EU Wants To Decrypt Citizens Private Data By 2030

[RAMROD 117,004]

The EU Commission unveiled the first step in its security strategy to ensure "lawful and effective" law enforcement access to data.

EU law enforcement bodies could be capable of decrypting your private data by 2030.

This is one of the ambitious goals the EU Commission presented in its Roadmap on June 24, 2025. A plan on how the bloc intends to ensure police officers' "lawful and effective" access to citizens' data.

The Roadmap is the first step forward in the ProtectEU strategy, first unveiled in April 2025 – but privacy experts have already begun raising the alarm.

ProtectEU represents the EU Commission's internal strategy to bolster the security of the European bloc in the years to come.

It stems from the work of the High-Level Group (HLG) carried on under the so-called Going Dark initiative. The group was tasked, by the EU Council in June 2023, to develop a strategic plan "on access to data for effective law enforcement."

Specifically, the group's final report, published in March 2025, referred to end-to-end encryption as "the biggest technical challenge" to the investigative work of law enforcement agencies, explicitly targeting the use of the best VPN services, encrypted messaging apps, and similar tools.

The Roadmap marks a key part of the strategy, providing more detail on how lawmakers plan to address what they refer to as "the growing challenges of accessing critical digital evidence" during criminal investigations.

The plan focuses on six key areas:

- Data retention. The EU Commission is expected to carry out an impact assessment with the aim of extending the EU's data retention obligations and reinforcing cooperation between service providers and authorities.

- Lawful interception. Lawmakers seek to explore measures aimed at improving cross-border cooperation for lawful interception of data by 2027.

- Digital forensics. The goal here is to develop technical solutions that allow authorities to analyze and preserve digital evidence stored on electronic devices.

- Decryption. Next year, the EU Commission is set to present a Technology Roadmap on encryption to identify and evaluate decrypting solutions. These technologies are expected to equip Europol officers from 2030.

- Standardization. The Commission is said to be committed to working alongside Europol, industry stakeholders, experts, and law enforcement practitioners to standardize the new approach to internal security.

- AI solutions for law enforcement.Lawmakers also seek to promote the development and deployment of AI tools by 2028. These solutions will enable authorities to lawfully and effectively process large volumes of seized data.

Experts have long warned against proposed plans to break encryption, meaning the technology responsible for scrambling data into an unreadable form to prevent unauthorized access.

Now, according to Internet Society's Senior Director, Robin Wilton, another move towards the decryption of private data is concerning.

"Efforts to develop decryption techniques almost inevitably introduce new vulnerabilities that could be exploited by anyone with the motivation and know-how; they may also encourage the 'hoarding' of vulnerabilities, which is contrary to good cybersecurity practice," Wilton told TechRadar.

These comments echoed previous warnings from technologists, cryptographers, and privacy advocates who were "deeply concerned" by the EU plan to weaken encryption.

 

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/the-eu-wants-to-decrypt-your-private-data-by-2030

[Economy 52,842]

Privacy and National security unfortunately sometimes are at odds. Its nearly impossible to do both perfectly at the same time because one often hinders the other so part of me gets this

 

But the potential side effects are also scary. Couldnt this tech and ability lead to more hacking such as ur bank account for example? There will be corrupt government workers... there will also be non law enforcement people who sooner or later will gain access or the skills to do the same privately...

[Zedd 6,487]

I'm rolling my eyes every single time EU Commission makes some changes. First, AI regulations. We had to wait few months to get Apple Intelligence working in the EU. No power charger included in the phone boxes. Paper straws, bottle caps. What a f**king stupid regulations. The EU is starting to look like a circus. They think those changes will be good for people, but so far those changes are making life worse...

Why should we care for environment by using paper straws and less plastic in Europe and get pissed when the straw soaks in drink, while not a single shop/restaurant in the US, nor Japan, cares for it? (I've been to both recently and it made me hate EU a bit harder). I no longer give a f**k about using less plastic - I'm not gonna suffer and get some paper dissolve in my drink while others don't give a **** about environment.

And now, being able to decrypt mobile phones? Hell no! I hope Apple sues them somehow. I want my phone to be undecryptable.

Maybe they should make a GOOD change for once, not another one that gets people pissed?!

[Bronco 24,791]

21 minutes ago, Economy said:

Privacy and National security unfortunately sometimes are at odds. Its nearly impossible to do both perfectly at the same time because one often hinders the other so part of me gets this

 

But the potential side effects are also scary. Couldnt this tech and ability lead to more hacking such as ur bank account for example? There will be corrupt government workers... there will also be non law enforcement people who sooner or later will gain access or the skills to do the same privately...

Its not even just private security. 

The explosion of end to end encrypted messaging apps has made sex trafficking, drug trafficking, black market trade etc significantly harder to police and made it significantly easier for these kinds of crimes to be carried out. 

We're increasingly reaching a point in society where technology is becoming incompatible with maintaining any form of law and order. 

And the political class have clearly chosen increased state surveillance as the solution. 

[River 127,329]

I’d rather they forbid corporates and private people to trade our data like they own us.

The twitter sale is the most outrageous sale to ever happen in modern history, when one rich person bought everything about us and nobody even cared to think for a second that maybe it’s simply wrong.

These changes should be done very carefully after ensuring our and our data safety and closing every possible loophole, potential crime etc.

 

[Kayioshka 3,295]

That is the trap. 

You know what ?... I think we face a new wave of far-right popularity because some lobbies simply want to take off our freedom. I mean, far-right are more inclined to remove our privacy by bringing their speech about how we live in an era of insecurity. Man it's insane how the things make more sense by this point of view... 

The majority of ppl here are good civilians. Now I know what you're thinking "omg they will see my private life". I can assure you that we are small dust particles to the big corporations and their minions, no matter if you feel your private life is too intimate to be shared or shameful... We're simply not unique and we're just human. BUT what's wrong with them removing our privacy is that our freedom of thinking will be removed. As someone who criticize both left and right wings for being zombified by lobbies, idk what I will become.

Can you believe that a woman called Macron "a trash" on fckn Facebook, and she had to pay 12 000€ for this. And it's not even a fake news... 

Wtf ? That is just insane.

[PartySick 172,424]

7 minutes ago, Kayi said:

That is the trap. 

You know what ?... I think we face a new wave of far-right popularity because some lobbies simply want to take off our freedom. I mean, far-right are more inclined to remove our privacy by bringing their speech about how we live in an era of insecurity. Man it's insane how the things make more sense by this point of view... 

The majority of ppl here are good civilians. Now I know what you're thinking "omg they will see my private life". I can assure you that we are small dust particles to the big corporations and their minions, no matter if you feel your private life is too intimate to be shared or shameful... We're simply not unique and we're just human. BUT what's wrong with them removing our privacy is that our freedom of thinking will be removed. As someone who criticize both left and right wings for being zombified by lobbies, idk what I will become.

Can you believe that a woman called Macron "a trash" on fckn Facebook, and she had to pay 12 000€ for this. And it's not even a fake news... 

Wtf ? That is just insane.

I looked it up 'cause I believed there had to be more to it than that...but no  she was legit arrested and fined for calling him "filthy" when they were trying to change the retirement age from 62 to 64  

France, wtf