EU is planning a new mass surveillance law that includes mandating data retention, built-in backdoors, sanctioning non-compliant services and is asking you for feedback: Impact assessment on retention

Every year they try to push this same shit with a new name. One day there will be a reichstag fire and it will be passed.

So fucking transparant, yet I don't see a way to stop them.

The rough quote is, we have to win against this every time. They only have to win once.
Pretty straightforward: join anarchist groups like the ccc and the fau, vote radical left and tell everyone you know to do the exact same. It already helps in some areas, just keep doing it.
- And how do you ensure that the "radical left" doesn't support surveillance measures? Not like the ideology has a good track record on that matter.
- I didn't know about those groups, thanks for bringing light to it although I'd be wary of voting radical left unless the alternative is only a right-winger
- I fear that's an oversimplification, seeing how both the socialist and the marxist MEPs from Belgium voted pro last time (1)

To the EU:

At least they give a platform for people to speak out and it's public, but yes disappointing although if you see the other cross-posts some are not straight talking about the risks other than just saying it's about mass surveillance or metadata collection which could ring less alarm bells for people reading it (i know mass surveillance should be enough but oh well)
- True, that's actually a wonderful initiative and they should build upon it, the EU needs a public forum to discuss these things.
- Just like me!😎💅

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I wouldn't be aware of it otherwise. For what its worth, I left my ideas as feedback there.

Also, I would just like to point out that before lemmy (and subscribing to various EU communities) I was not at all active in voicing my opinion about such things as I didn't have any idea that it was even possible/how to do it. Lemmy as a whole has helped me become more active in this regard :D

I have also left some feedback for the first time!

Its refreshing to see people care about this subject outside of privacy forums.

Im sure the agencies that do monitor us have stopped potential threats, but there is a fine line between this and having secret police.

" built-in backdoors,"

Good luck getting that into a lot of the open source tech we now use.

Simple: the open source tech is now illegal unless they can afford a full time legal team.
It's regulatory capture: the big firms get consulted by the EU and can design the laws to the detriment of competition. It's why now, for example, european cars are so expensive and restricted to a handfull of producers.
Alphabet and friends welcome regulation like this.
Only the headline asserts "built-in backdoors", the actual link... not so much.
A reasonable reading of the proposal, assuming it came into effect, is that ISPs, banks, telcos etc would be asked to retain certain records for a number of months or years in a harmonised way. Law enforcement agencies would be required to ask for it in the exact same way they ask for records right now and all the rules concerning GDPR etc would still apply.
Open source tech has zero to do with it, it's a matter of policy.
- The only wrinkle there is "voluntary compliance," which might be construed as warrantless access.

This is to make sure VPNs have to retain data and zero logging will be illegal

They have been a thorn in the side of Disney, Netflix, Amazon and HBO for years.

This is something you'd expect in North Korea

(Europeans rather than Americans in this case, but you get the point.
- It has nothing to do with Asia, but with a totalitarian regime. Such mass surveillance is what dictators do. I could also have said old east Germany, the USSR, Russia, the US, Turkmenistan, El salvador. It's just that I chose north Korea as it is currently one of the worst and most known today.

Even as an American, this is terrifying. Everyone knows my country is shit, but I've always seen you guys as the gold standard and for this kind of thing to even be discussed over on your side of the pond is absolutely horrifying....

It's a specific group within the EU that's trying to do this.
Like those Project 2025 people.
- This has widespread support under MEPs, accross party lines. It's only Germany and Poland that opposed it last time. (1)
always seen you guys as the gold standard
In the land of the blind
- If the bottom of the barrel is what you're trying to compare a golden coated shit is taking all the money.

I tried posting on reddit, but it's blocked for some reason.

Data retention != mass surveilance. Data retention != built-in backdoors. Even the link summary spells out exactly what the purpose of the proposal is (criminal proceedings) and the intended objective (data retention standards).