No Backdoor for Mass Surveillance - The European Court of Human Rights Protects the Right to Encrypted Communication

Abstract

Bulk data retention is the evergreen of European security policy. On February 13, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) – once again – ruled in Podchasov on Russia’s collection of and access to citizens’ private communication. The Court made it clear that weakening the encryption of all citizens cannot be justified. This sends an important message not only to the Russian state, but also to other European governments that contemplate installing “backdoors” on encrypted messenger services like Telegram, Signal or WhatsApp.

Keywords

• Backdoor
• EGMR
• Five Eyes
• Hacking
• Internet
• Privatsphäre