Defenders of digital confidentiality recorded an encryption in France last week, once again, the deputies finally rejected a controversial provision to create a stolen door for the application of the law.
The sadly famous article 8 of the proposal The law on drug trafficking – which is currently going to the country’s National Assembly – would have required all encrypted and secure messaging applications, mail services to decipher user data at the request of an authority.
The decision to preserve the privacy and security of people is certainly a victory for the technological industry. However, “we must continue to fight for private life and continue to raise our voices – as long as there are still politicians who are trying to break encryption,” Techradar, press manager in Tuta Mail, Hanna Bozakov.
The dangers of a stolen door of encryption
Previously adopted by the Senate, the bill aimed at “freeing France from the drug trafficking trap” was an attempt to create a solid framework to investigate these types of crimes.
As mentioned above, requiring the installation of encryption terminals in tastes of protonmail, signal and WhatsApp has attracted strong criticism in and outside the political benches.
Encryption refers to the shock of data in an illegible form to prevent third -party access. End -to -end encryption is the reiteration that messaging applications and secure messaging services, among other tools like the best VPNs today, use to protect transit data by keeping it private between the sender and the receiver – end -to -end.
However, as cryptographers and other experts have been arguing for a long time, it is not possible to create a stolen encryption door that only the vouchers can exploit.
Commenting on the French affair, the CEO of Tuta Mail, Matthias PFAU, said: “A stolen door for the right ones is a dangerous illusion. Weakening of encryption for the application of laws inevitably creates vulnerabilities which can – and will be – exploited by cybercriminals and hostile foreign actors.”
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In 2016, France also rejected an amendment to its law of the Digital Republic requiring the creation of a stolen encryption door. The provision was presented as an attempt to combat terrorism, but was considered as a “vulnerability of the design” by the French digital minister of the time, Axelle Lemaire – the register reported.
As the Global Encryption Coalition warned in an open letter published on March 4, a stolen door would also have weakened the French messaging application Olvid, which was officially certified by the country’s cybersecurity agency and recommended to French ministers and government officials.
Given the hacking of Typhon of Salt in the United States – which aroused a warning to go to the encrypted services – and the concern of France for the alleged Russian cyber attacks, as Politico reported: “The dependence of the French government, citizens and companies in encryption from start to finish to be safe has never been greater”, in particular experts.
The National Assembly finally listened to the concerns of the industry and scratched the requirement for the stolen door of encryption in the bill on March 6.
Despite general criticism, however, the French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau confirmed his support for the layout of the stolen door of encryption as a necessity to guarantee “maximum efficiency” in the fight against organized crimes, reported the world.
Commenting on this point, Bozakov de Tuta Mail told Techradar: “I fear that politicians still understand nothing of cybersecurity – even if there are currently enormous foreign threats targeting our companies mainly from Russia and China.”
Not just France
France’s attempt to undermine encryption may have been interrupted again. However, the country is not the only one to push to choose the encrypted communications lock to facilitate criminal surveys.
Sweden also plans to pass a similar requirement to signal, WhatsApp and Imessage. If successful, the new rules could come into force in March 2026.
The digitization of side customers is just a stolen door of encryption but with a fancy name
Roman Digneaux, Proton
These plans have already attracted strong criticism from the technology industry, the president of the Meredith Whittaker signal reiterating that the signal prefers to leave the country rather than undermining its encryption protections.
On February 21, 2025, Apple was even forced to kill its value-to-end encryption characteristic in the UK following a government order to create a stolen encryption door.
Since 2022, the EU has also attempted to transmit its cat -control proposal to scan citizens’ private communications, including encrypted messages, in order to stop the spread of children’s sexual abuse equipment (CSAM).
Like Romain Digneaux, director of public policies at Proton (the supplier behind Proton VPN and Proton Mail), underlines, while these efforts are nothing new and tend to fail (as in the case of France), they come back regularly.
“What we see is the creativity of the police to try to push the same old concept with new names – and it’s worrying,” said Digneaux to Techradar.
“The scanning of side customers is a clear example. It is just a stolen encryption door but with a sophisticated name. Something that seems more technical and more acceptable for people who do not necessarily understand the operation of the technology.”
