Demain, l’Europe va-t-elle lire tous vos messages ? C’est le principe de « ChatControl », projet relancé aujourd’hui au nom de la lutte contre la pédocriminalité. Une surveillance de masse qui pourrait mettre fin au secret des correspondances, saturer les services de police et offrir une porte d’entrée aux ingérences étrangères. Alors, tous suspects ?

Depuis quelques années, la Commission européenne planche sur des mesures fortes pour lutter contre la pédocriminalité sur Internet. L’une d’entre elles, partant de bonnes intentions, a été surnommée « ChatControl » par Patrick Breyer, député européen allemand Pirate jusqu’en 2024, qui a été le premier à en dénoncer les dangers. Mise au placard en décembre 2024, sous la présidence hongroise, par une étroite minorité de blocage, la proposition a été relancée par la présidence danoise en ce 2ᵉ semestre 2025.

De quoi s’agit-il ?

ChatControl consiste à obliger légalement les opérateurs de messagerie à scanner l’intégralité de nos échanges privés en ligne, afin d’identifier de potentielles images pédopornographiques.
Les signalements seraient ensuite transmis automatiquement aux autorités de police pour archivage et enquête. Deux procédés sont prévus :

• détection d’images déjà connues des services de police ;
• reconnaissance par IA d’images inédites.

Pourquoi c’est un problème ?

Le projet met fin à la confidentialité des échanges. En France, ce principe est garanti par le Code des postes et télécommunications. L’article 8 de la Convention européenne des droits humains consacre également « le droit au respect de la correspondance ».

Cette disposition n’empêche pas les États de placer des citoyens sous surveillance, mais seulement dans des cas précis, sur présomption et sous contrôle judiciaire. ChatControl inverse ce principe : il ne s’agit plus d’écoutes ciblées, mais d’un contrôle généralisé de toute la population. En somme : tous perquisitionnés par principe, parce que tous suspects.

La Commission a fait valoir que personne ne serait obligé de consentir à ce scan massif… à condition de ne pas pouvoir échanger de photos avec ses amis. Il s’agirait donc d’un « consentement forcé ».

Fiabilité contestée

Les procédés de repérage d’images connues présentent de fortes limites. Des études récentes ont montré qu’ils pouvaient être contournés facilement, soit par recompression de l’image ciblée, soit en provoquant la détection incorrecte d’une image ciblée.

Les algorithmes d’IA posent encore plus de problèmes. Même avec une précision théorique de 99,99 % – bien au-delà de leurs performances réelles –, 1 image sur 10 000 serait signalée à tort. À l’échelle des centaines de millions d’images échangées chaque jour, cela noierait la police sous des masses de faux positifs et rendrait le système inopérant. On peut citer le cas d’un père dénoncé à tort pour pédocriminalité par Google après avoir envoyé une photo de son fils à un médecin.

Une faille de sécurité structurelle

Introduire un « mouchard » dans les applications revient à créer un trou dans la confidentialité de bout en bout, multipliant les possibilités d’attaque par des tiers : d’abord dans notre téléphone, ensuite chez l’opérateur de l’application, enfin dans les systèmes de police.

Il ne s’agit pas d’un fantasme : les fuites de données personnelles sensibles, que ce soit dans des entreprises, des administrations ou des services de police, adviennent quotidiennement. Les tiers indiscrets peuvent même être des services de renseignement étrangers qui coopéreraient avec les opérateurs de messagerie de leur pays. Voulons-nous nous mettre à la merci des services russes ou iraniens ?

L’éditeur de l’application Signal, emblématique en matière de protection des communications, a annoncé qu’il se retirerait de l’Union européenne si ChatControl était adopté, jugeant impossible de maintenir son niveau de sécurité tout en respectant les nouvelles obligations.

Enfin, last but not least, les technologies de surveillance voient systématiquement leur périmètre étendu au fil du temps, bien au-delà des prétentions initiales qui ont permis leur adoption. C’est pourquoi protéger le secret de la correspondance doit rester la règle de principe.

