Is France finally standing up for encryption and privacy?
Finally some good news: French MPs want to make it illegal to break encryption and limit surveillance.
This decision marks a clear opposition to the failed “Narcotrafic” bill , previously advanced by Senator Bruno Retailleau, which included mandating secret backdoors into communication services or infiltrating communications with “ghost” techniques for combating organized crime. The Narcotrafic law, similar to the UK Online Safety Act, had a passage that would have enabled law enforcement to require companies to implement backdoor mechanisms for giving authorities access.
This draft law was widely condemned by security experts, privacy advocates, and tech companies. Signal even threatened to leave France if forced to comply. In the end, the Narcotrafic law wasn’t passed.
And now, the “Résilience” bill aims at making sure politicians can’t try to break encryption again.
Great news for privacy fighters
End-to-end encryption like in Tuta Mail is the strongest tool we have to protect our private and confidential communication. However, for end-to-end encryption to truly protect our data, it must not be broken. Once backdoors to encryption, client-side scanning – as proposed in Chat Control, or “ghost users” are introduced, the security of everyone collapses. You cannot create a special key that only “the good guys” can use: History has shown time and time again that any weakness is an easy target for criminals, malicious hackers, and hostile actors.
Article 16 of the “Résilience” bill now reads as follows:
“Providers of encryption services, including qualified trust service providers, cannot be required to incorporate technical devices designed to deliberately weaken the security of information systems and electronic communications, such as master decryption keys or any other mechanism allowing unauthorized access to protected data.”
This wording closes potential loopholes and firmly protects users from hidden surveillance mechanisms. Article 16 aims to make sure that the following is impossible:
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Forced backdoors
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Ghost profiles secretly added to private conversations
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Access to encrypted communications
Win for encryption - and for democracy
This legal win would be significant well beyond France. If this law gets passed, it is a victory for everyone who fights for secure, encrypted communication. So we at Tuta celebrate this amended bill – and hope that the law gets passed without any further changes. Encryption is not only essential for journalists, activists, and businesses – it is the foundation of our online security and makes sure that each one of us can use the internet confidentially and securely. Weakening encryption would expose all of us to much larger risks than some politicians want to protect us from by introducing surveillance measures.
The amendment introduced by MP Philippe Latombe explicitly guarantees that no service provider can be forced to weaken encryption. By defending encryption, France sets a great example in Europe: cybersecurity and democracy are stronger when governments resist the temptation of mass surveillance.
What’s next
While this amendment is a reason to celebrate, the battle to protect strong encryption is far from over. The French government did support the Danish Chat Control proposal, despite it demanding client-side scanning of all communication, even if encrypted. So we have to watch closely if and how the “Résilience” bill gets passed.
While each victory, like France’s amendment to the “Résilience” law, shows that pressure from the public can have an influence on politics, we must make sure to not stop being loud and vocal on these issues.
At Tuta, we celebrate this step forward. We’re here to build a web where private communication is a right for everyone, not a privilege for some.
Encryption defends democracy. And for now, encryption has won in France.
