End-to-end encryption means that our family photographs, messages to friends and family, financial information, and the commercially sensitive data of businesses can all be kept safe from harm’s way.
But the UK Government has continued its quest to undermine encryption, most recently with the Online Safety Bill.
In its draft legislation, the UK Government would introduce rules forcing companies that offer private messaging services to weaken strong encryption in order to monitor user content. But there is simply no way to provide content monitoring and filtering without undermining strong encryption for every user, including children.
Encryption backdoors are just an invitation for criminals, foreign adversaries, and other dangerous actors to steal, manipulate and use data to attack the safety of UK citizens. Predators can make use of exposed geolocation information, photos and other personal and private details to stalk, bully, threaten and abuse. For some, like our children, religious minorities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, these risks to privacy and safety are particularly dire.
By undermining encryption, the UK government is undermining public safety, not safeguarding it.
As the UK Government revises the Online Safety Bill before it enters Parliament, it is critical that end-to-end encrypted services are not subject to the same monitoring and filtering requirements as public platforms.
We need your help to make it clear to Parliament: don’t let the Home Office remove the protection of strong encryption and make us all less safe in the process.
Here’s what you can do:
Contact Members of Parliament from all parties, and ask them to:
- Ensure that end-to-end encryption not be threatened or undermined by the Online Safety Bill, and that services utilizing strong encryption are left out of the Bill’s content monitoring and filtering requirements.
- Call on the UK Home Office to explain how it plans to protect the British public from criminals online when it is taking away the very tools that keep the public safe.
Contact your Member of Parliament and ask them to:
- Ensure that end-to-end encryption not be threatened or undermined by the Online Safety Bill, and that services utilizing strong encryption are left out of the Bill’s content monitoring and filtering requirements
- Call on the UK Home Office to explain how it plans to protect the British public from criminals online when it is taking away the very tools that keep the public safe