The EU debates the future of encryption, two years after Australia’s controversial messaging law

27 November 2020 00:00

Duration 27:38

End-to-end encryption in messaging services has been a boon for privacy. In fact, it’s hard to see a downside to the fact that you can send someone your banking details, or medical records or other personal information without having to worry about it falling into the wrong hands. Yet encryption hasn’t been kind to law-enforcement agencies, as criminals embrace secure channels of communication, sidestepping surveillance. Against a backdrop of growing concern over terrorism, some European national governments are now pushing to grant investigators access to encrypted messages, and the European Union appears set to consider regulatory change — despite mounting concerns over privacy. Meanwhile, Australia’s encryption laws are almost two years old, although to date police have left the strongest part of the measures untouched, raising questions about why the legislation was needed in the first place.

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Editorial Team

James Panichi
Matthew Newman

James Panichi Senior Editor, Asia Pacific

James Panichi

James, an Australian journalist with over 25 years’ experience in print and electronic media, helps to oversee MLex’s coverage of regulatory risk in Asia, with special attention to Australia and New Zealand. In 2016, James was appointed as MLex’s managing editor for continental Europe, overseeing the Brussels bureau’s coverage of EU regulatory affairs and managing a team of 16 journalists in Brussels and Geneva. Previously James worked for the European Voice newspaper, before joining the... Read more

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Matthew Newman Global Chief Correspondent

Matthew Newman

Matthew Newman is a chief correspondent for MLex and writes about data protection, privacy, telecoms, cyber security and artificial intelligence. Matthew began his journalism career in 1991 in community newspapers. He worked as a reporter in Riga, Latvia in 1993 and then moved to Chicago where he covered local news. In 1995, he became a personal finance reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, and was then transferred to Brussels in 1999. He specialized in EU regulatory... Read more

View all posts written by Matthew Newman
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