Ursula von der Leyen failed in Germany with her major internet attack. Today, under the same pretext and under your leadership, an even more violent project is being put forward at EU level. Under a bill currently on the table in Brussels, photos and messaging messages on smartphones should be searched automatically.

If the responsible AI suspects that child abuse is depicted or that criminals come into contact with children, the content should be forwarded directly to law enforcement authorities. Apple had already wanted to set up a similar procedure but had to abandon it after strong protest. The criticism remains the same: “Mass scanning not only attacks confidential communications at the grassroots level but would also be ineffective: criminals are already using distribution channels that would not be affected by these scans and will easily evade the scans at the base level. ‘future,’ he said in a notice from the Chaos Computer Club.

Don’t underestimate error rates

Thus, although it is unlikely that the perpetrators would actually be discovered in this way, hundreds of millions of users would suffer massive human rights violations. Because no one knows for sure if the message that has just been written, accompanied by the private photo, will not end up at the next agency. Because the AI, which is responsible for monitoring the devices, makes mistakes.

Even the smallest percentages of misranked content would be a huge problem here. Because in Germany alone, more than half a billion messages are sent every day, so even with an almost perfectly functioning system, the authorities would still receive thousands of messages and images every day. After all, in addition to the violation of privacy, there is always the danger of false suspicion in a highly sensitive area.