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It's been rumored for a long time, and it also exists draft of a document, of an attempt by the Council of the European Union to remove from the apps that use it, the End To End encryption. To clarify, E2E (End to End) encryption is what allows us, through a system of asymmetric public and private keys, to exchange messages, documents, links and make telephone calls in total security. We use it every day (even if many are not aware of it) using Whatsapp, Signal and many other (now practically all) messaging apps that exploit this almost inviolable system.
With the excuse of the fight against terrorism, we are now thinking of removing the possibility of being secret from these apps, thus making clear every single conversation, every single message, every single photo, voice note... Or, if they don't remove the encryption, the idea is to place some backdoor, which changes the substance little. In short, until today everything was more or less guaranteed in our hands. Now this fundamental right seems to be in danger. By the way, it exists a recent precedent, about three US senators who have thundered against encryption, saying it helps criminals.
The specter of a digital dictatorship
Terrorism, especially since 9/11, has been a great excuse to take away a whole series of freedoms from citizens globally in the name of security; but, more than anything, to be able to monitor each of us en masse through "passive" mechanisms such as the internet, the medium that pushes us, by shaping our way of thinking, to give our data to unknown companies (and even if they are known it is like if they were not because they act in an extraterritorial way and not always in a legal way) who step by step have created a nice dossier for us in which there are all our personal data, our habits, our political and religious sympathies, our vices, our successes and our misfortunes. Who are the spies? Google, Amazon, Facebook etc.
Facebook ergo sum
Facebook then in particular he was able to influence 2 and a half billion people in the world by convincing them that they must put their lives on display, otherwise... their existence in society is put at risk: today they have made sure that those who do not have Facebook he is almost an outcast, someone who doesn't have a face, someone who lives but is actually invisible. They made Facebook the conditio sine qua non to exist. Paraphrasing Descartes, one might say Facebook ergo sum. The registry office is now outdated, the important thing is to be on Zuckerberg's social network.
Facebook acts on the neurological system by stimulating serotonin and affects our way of thinking 1; divides people, doesn't let them leave the house and, obviously, spies on everything they do in their lives: now even their presence in the bathroom is put on Facebook:
"10pm - Mario Rossi is on the toilet - Share!"
The social network, more powerful than governments, has practically ruined half of human beings in the space of a few years by creating a control network that would make the Gestapo and the STASI pale.
The specter of a digital dictatorship: I have nothing to hide
And now, to top it off, they want to take away E2E encryption which was the last bastion for our freedom to say and communicate what we want.
If this proposal passes it will be a real defeat for everyone, even for the naive people who say "Ah but I have nothing to hide“, the now famous phrase that represents the common tendency to ignore the importance of digital privacy. You have nothing to hide... are you sure? And when you go to the bathroom to poop, do you keep the door open? There, you answered yourselves!
This pyramid nonsense is based on the wrong starting point that if you're not a criminal you can't care.
It's the exact opposite! Privacy has nothing to do with legality: going to the bathroom, making love, sleeping... minding your own business, in short, there's nothing illegal about it, right? But how many of us would like to be filmed doing these things? Maybe some people do (everyone has their own perversions!), but usually they are things that are done in private and that you want to remain private.
Already with social media, with Google & co. it's as if we live in a glass house or with a camera at every corner. And the worst thing is that we like it! How much we love it!
Cryptography is nothing more than mathematics
Now they also want to take away our right to use messaging apps, leaving us without what little privacy we had.
Fortunately, encryption is nothing more than mathematics, a system made of algorithms, and is freely replicable and distributable, without restrictions. So I am confident in the fact that there will be, in addition to a desirable outcry, a process which, in extremis, will lead to Fork and developments of applications that will use encryption in defiance of an unjust and liberticidal law. Long story short, cryptography is a calculation: can they stop us from saying that 1+1=2? No, even if there is a law that prohibits it. Well, the principle is the same.
The metadata
In the meantime, start by getting Whatsapp out of your way which, despite the encryption, being from Facebook, already collects an avalanche of metadata 2. For those who don't know what they are metadata, is basically the log of activities: how many messages we send, to whom, from whom we receive them, how long the calls last, the frequency and in many cases, the "where". Does it seem like little? Apparently yes, but these data combined create a real map of our lives. Of course, E2E encryption does not allow the contents of messages to be viewed, but whoever has to carry out these analyzes knows how to combine the metadata to put us in a corner and profile us. It sounds like science fiction but it's true! And then, if they have to remove encryption from an app, the first to fall will be Whatsapp, being the most used.
Rather, use Signal, which (if the encryption ban doesn't come for you too) is currently the best system for sending encrypted messages, in an open-source 100% environment, without tracers And WITHOUT THE BALLAST OF METADATA. The fear is that Signal could also fall victim to this possible legislative act precisely because of its secrecy: in a police investigation, by analyzing Whatsapp we would know who contacted whom, when, etc. With Signal we wouldn't even know that there had been contact and therefore we would have one less trace.
The specter of a digital dictatorship: the boomerang effect
There is also hope in the opposition of certain circles who fear theboomerang effect: Putting backdoors on encrypted systems would pave the way for large-scale hacker attacks, which could threaten states, revealing secrets, military plans, classified communications and much more. Governments would therefore be the first victims of this push for privacy. Moreover, until recently, Europe itself had urged to use Signal instead of Whatsapp, as a bulwark against surveillance.
The schizophrenic attitude of the institutions shows a clear inability to coordinate and fight crime, which leads to invoking remedies that are worse than the evils. In part: the Bataclan attackers in Paris had communicated via SMS 3 which, notoriously, are the least secure method of communicating as the SMS are not encrypted. So, while telephone operators and police were busy worrying about what the terrorists could say on Signal or Whatsapp, the tragedy occurred.
LCryptography works and it's scary
If nothing else, all this proves one thing: that encryption works and it's scary to those who would like us to be monitored 24 hours a day. And all the pages that say that everything is already monitored, that it is useless to use Signal or similar applications are all nonsense. If something were truly useless no one would lift a finger! When they move it's because that thing bothers them.
The rest will remain to be seen. Terrorism has nothing to do: Remember that these EU proposals, even if they are not implemented, are a sign of the times. They are small but worryingly significant steps to pave the way for a world dominated by a transnational totalitarianism governed by those who manage and traffic in data, the true gold of the 21st century.
- Facebook's secret design sauce? It's serotonin[↩]
- The words of the Internet: metadata (and what WhatsApp does with it)[↩]
- Paris police find phone with unencrypted SMS saying “Let's go, we're starting”[↩]
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