Hello!

I’ve been following the discourse about the recent ChatControl update that has passed few days ago, and I have been wondering if it changes anything for the majority of people who were ok with the first version from 2021.

First a disclaimer - I’m vehemently against it, because it does affect me since I do use the alternative services affected, and I’m not trying to downplay the impact. I know that it’s an issue for people already invested in privacy, but this question focuses on general population and services that reportedly already do the scanning anyway.

At least based on information on this website, most of the commonly popular services have been doing ChatControl since 2021:

Currently a regulation (that passed in 2021) is in place allowing providers to scan communications voluntarily (so-called “Chat Control 1.0”). So far only some unencrypted US communications services such as GMail, Facebook/Instagram Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, iCloud email and X-Box apply chat control voluntarily (more details here). As a result of the mandatory Chat Control 2.0 proposal, the Commission expected a 3.5-fold increase in scanning reports (by 354%).

My first question is - is this correct? I have not seen it mentioned anywhere else, not even a single comment in any discussion about the new resolution, and I don’t want to spread false information. It sounds like an important fact that more people should be aware of, but everyone seemed to conviniently forget right after the first Chatcontrol passed in 2021, and the first round of trying to pass the second one (in 2023 or whenever) failed. If anyone has more information about the current state, I’d love to hear it.

Assuming that’s correct, then my question/rant is - what does change for people who are already using these services exclusively? People like that had the last 5 years to do something about the serious privacy violation like this - stop using services that do the scanning. Most of them did not do that, forcing people like me to choose between privacy and being able to contact my friends, because “they don’t want to install a new chatting app, and everyone is on Messenger anyway”. And I’m pretty sure that they wouldn’t stop even if the new resolution did not pass.

I realize it sounds more than a rant that a question, because it kind of is, it has been frustrating screaming about ChatControl to deaf ears for the past few years, but I’m also honestly asking what actually changes. Even though I am frustrated, I still want to have actual arguments, so when I’m convincing people to stop using those services, I’m not lying that “nothing changes for you if you don’t switch” (assuming the current resolution does not get finalized and implemented). Plus, since people are now actually listening about ChatControl, telling them that it’s already happening does have a greater impact.