
Europol urges fight against encryption to fight crime despite criticism from tech experts.
The European police agency (Europol) is stepping up pressure on tech companies to give law enforcement access to encrypted messages, amid concerns that encryption is hiding crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking, cybercrime and other serious crimes. The European Criminal Police Organization (Europol) has stressed the need to strike a balance between protecting privacy and protecting public safety, and has used high-profile cases such as the 2017 London Bridge attack to illustrate how encrypted communications are making criminal investigations more difficult.
But technology experts and companies are opposing such initiatives, arguing that weakening encryption poses risks for all users, including governments and law enforcement. Europol’s efforts received new impetus at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Catherine de Bolles, head of the European Criminal Police Organization (Europol), said that high-tech companies have a “social responsibility” to cooperate with law enforcement. But in 2024, a European Commission working group noted that widespread access to encrypted data is dangerous.
Tech experts have noted that creating backdoors for law enforcement would inevitably open the way for cybercriminals. Experts compare it to weakening the locks on a house’s door, leaving it vulnerable to any intruder. The debate between security and privacy remains one of the most pressing issues of the digital age. As law enforcement agencies call for encryption to be weakened to fight crime, tech community warns of potentially devastating cybersecurity consequences.