European Court of Human Rights declares backdoored encryption is illegal

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that requirements to decrypt end-to-end communications, conduct indiscriminate data retention, and grant direct access to stored data violate human rights, stemming from a case over Russia’s FSB demands to decrypt Telegram traffic. The judgment undermines EU proposals like 'Chat Control' and aspects of the UK Online Safety Act, with critics highlighting that client-side scanning and weakened encryption are disproportionate and incompatible with democratic safeguards.