05/25/17: Crypto Wars 2.0: The European Front

The right to use strong encryption technology—like the encryption that secures your iPhone or protects your Whatsapp messages—isn’t only under political attack in the U.S. Governments in the UK, Germany, France, and other European countries have recently taken steps toward undermining encryption. Although these local debates have engaged a wide range of policymakers, privacy advocates, and internet companies, they’ve been taking place largely in isolation from each other, with limited sharing of information, arguments, and advocacy tactics between those countries’ policy communities. Yet a major change in encryption policy in just one of these countries may set the stage for similar changes in the law throughout Europe, or even here in the U.S.

Join New America’s Open Technology Institute for a panel discussion that will examine the latest developments in the crypto-debates raging across Europe, consider how they may impact the debate in the U.S., look for comparative lessons learned, and discuss how best to effectively engage in what is quickly becoming a global policy conflict.