Mass surveillance in the EU

France isn't a safe country for open source privacy projects. They expect backdoors in encryption and for device access too. Secure devices and services are not going to be allowed. We don't feel safe using OVH for even a static website with servers in Canada/US via their Canada/US subsidiaries.

not surprising...

I'd widen it to the whole EU these days...
fightchatcontrol.eu/

as you can see it's a power game, the small countries are bending over in exchange of something in future...
I'd avoid these long term...

the law couldn't pass, so they changed it from obligatory to "voluntarily ;);)"
your ISP could "voluntarily ;);)" read your chats/PMs 😕
patrick-breyer.de/en/chat-control-2-0-throug…nning-teens/

data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-153…-INIT/en/pdf

maybe on paper these countries below are slightly better?
but once it's approved EU wide it doesn't matter who's good or bad...

just think how crazy it is... the government will read all of your private chats, this is dictatorship level and nobody is complaining... heck many of them approve it fully no question asked 😳

Here is the legal basis for the mass surveillance program in the EUSSR:

Art 1 of the Reichstag Fire Decree, 28 February 1933:

“It is […] permitted to restrict personal liberty, the right of free expression of opinion including freedom of the press, the freedom of association and assembly, violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and telephonic communications”

The Forschungsamt des Reichsluftfahrtministeriums (FA) implements surveillance as follows:

• Intercept stations are distributed across the Reich’s territory.
• Postal districts and cable junctions all have surveillance points.
• All telegrams sent by anybody are copied and sent to the FA.
• Telephone intercept “A-Stations” are fed by tap lines from post offices into the FA intercept switchboards.

More info on the FA here: Research Office of the Reich Air Ministry - Wikipedia

Sieg Heil!

Here is the official position from the Reichskanzlei: consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/…nline-abuse/

CEO said:

i had a chinese phone (xiaomi?) for testing and I found it was uploading **everything** and calling home every minute or so, even the location was tracked, every dns request was forwarded too 😳

Today's EU Parliament's resolution, backed by 483 votes to 92, with 86 abstentions, called for an EU-wide ban on access for children under 16 to online platforms, video-sharing sites and AI companions without parental consent and an outright ban for those younger than 13.
europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/202511…dia-say-meps

While I could agree with the final goal in a perfect world, the issue is how do we get there without limiting everyone's privacy?

Clearly one needs an age verification system:
(tech specs here)
ageverification.dev/av-doc-technical-specifi…-development

(google play services mandatory! so forget about grapheneOs... I guess they need strong play integrity. The irony, they fought google and now require it for official government apps 🤣 )

and the age verification system needs ID, selfie (mask/ai/deepfake proof) etc and you must re-verify every 3 months or more frequently...

also they push for:

a ban on the most harmful addictive practices and default disabling of other addictive features for minors
(including infinite scrolling, auto play, pull-to-refresh, reward loops, harmful gamification);

are they banning the whole internet??

Expressing support for the Commission’s work to develop an EU age verification app and the European digital identity (eID) wallet,
MEPs insist that age assurance systems must be accurate and preserve minors’ privacy.

To incentivise better compliance with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and other relevant laws,
MEPs suggest senior managers could be made personally liable in cases of serious and persistent non-compliance, with particular respect to protection of minors and age verification.

It will end like another forum: Ursula issuing directives to herself and visiting her own websites (y)

marioIT said:

Today's EU Parliament's resolution, backed by 483 votes to 92, with 86 abstentions, called for an EU-wide ban on access for children under 16 to online platforms, video-sharing sites and AI companions without parental consent and an outright ban for those younger than 13.

While I could agree with the final goal in a perfect world, the issue is how do we get there without limiting everyone's privacy?

And again the EU thinks it’s role is parenting its citizens 👊
Why don’t they also ban bars, churches, sport clubs etc? Do they have any idea of what can happen in these places?
What about banning cocaine from the toilets of the EU Parliament?

