Authorities in Europe are against the widespread adoption of end-to-end encryption

Police agencies in Europe have expressed concern that enhanced measures to protect personal data, such as the use of “end-to-end encryption” (E2EE) can severely limit law enforcement’s ability to investigate crimes.

According to Europol, such technology would prevent technology companies and law enforcement agencies from seeing and using data about violations committed on social networking platforms.

The introduction of E2EE by default in apps such as Meta’s Messenger from December 2023 has drawn criticism from the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom. The organization said such decisions make it harder to protect children from online sexual abuse and weaken the police’s ability to investigate crimes and keep citizens safe.

NCA Director General Graham Biggar stressed that encryption can effectively protect consumers from a range of crimes, but the hasty implementation of E2EE by tech giants poses a threat to public safety.

Catherine de Bol, Executive Director of Europol added that technology companies must take social responsibility to create a secure environment without interfering with the work of law enforcement agencies.

In a joint statement, the authorities stressed that it is not necessary to completely give up citizens’ privacy in the name of public security. The declaration says that technical solutions exist that only require flexibility on the part of industry and governments.

Although it implements E2EE in its products, Meta has found a compromise way to combat child exploitation in WhatsApp, for example. In addition, the company recently announced a pilot program on Instagram to protect young people from sexual harassment and abuse of intimate photos. The security and privacy of correspondence is not compromised because the content is analyzed locally on the end users device.