A Human Right

By: Paul "The Gibson" Miller · · Human Rights, Privacy

Veilid believes that privacy is a human right, non-negotiable and inherent.

With this as our guiding principal, we developed and released a development framework that creates a inherent baseline that respects privacy of the individual.

We continue to fight for the user.

The most recent EU Draft legislation is a vile overreach under the guise of protecting children. While Veilid Foundation would never disagree with that goal, we do take umbrage with the methodologies being proposed.

The legislation proposes not only encryption backdoors which only serve to allow for the eventual further exploitation of private communications, but also calls for client side scanning of all data. In its current form, it will only work to fail the intended goals, and will cause a myriad of other issues:

  • Social Chilling of online political discourse
  • Astronomically higher false positive detections
  • Discouragement of survivors seeking support
  • Universal violation of Articles 7 and 8 (privacy and personal data rights) of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
  • Mass surveillance risks that are antithetical to human rights

These outcomes are not only opposed to the goals of the Veilid Foundation but will in fact lessen law enforcement’s ability to handle legitimate cases. False positives are going to cause a numbing to the problem and will cause those handling these cases to experience alert fatigue. This will cause more misses, and only in the end create a mass surveillance engine capable of destroying the safety net for victims and the individual right to privacy of everyone impacted by this legislation.

We believe in the promise of the internet and intend to restore it. Legislation like this only endangers more people and makes the world a duller place for it’s existence.

We exist in opposition to draconian surveillance overreach and cannot stand for the mass violation of human rights that follows in every case of such legislation passing. This is a cyclical threat, and Veilid exists to be a mote of light in the darkness that opposes those who would disenfranchise millions of already marginalized people.