Pavel Durov (Telegram and vk) notes that EU officials messages will not be scanned ... 😡
and DHH (ruby on rails inventor) has a story about one of them being caught red-handed! o_O
"A former high-ranking member of the same Social Democrats party that's behind this proposal was just awarded an early parliamentary pension after being convicted of owning thousands of CSA videos and images. Save The Children cover is bullshit"

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You gotta be crazy to remain in the EU today.

Marty McFly said:

You gotta be crazy to remain in the EU today.

Or just don't care about your freedom, your wealth, your health, your family, other people's lives...
Unless you are an arms/cocaine/slaves dealer or scammer, of course. In this case, the EU is great.

EU just fined Elon Musk / X for 120 millions

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do you know what they fined him for? would you believe it????
the blue checkmarks 🤣

After he bought it in 2022, the site started issuing the badges to anyone who wanted to pay $8 per month.
That means X does not meaningfully verify who’s behind the account, “making it difficult for users to judge the authenticity of accounts and content they engage with,” the Commission said in its announcement.

“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU. The DSA protects users,” Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a prepared statement.

Regulators also said X also puts up “unnecessary barriers” for researchers trying to access public data, which stymies research into systemic risks that European users face.

Elon is on fire... 🔥🔥🔥

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how can one disagree?

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oh forgot about the secret deal (allow censorship or get fined)

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marioIT said:

oh forgot about the secret deal (allow censorship or get fined)

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Yea sure, Elon's personal megaphone is a free platform 🤣

I agree there are some things you can't talk on X... guess which ones?

"The EU is quietly moving to revive blanket data retention, forcing nearly every digital service to log who you talk to, when, and from where, for up to a year.
Officials say they won’t read your messages. They just want the metadata. But metadata is the map of your life, your friends, habits, movements, interests.This plan ignores court rulings that already declared such dragnet surveillance illegal. It expands the scope instead of narrowing it, sweeping in encrypted messengers, VPNs, hosting companies, and even payment platforms."
reclaimthenet.org/eu-revives-plan-for-year-l…ta-retention

here's the leaked paper from Internes Dokument: EU-Staaten fordern ein Jahr Vorratsdatenspeicherung für Internet-Dienste wie Messenger

docs.reclaimthenet.org/eu-data-retention-pre…me-paper.pdf

here we go Spain takes the UK route... o_O

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez:
"Starting next week, my government will implement the following actions:

First, we will change the law in Spain to hold platform executives legally accountable for many infringements taking place on their sites.
Second, we will turn algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content into a new criminal offense.
Third, we will implement a hate and polarization footprint system to track, quantify, and expose how digital platforms fuel division and amplify hate.
Fourth, Spain will ban access to social media for minors under the age of 16. Platforms will be required to implement effective age verification systems — not just checkboxes, but real barriers that work.
Fifth and last, my government will work with our public prosecutor to investigate and pursue the infringement committed by Grok, TikTok, and Instagram."

listen it "Governments must stop turning a blind eye to the toxic content being shared"

who's going to decide what is toxic and what's not?
Are we sure that the authority will be neutral and not politicized?
Are we sure that citizens will not be punished for their opinions just because they are not aligned with the government?

Have a feeling this is aimed at Elon Musk after the latest clashes with EU: "platform executives legally accountable for many infringements taking place on their sites".

Lol Elon took it well 🤣
urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dirty+Sanchez

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and also France right now! Must be coordinated. 😳

French Police Raid X Offices in Cybercrime Probe
The Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit, with help from France's cyber gendarmerie and Europol, searched X's offices on Tuesday to probe allegations of complicity in spreading child sexual abuse images, deepfakes, Holocaust denial, disinformation via algorithms, data extraction fraud, and issues with the Grok AI chatbot.
Prosecutors have summoned Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, alongside other X staff as witnesses.
The office called the probe a constructive step for X's legal compliance in France and announced it would shift communications from X to LinkedIn and Instagram amid EU efforts to regulate platforms under the Digital Services Act.

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