The European Commission has launched a public consultation to gather your views about the impact of data retention rules in view of adoption of legislative and non-legislative measures at EU level. Here's EDRi's guide on how to answer the tricky consultation.
masssurveillance
Every EU representative who is in favor of chat control should be seen as a traitor to the people they are supposed to represent, a traitor of european values and a high risk criminal.
After all, they won't be surveilled at all under that law.
As europeans we have a history of mass surveillance by oppressive governments, and it is our responsibility to never let that happen again!
#EU #europe #ChatControl #politics #surveillance #masssurveillance #privacy #rights
New Privacy Guides article 🔓👁️🗨️
by @jw and me:
Outside the Fediverse, you may have
encountered platforms where you were obligated to provide your "real" name.
These so-called "real-name" policies, often in fact requiring legal names, are horrible for everyone's privacy. But it's also important to consider how discriminatory and dangerous they are.
Pseudonymity isn't a trivial matter,
it saves lives.
Fighting against policies attacking
online pseudonymity, such as real-name policies, age-verification policies, and Chat Control proposals, isn't just a banal fight to keep using silly nicknames online. It's a battle for democracy, for civil liberties, and for human rights.
https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/10/15/real-name-policies/
#PrivacyGuides #Privacy #RealNamePolicies #Meta #Facebook #MassSurveillance #Democracy #HumanRights
I know there's a general "cause fatigue" with the current state of the world, and I feel it too.
But in my years working in privacy,
I don't think I've seen anything as terrifying as this European Chat Control proposal. And I'm not even European.
Everyone needs to pay
much more attention and be much more worried and outraged about this.
This proposal is the most dystopian glimpse into a horrible authoritarian future I have seen so far in the West.
It looks dismal, but we can still stop it
if we all work TOGETHER NOW ✊
There isn't much time left though,
so don't put it to next week.
Democracy dies in silence.
Everyone: Learn more here
Everyone: Spread the word on social media
Europeans 🇪🇺 Contact your local media NOW
Europeans 🇪🇺 Contact your MEPs NOW
The final vote is on October 14th,
but media and representatives need to receive your messages NOW, so they have enough time to act on it.
#ChatControl #Privacy #Democracy #HumanRights #MassSurveillance #StopScanningMe #EUpol #UKpol #USpol #CanPoli
Edited 351d ago
Mass surveillance doesn't make us safer. We need to deconstruct this false notion.
Mass surveillance is only a tool for control and oppression, it is not for protection.
I'm old enough to remember when having your photo and fingerprints taken by the authorities was reserved to convicted criminals.
Now it will eventually be all of us.
All of us constantly tracked by governments and corporations alike, requiring our biometric data for anything they feel like.
Our privacy rights are going down the drain under the pretext of security.
But it will not make us safer, on the contrary.
Don't believe their authoritarian lies.
If you are wondering why Chat Control
is being brought back so relentlessly,
despite a clear and strong opposition from citizens, human rights advocates, and child protection organizations alike,
I recommend you read this enlightening article from 2023 (alas still relevant):
Spoiler: It's lobbyists who want lots of your tax money, and don't care about the children.
"'Who Benefits?’ Inside the EU’s Fight over Scanning for Child Sex Content"
https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/25/who-benefits-inside-the-eus-fight-over-scanning-for-child-sex-content/
• ❓More on Chat Control by Privacy Guides
• 🚨 Recent news of where Chat Control is at now by Patrick Breyer
• 🇪🇺 Europeans: Keep contacting your representatives (yes again, I'm sorry)
#ChatControl #Privacy #HumanRights #Democracy #MassSurveillance #EUpol
Edited 300d ago
1/3 🎉 Today, Members of the European Parliament held strong in their rejection of #MassSurveillance in the ePrivacy derogation (sometimes called #ChatControl 1.0)!
In case you missed it, the Parliament took an unprecedented do-over vote on their position on the ePrivacy derogation today after days of shocking developments... 🧵
The argument shouldn't be:
"I don't have anything to hide, so you can surveil me,"
Instead, it should be:
"I don't have anything to hide, so you shouldn't surveil me."
🚨 **Privacy Alert: The New French Surveillance Law** 🚨
The proposed law not only targets drug trafficking but also poses a significant threat to the very foundation of our digital privacy. By mandating "backdoors" in encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp, this legislation compromises the security of all users. This sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to widespread surveillance and abuse.
🔍 **Why It Matters**: Encryption is essential for safeguarding our personal communications from prying eyes, including those of malicious actors. If the government can access our messages, so can hackers.
📢 **Take Action**: Join the fight against this invasive law! If you are a French national or resident, contact your representatives and demand they prioritize our digital rights. 📚 For more information, including how to find and contact your local representative, visit the French article: [La Quadrature du Net](https://www.laquadrature.net/narcotraficotage/).
#PrivacyMatters #Encryption #DigitalRights #SurveillanceState #France #MassSurveillance #DataPrivacy #Censorship #HumanRights #CivilLiberties #FreedomOfSpeech #Activism
The goal isn't to protect children,
the goal is to de-anonymize every comment and action on the internet, associating it with a legal ID, by eventually requesting official identification from every adult using a computer.
Some politicians have already stated this plainly.
This leads to censorship of anyone criticizing their government.
