Why we need to support Global Encryption Day

Today marks the fifth Global Encryption Day.

Organised by the Global Encryption Coalition (GEC), a network of 466 civil society organisations, companies, and individual cybersecurity experts from 108 countries, Global Encryption Day aims to draw global attention to the risks of rushing through legislation to add technological “back doors” to encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal as well as cloud-based data services.

In democratic countries, the reasons for wanting to break encryption are well-intentioned – everyone wants to stop child sexual abuse and thwart terrorist attacks. Also, the security services are clearly interested in doing it. The problem is that there is no way to provide back-door access to encrypted data and communications without compromising the privacy and security of everyone who uses them.

Since it was established five years ago, the GEC has challenged legislative proposals for encryption in countries including Australia, Brazil, France, India, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, and the USA. In 2021, the Coalition successfully pressured the Belgian Government to scrap a proposed law to enable backdoor end-to-end encryption.

Index published a piece by the New European’s political editor James Ball recently on age verification. He wrote: “It is the case that since end-to-end encryption has become the default online, intelligence agencies are very keen to find ways to circumvent it – and to make the internet possible to monitor again.”

In the UK, the government is trying to break encryption. We wrote earlier this year about the government’s attempts to get access to Apple’s encrypted data. Our CEO Jemimah Steinfeld also wrote recently about threats to encryption in the Online Safety Act.

She wrote, “In a tolerant, pluralistic society, this may seem unthreatening, but not everyone lives in such a society. Journalists speak to sources via apps offering end-to-end encryption of messages. Activists connect with essential networks on them too. At Index we use them all the time.”

The Coalition is using a parrot (see above) as the emblem of Global Encryption Day. You may see posts on social media inviting users to “meet the parrot that knows too much. Curious, chatty, and ready to repeat everything it hears”.

Index believes encryption needs preserving. Help up support Global Encryption Day today.