Electronic Frontier Foundation3d ago
The good news: the EU blocked mass scanning of messages. The bad news: they’re still considering other problematic scanning initiatives. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/04/eu-parliament-blocks-mass-scanning-our-chats-whats-next
EU Parliament Blocks Mass-Scanning of Our Chats—What's Next?

The EU’s so-called Chat Control plan, which would mandate mass scanning and other encryption breaking measures, has had some good news lately. The most controversial idea, the forced requirement to scan encrypted messages, was given up by EU member states. And now, another win for privacy: the EU Parliament has dealt a real blow to voluntary mass-scanning of chats by voting to not prolong an interim derogation from e-Privacy rules in the EU. These rules allowed service providers, temporarily, to scan private communication.

Electronic Frontier Foundation
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@eff I wouldn’t say they blocked it (the practice), though the initiative to make mass surveillance mandatory failed. For now. I would say the practice is very much alive, and pretty much ignored or even abetted rather than deincentivized, deenforced, penalised.

Not making it mandatory is something. The quest for other ways to evade, subvert the express wish of the EU parliament to respect the individual sphere is worrying; the lack of enforcement of transgressions is telling.

Apr 9 at 8:48amWeb