This leads to repression of marginalized people, especially immigrants, people of color, and trans and gender diverse people.
This leads to self-censorship of any comments or actions that could be interpreted against the system. Such as speaking out against fascism and authoritarian surveillance, or defending human rights publicly.
This leads to total control of the population and its tools of communications.
This leads to the end of democracy, centralizing power even more in the hands of a few.
Do not let them do this to us.
#MassSurveillance #AgeVerification #Authoritarianism #HumanRights
The horror of Age Verification is
arriving in Canada 🚨🇨🇦
Contact your federal MP and the office of the Prime Minister this week to tell them you strongly oppose the privacy-destroying and inefficient measure.
The time to push back is NOW: https://globalnews.ca/news/11797286/liberal-party-adopts-motion-social-media-ban-kids/
'Prime Minister Mark Carney said last month that the idea “merits an open and considered debate in Canada,” although he does not have a settled view on it yet and said there were good points on both sides.'
Share educational resources with them on the dangers of Age Verification: https://www.eff.org/age
We do NOT want this nightmare in Canada. Fight back for your privacy rights! ✊🔒
#AgeVerification #Privacy #DigitalRights #HumanRights #MassSurveillance #Canada #CanPoli #CndPol
Edited 150d ago
@EUCommission Here is my age verification:
🖕
When you read about Bans of Social Media for Teens and Age Verification, you must remember what it truly means:
• Official identification of every adult using social media.
• Deanonymization of every account, endangering groups that often rely on pseudonymity for safety, such as victims of domestic violence, victims of stalkers, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people.
• Putting every adult at great danger of exploitation, fraud, and identity theft by forcing them to share their official ID with a for-profit third-party company with no incentive to protect it. Breaches have already happened.
• Constructing a system of mass surveillance to attach every comment on social media to a legal identity. Effectively allowing authoritarian governments to silence their critics and opposition.
• Potential for dystopian censorship and cutting off means of organization for groups of resistance to oppressive regime and organizations.
• Endangering children online by putting a clear identification beacon over every child or family with children online.
• Endangering the data of children who will inevitably try to pass as adults, and have their information collected by the third-party for-profit company.
• Diminishing the value of official identification due to the inevitable data breaches, eventually pushing the system to require even more intrusive identification techniques, such as iris scans and fingerprints.
• Installing a system of mass surveillance capable of attaching even more information to everyone's legal identity. With a potential to built list of people in certain groups, and scale-up state censorship and discrimination in unprecedented ways.
• The list goes on and on.
This isn't about protecting the children.
It never was.
Do not be duped by this excuse used to convince you to let go of your human rights. They are only trying to manipulate people lacking information.
Stay informed on the issues related to Age Verification, and push back for your rights to privacy and democracy.
The future depends on us.
#AgeVerification #Privacy #HumanRights #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism
Do not provide your ID or facial scan to access social media.
I repeat, do NOT provide your ID or facial scan to access social media when requested.
This is not a drill.
If everyone refuse to comply, and let their accounts dormant instead, I promise you the platforms themselves, with their immense budget and network of lobbyists, are going to fight these absurd laws to recover their users.
They need you more than you need them.
Make them fight for your rights.
Do not comply.
Spread the word and boycott ID checks ✊
#StopIDSurveillance #AgeVerification #Privacy #HumanRights #Democracy #Safety #MassSurveillance #Authoritarianism
Hey all. My new YouTube video is up!
This week's topic is Flock Safety cameras, the institutionalized abuse of this technology, and most importantly, a Suffolk, Virginia engineer who was recently arrested for destroying and defacing the cameras in his town en masse.
If you enjoy the video, please tap the like button. This is a free way to help a small creator in a big way. Thank you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2A66tDGwFo
#YouTube #Technology #Privacy #Flock #JeffSovern #MassSurveillance #CivilLiberties
Edited 61d ago
My new YT video is up!
This week's video is about the NoRecognition project and its adversarial design and learning model, which creates visual patterns that fool Flock cameras.
It's an exceedingly neat story. If you give it a watch, please tap the like button. That engagement helps a small creator out in a big way. Thank you.
#YouTube #Tech #Technology #AdversarialDesign #Flock #Privacy #MassSurveillance
🐦🔥nemo™🐦⬛ 🇺🇦🍉#IsraelFirst Doesn't Want You To Have #Privacy #tyt #yt #Surveillance #MassSurveillance #Security #ADL #Israel
ADL #Greenblatt: I’m paraphrasing, we are monitoring all of them—be it left-wing, be it anti-war, be it pro-Palestine… 24/7/365. Everywhere on all platforms… Wow, apparently the #ADL has nothing better to do than to monitor their fellow citizens… cynical 👏👏👏
I have tolerance for many things… BS like this isn’t part of it…
Not only does #BigTech #AI #surveillance capitalist #nerdreichers want our data to farm us like pack animals. But also people who are genocide apologists…
And all the laws that are trying to weaken privacy and security make much more sense now, doesn’t it. #VPNs? Nah. #E2E? Who needs that—#AgeID verification… It’s much easier to smear and defame one when someone already has a troublemaker’s ID, amirite? Surveillance #adtech yes please #brokergate I SAY FUCK THIS SHIT TO ALL OF IT… #FlockOFF
Edited 24d ago