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EU Council forces Chat Control via fast-track (heise.de)
neobrain 1 minutes ago [-]
For context, this refers to "Chat Control 1.0", allowing facebook and other messaging providers to scan chats for harmful content (which they had been temporarily allowed to do by a recently expired law).

This is still problematic, but the far more dangerous Chat Control 2.0 that would weaken end-to-end-encrypted messengers like Signal is not being discussed here.

Not to diminish the gravity of the new development, but the defeatist "no way to prevent this" narratives that are already popping up here are getting old -- when in fact it looks like 2.0 is off the table for good.

m132 29 minutes ago [-]
The central bank, council, and commission have to get thoroughly investigated. The amount of questionable decisions coming from those three in the recent (15) years is extremely unsettling. The parliament and courts are practically the only institutions preventing things from hitting the fan at this point, and struggling to do so, it seems.
junto 10 minutes ago [-]
I’m convinced of widespread corruption here. We need to follow the money. Who is funding and pushing this agenda to blanket spy on all Europeans? I guess my question is rhetorical.
joe_mamba 2 minutes ago [-]
>Who is funding and pushing this agenda to blanket spy on all Europeans?

Why are we ignoring the other side of the transaction? The side responsible for taking the money.

Giving bribes for lobbying is bad, but that would not be an issue if those found taking the bribes would be guillotined or hanged.

joe_mamba 5 minutes ago [-]
>The central bank, council, and commission have to get thoroughly investigated.

By WHO?! They are THE (unelected) ruling elite. Who's gonna prosecute them?

theodric 4 minutes ago [-]
The government will investigate the government and find that the government did nothing wrong. A subsequent government review of the government's investigation of the government will find no wrongdoing on the part of the government. Ain't democracy grand?
kingleopold 11 minutes ago [-]
they dont investigate themselves, I hope you understand those details some day.
m132 2 minutes ago [-]
They do, albeit it's a slow process:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfizergate

- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-secret-gr...

Ironically, those are two separate cases of one high-profile EU politician (in fact, the very head of the same parliament that pushes for mass scanning of private messages) BOTH involving secret text messages that the politician refuses to reveal.

abroszka33 3 minutes ago [-]
There is no way to stop these so just lets get going. The sooner we have age and ID verification on every single website and app the sooner we will have a working decentralised internet that avoids it.
m132 46 seconds ago [-]
It's a strong signal to start building such an Internet and slowly withdraw from anything centralized.
mdp2021 44 minutes ago [-]
Do also see:

# Italy warns against Chat Control mass surveillance, but votes in favour of it (digitalcourage.social)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48783340

Do, because already there nuances (towards the better or worse) are revealed, which are not evident in journalism as we have it. The whole story needs more investigation than the stubs.

But the way they are managing it in the workflow does not seem too linear...

stavros 38 minutes ago [-]
"We are in favour of this law, so long as it is not used for its intended purpose."
mdp2021 30 minutes ago [-]
You should elaborate. And explain what you understood as "its intended purpose".

My understanding of the vote last Friday was about protracting the 2021 temporary compromise (scan voluntarily until we have a full law), which was suspended at the beginning of April. It is not clear how they proceeded that way. It seems some vertices imposed that they would not accept a legal vacuum there. So, it's not a "law". What ran for the past five years was an "exception to privacy laws" (I am not informed of the mandated guardrails).

mdp2021 20 minutes ago [-]
What frightens me is, as usual, the assumption of conformism that may just remove people from services.

"Present a document" // "No, certainly not to you" // "Do without then"

The straight will say "no", but their lives will be extremely complicated, possibly in the unawareness of those that just take compliance to the absurd for granted - as the weak call survival paramount and cannot see that their modus is subjective. That we won't have it is something that they cannot even conceive. Adults are noise to them.

mattrighetti 47 minutes ago [-]
They're not going to stop, are they?
stavros 44 minutes ago [-]
It certainly seems like they'll stop after they pass it.
petcat 1 hours ago [-]
Am I crazy or is this website not allowing me to opt out of cookie tracking unless I sign up for a subscription?

I know the EU cookie banners have basically ruined the internet, but this seems like a whole 'nother level of obnoxious.

buzer 1 hours ago [-]
It's called "pay-or-okay" (or "consent-or-pay") and there hasn't been many decisions on it yet which has led noyb to sue German DPAs: https://noyb.eu/en/years-inactivity-pay-or-ok-cases-noyb-sue...

There is one case where DPA ruled in favor of the company, but it's currently being appealed: https://noyb.eu/en/pay-or-ok-der-spiegel-noyb-sues-hamburg-d...

Another one ruled against company and court agreed: https://noyb.eu/en/court-decides-pay-or-okay-derstandardat-i...

GuB-42 19 minutes ago [-]
Very common on EU news websites.

Workarounds include:

- reader mode

- "behind the overlay" extension (and others like it)

- archive.is

- probably many others

netsharc 1 hours ago [-]
When they force that, it's an invitation for me to open it in an incognito window. Track all you want, assholes!
bayindirh 33 minutes ago [-]
Try the demo on this site: https://fingerprint.com/demo

Both in incognito and normal modes. I bet you'll get the same fingerprinting ID in both.

