Backdoors in encryption are ‘incompatible with a democratic society’, rules European Court of Human Rights

This is an important victory for privacy advocates. In a judgment delivered on February 13, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights reaffirmed the importance of encryption.

This should somewhat offend the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. In a case between the Telegram messaging service and the Russian intelligence service, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) affirmed that backdoors in encrypted applications threaten “rights such as freedom of opinion, expression and association“. Enough to strengthen the position of those who defend the right to encryption and data protection.

Encryption ensures fundamental rights

The case arose in 2017 when Russian intelligence services demanded that Telegram provide access to certain conversations hosted on its service, under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Unable to provide the encryption key for certain accounts without weakening the general security of all its users, the company therefore launched multiple legal actions before arriving before the international jurisdiction of the Council of Europe.

For the ECHR, the matter is therefore simple. Since it is technically impossible to build backdoors that would only be accessible to national authorities, as encryption specialists have explained for years (and as Tim Cook even admitted in 2016), it is out of the question. question of undermining the right to privacy of all under the pretext of the fight against terrorism. According to the ECHR, the “confidentiality of communications is an essential element in the right to respect for correspondence and private life“. Demand measures weakening encryption “cannot be considered compatible with a democratic society», Judged the court.

The fight against terrorism, a shaky argument

However, the European jurisdiction does not completely brush aside the concerns of the intelligence services in the face of the increase in terrorist acts. According to the ECHR, there are other means of obtaining the information necessary for the proper conduct of police operations. Rather than sabotaging encryption, the court calls for strengthening the tools “traditional» intelligence such as undercover operations, metadata analysis and better cooperation of international intelligence services.

“The good news is that to be useful to criminals, the information must be decrypted at some point», Indicates the European Court of Human Rights. Enough to create “opportunities» to intercept the content of messages. Especially since, according to studies carried out in the United States, “mass surveillance has not significantly helped the fight against terrorism», notes the ECHR. Notice to those who continue to oppose privacy and security.

Source : European court of human rights via Eureporter