The European Court of Human Rights argued there were other ways to monitor encrypted communications that wouldn’t open innocent users up to danger.
Creating a backdoor to end-to-end encrypted messaging services like Telegram and Signal would erode freedom of expression and open innocent users to hackers, identity thieves, and indiscriminate state surveillance, says the European Court of Human Rights.
In a Feb. 13 judgment, the court ruled in favor of Telegram user Anton Podchasov — who went up against his government in 2018 after it demanded Telegram decrypt messages that were sent using its encrypted “secret chat” function.
The court judged that while criminals may use end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to avoid law enforcement, providing encryption backdoors would put innocent, regular users at risk while eroding their rights to freedom of expression — thus violating the European Convention on Human Rights.
