While governments around the world are planning to break strong encryption through client-side scanning, the German government is now standing up to protect the privacy rights of its citizens. This is not surprising, as Germany is known for its strong data protection laws , which is one of the reasons why Tuta is headquartere in Germany.
German cyber activists from Netzpolitik.org Betting Data have publishe a draft law that would make it mandatory for messengers, email and cloud service providers to use end-to-end encryption starting in 2024.
You can read the full text of the law here (in German) .
The newly publishe draft law comes after the German government, which consists of the Social Democratic Party, the Free Democratic Party and the Green Party, reached a coalition agreement for 2021. At the time, the plan to introduce encryption rights received great support, especially among security experts and cyber activists.
Cheers for the new law
We at Tuta are delighte to see the draft bill publishe in Germany (where we are headquartere) and this comes at a time when we are celebrating ten years since Tuta (formerly Tutanota) was founde as the world’s first end-to-end encrypte email provider.
Learn more about the launch of Tuta(nota) and our path to success .
Now, Germany could become the first country in the world to enshrine the right to encryption in federal law.
This is good news not only for us encrypted email services, but for all citizens and businesses: once the German government’s draft law is passed, they will finally have the guarantee of confidentiality in their digital communications.
In an era of increasing cyber threats, malicious attacks, (state-sponsored) surveillance, and industrial espionage, this would be a huge and much-needed advancement in cybersecurity.
The wording of the draft law
The new law sets a new standard: people should be able to use end-to-end encryption “where technically feasible”. The text explains why this explicit requirement for cloud providers is necessary: ”While end-to-end encryption is now an industry standard, individual messenger services do not use end-to-end encryption or use it only in certain functions where this is not justified by technical limitations”.
The draft law promotes the adoption of strong Belgium Phone Number List end-to-end encryption to guarantee the confidentiality of communications: “This is essential to ensure the confidentiality of telecommunications, the confidentiality and integrity of information technology systems and the fundamental right to cybersecurity.”
Maximilian Funke-Kaiser, digital policy spokesman for the Bundestag parliamentary group, told Netzpolotik.org that the law is a necessary measure to prevent future attacks on online privacy through legislative measures such as ” chat controls “:
“We give users of messengers, email and cloud services the right to always transmit their communications and data with end-to-end encryption and require providers to offer this option. In this way, we will increase the use of encryption technology and protect the digital privacy of every citizen.”
While the bill is still a draft and has yet to pass the German parliament, there is reason to celebrate: this time, politicians want to strengthen encryption rather than undermine it.
