Age Verification, End-to-End Encryption Raise Concerns with UK's Online Safety Act
TechRadar
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Contributed by: Drex DeFord
Summary
The Online Safety Act in the UK has intensified discussions around age verification and its implications for privacy and encryption in digital communication. Notably, Section 122 mandates tech companies to conduct client-side scanning of private messages to identify illegal content, raising significant concerns about undermining encryption and user privacy. Messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Signal have threatened to leave the UK market in response, prompting the government to delay this controversial requirement until it is deemed technically feasible. This situation highlights a broader, global debate on balancing public safety with the integrity of secure communication technologies.