So yes, they can track you in incognito mode, too.

m132 35 minutes ago [-]
This is what made me disable JavaScript by default in 2018. I didn't even get this banner.
pmontra 32 minutes ago [-]
You are correct. Reader mode on Firefox shows the full article though.
stavros 1 hours ago [-]
Wow, yeah, that seems... illegal, no?
wronex 57 minutes ago [-]
Im pretty sure it is illegal. In my understanding, it must be equally easy to reject and accept. And the website MUST continue working under either choice. Which is not the case here.

I think the lawmakers should have made all forms of tracking illegal instead. That would make law writing and following easier. And closer to the spirit of what they are trying to accomplish and what everyone wants (except you Silicon Valley O.o)

esafak 1 hours ago [-]
You Reject the undesirable ones (all!) and click Agree to Selected.
SahAssar 41 minutes ago [-]
On these you usually can't reject them. It says

> Data processing by advertising providers including personalised advertising with profiling (Consent required for free use)

em-bee 41 minutes ago [-]
doesn't work, they don't let you unselect anything. you have to accept everything or pay.

very frustrating because especially a tech magazine like heise should really know better

kingleopold 12 minutes ago [-]
it will %100 pass at some point. no way around it.
mdp2021 9 minutes ago [-]
The problem is /what/ will pass. What is this clothing limit? Pink, shocking, lime? Long sleeves, above the wrist or below? In the city center, in the suburbs, where?

The issue is all in the details.

And in the decision process, before that, of course.

wronex 3 hours ago [-]
So what platforms will this apply too? What platforms Dow sit already apply too? All SMS, large email providers (Gmail?), WhatsApp, Apple services?
donmcronald 12 minutes ago [-]
There have been a few incidents that make me think Snapchat private chats are monitored. The one with the guy joking to his friends about blowing up a plane or something is the first that comes to mind.

Tell me how private messaging gets you taken off a plane otherwise. It’s not private. Big tech has put a camera and microphone in everyone’s pocket and they’re monitoring everything.

The government and big (American) tech are very likely lying to us IMO. How will anyone protest when mass surveillance becomes the law if it’s already in place and you can be labeled a bad actor that gets your life ruined if you dissent?

mdp2021 3 minutes ago [-]
> * How will anyone protest when mass surveillance becomes the law if it’s already in place and you can be labeled a bad actor that gets your life ruined if you dissent*

With the pure awareness that Men do not act out of convenience, and that this whole situation of declining societies was born out of already-fascist-material that acted out of convenience.

stavros 5 hours ago [-]
Please email your members of parliament: https://fightchatcontrol.eu
sunshine-o 2 hours ago [-]
At that point it has become clear to most Europe is not a democracy anymore. It has lost any legitimacy.
rixed 25 minutes ago [-]
At the end of the day, regimes do not depend on legitimacy but on force.
SilverElfin 10 minutes ago [-]
Governments don’t work for people. Yet they use terms like democracy all the time. The repeated attempts at chat control are so blatantly anti civil rights but also disrespectful of democratic principles. Why do EU citizens tolerate this? Are they okay being made a fool of or is this just not an issue for them after all?
stavros 5 minutes ago [-]
Well, we don't tolerate it, that's why it hasn't passed yet. They keep trying, though.
mr_toad 2 minutes ago [-]
The power of the European Commission to propose legislation needs to be curbed or removed entirely. Executive agencies shouldn’t be writing legislation. It’s far to easy for them to propose laws that benefit the the European Commission, rather than benefiting Europeans.
sph 1 hours ago [-]
This is democracy manifest. What a joke.
MichaelZuo 42 minutes ago [-]
It is a bit strange why EU countries allow their own credibility and legitimacy get steadily dragged down, bit by bit, by all these thousands of dubious statements, tricks, manoeuvres, and so on.

Do they just not care about weakening their own societies?

graemep 24 minutes ago [-]
Much the same reasons why the UK, US etc. do much the same. It is slowed down a bit in some countries with strong constitutions or resistance to it, but the governments all want it.
mdp2021 11 minutes ago [-]
> "You have to understand that times have changed, it's not like before... Now we have children, the children, the children, children, children and the t-word."

~~ keir starmer

(I'll see if I can still find the source. If anybody beats me to it, appreciated.)

rckt 36 minutes ago [-]
The govs consist of people who have their own agendas. Mass surveillance is something they all are aligned on.
SpicyLemonZest 22 minutes ago [-]
I guess I'm not sure what's dubious here. The article says they're circumventing "democratic control bodies", but I don't know what that means (perhaps it's a more common phrase in German?), and it sounds like the European Parliament can still vote to reject Chat Control if they don't want it. The article strongly implies there's something dubious going on here, but to me what would be dubious is a procedure that prevents the parliament from voting on Chat Control.
stavros 60 minutes ago [-]
We have been enjoying a succulent Chinese meal.
superkuh 1 hours ago [-]
The same as every other fascist control measure. Voted down. Voted down. Voted down. Then forced through through some obscure mechanism bypassing the will of the people and becoming law forever.
LePetitPrince 15 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
vb-8448 3 hours ago [-]
> Although the Council emphasizes that the *scans will be limited to the absolutely necessary extent* and that no general, indiscriminate surveillance will take place

I'm 100% sure that this is the case and about the good intentions of the proposers.

/s

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