial gain. 

One necessary approach to solving this pervasive problem is to reduce the amount of data that these entities can collect, analyze, and sell. The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is central to protecting users’ data protection rights in Europe, but the impact of the GDPR ultimately depends on how well it is enforced. Strengthening the enforcement of the GDPR in areas where data can be used to target, discriminate, and undermine fundamental rights is therefore a cornerstone in our work. 

Beyond the GDPR, we also bring our privacy first approach to fighting online harms to discussions on online safety and digital fairness. The Digital Services Act (DSA) makes some important steps to limit the use of some data categories to target users with ads, and bans targeteds ads for minors completely. This is the right approach, which we will build on as we contribute to the debate around the upcoming Digital Fairness Act. 

Age Verification Tools Are No Silver Bullet

As in many other jurisdictions around the world, age verification has become a hotly debated topic in the EU, with governments across Europe seeking to introduce them. In the United Kingdom, legislation like the Online Safety Act (OSA) was introduced to make the UK “the safest place” in the world to be online. The OSA requires platforms to prevent individuals from encountering certain illegal content, which will likely mandate the use of intrusive scanning systems. Even worse, it empowers the British government, in certain situations, to demand that online platforms use government-approved software to scan for illegal content. And they are not alone in seeking to do so. Last year, France banned social media access for children under 15 without parental consent, and Norway also pledged to follow a similar ban. 

Children’s safety is important, but there is little evidence that online age verification tools can help achieve this goal. EFF has long fought against mandatory age verification laws, from the U.S. to Australia, and we’ll continue to stand up against these types of laws in Europe. Not just for the sake of free expression, but to protect the free flow of information that is essential to a free society. 

Challenging Creeping Surveillance Powers

For years, we’ve observed a worrying tendency of technologies designed to protect people’s privacy and data being re-framed as security concerns. And recent developments in Europe, like Germany’s rush to introduce biometric surveillance, signal a dangerous move towards expanding surveillance powers, justified by narratives framing complex digital policy issues as primarily security concerns. These approaches invite tradeoffs that risk undermining the privacy and free expression of individuals in the EU and beyond.

Even though their access to data has never been broader, law enforcement authorities across Europe continue to peddle the tale of the world “going dark.” With EDRi, we criticized the EU high level group “going dark” and sent a joint letter warning against granting law enforcement unfettered capacities that may lead to mass surveillance and violate fundamental rights. We have also been involved in Pegasus spyware investigations, with EFF’s Executive Director Cindy Cohn participating in an expert hearing on the matter. The issue of spyware is pervasive and intersects with many components of EU law, such as the anti-spyware provisions contained within the EU Media Freedom Act. Intrusive surveillance has a global dimension, and our work has combined advocacy at the UN with the EU, for example, by urging the EU Parliament to reject the UN Cybercrime Treaty.

Rather than increasing surveillance, countries across Europe must also make use of their prerogatives to ban biometric surveillance, ensuring that the use of this technology is not permitted in sensitive contexts such as Europe’s borders. Face recognition, for example, presents an inherent threat to individual privacy, free expression, information security, and social justice. In the UK, we’ve been working with national groups to ban government use of face recognition technology, which is currently administered by local police forces. Given the proliferation of state surveillance across Europe, government use of this technology must be banned.

Protecting the Right to Secure and Private Communications

EFF works closely on issues like encryption to defend the right to private communications in Europe. For years, EFF fought hard against an EU proposal that, if it became law, would have pressured online services to abandon end-to-end encryption. We joined together with EU allies and urged people to sign the “Don’t Scan Me” petition. We lobbied EU lawmakers and urged them to protect their constituents’ human right to have a private conversation—backed up by strong encryption. Our message broke through, and a key EU committee adopted a position that bars the mass scanning of messages and protects end-to-end encryption. It also bars mandatory age verification whereby users would have had to show ID to get online. As Member States are still debating their position on the proposal, this fight is not over yet. But we are encouraged by the recent European Court of Human Rights ruling which confirmed that undermining encryption violates fundamental rights to privacy. EFF will continue to advocate for this to governments, and the corporations providing our messaging services.

As we’ve said many times, both in Europe and the U.S., there is no middle ground to content scanning and no “safe backdoor” if the internet is to remain free and private. Either all content is scanned and all actors—including authoritarian governments and rogue criminals—have access, or no one does. EFF will continue to advocate for the right to a private conversation, and hold the EU accountable to the international and European human rights protections that they are signatories to. 

Looking Forward

EU legislation and international treaties should contain concrete human rights safeguards, robust data privacy standards, and sharp limits on intrusive surveillance powers, including in the context of global cooperation. 

Much work remains to be done. And we are ready for it. Late last year, we put forward comprehensive policy recommendations to European lawmakers and we will continue fighting for an internet where everyone can make their voice heard. In the next—and final—post in this series, you will learn more about how we work in Europe to ensure that digital markets are fair, offer users choice and respect fundamental rights.