Où en est-on ?

Ce 12 septembre, les États doivent faire part à la Commission européenne de leurs positions. Certains ont reculé, comme la Belgique, la Finlande ou la Tchéquie. D’autres restent indécis : Allemagne, Roumanie, Estonie ou Grèce. La France, quant à elle, a – hélas ! – toujours soutenu le projet.

Le projet, s’il est validé par les États, doit ensuite passer au vote le 14 octobre au Parlement européen.

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Plus d’informations sur ChatControl :

• https://fightchatcontrol.eu/
• https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/

L’article « ChatControl », la perquisition numérique systématique de nos conversations est apparu en premier sur Les Électrons Libres.

U.S. officials issued an advisory warning that foreign-made solar-powered highway infrastructure may contain hidden radios embedded in inverters and batteries. Reuters reports: The advisory, disseminated late last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration, comes amid escalating government action over the presence of Chinese technology in America's transportation infrastructure. The four-page security note, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said that undocumented cellular radios had been discovered "in certain foreign-manufactured power inverters and BMS," referring to battery management systems. The note, which has not previously been reported, did not specify where the products containing undocumented equipment had been imported from, but many inverters are made in China. There is increasing concern from U.S. officials that the devices, along with the electronic systems that manage rechargeable batteries, could be seeded with rogue communications components that would allow them to be remotely tampered with on Beijing's orders. [...] The August 20 advisory said the devices were used to power a range of U.S. highway infrastructure, including signs, traffic cameras, weather stations, solar-powered visitor areas and warehouses, and electric vehicle chargers. The risks it cited included simultaneous outages and surreptitious theft of data. The alert suggested that relevant authorities inventory inverters across the U.S. highway system, scan devices with spectrum analysis technology to detect any unexpected communications, disable or remove any undocumented radios, and make sure their networks were properly segmented.

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“Pas de réseau” – cette angoisse de la zone blanche va-t-elle bientôt disparaître ?
Car la panne ou l’urgence surgit toujours quand les barres de connexion s’éteignent. La liaison directe entre nos smartphones et les constellations de satellites, dont Starlink est le précurseur, est sur le point d’y mettre fin.

C’est une acquisition qui annonce des bouleversements majeurs. Avec le rachat du portefeuille spectral d’EchoStar pour 17 milliards de dollars, SpaceX acquiert une large bande de fréquences aux États-Unis (50 MHz de spectre S-band) ainsi que des autorisations d’exploitation pour fournir des services mobiles par satellite dans le monde entier (licences globales MSS). Une étape décisive vers l’objectif d’une élimination complète des zones blanches dans le monde, c’est-à-dire des zones sans aucun réseau téléphonique mobile.

Une connectivité téléphonique 5G sur l’ensemble du territoire américain

Si les licences MSS permettront d’offrir des services téléphoniques basiques (SMS, appels, données limitées) à l’échelle planétaire, c’est le spectre S-band américain qui constitue la base de la véritable prouesse technique à venir.

Une nouvelle génération de satellites, optimisée pour exploiter ce spectre exclusif, promet en effet une multiplication par 100 de la capacité du système de connectivité directe des téléphones portables aux satellites Starlink aux États-Unis. Concrètement, cela signifie une connectivité équivalente à la 5G des réseaux terrestres actuels. Imaginez : de la vidéoconférence fluide depuis les parcs nationaux, ou encore du streaming haute définition en plein désert du Nevada, directement depuis votre smartphone.

L’enjeu crucial de l’adoption par les géants du mobile

Cette révolution nécessitera toutefois une adaptation : les bandes de fréquences S-band acquises (AWS-4 et PCS-H) ne sont actuellement acceptées par aucun téléphone existant. Apple, Samsung et les autres constructeurs devront intégrer ces nouvelles fréquences dans leurs futurs appareils.

Le géant de Cupertino, déjà engagé avec Globalstar pour sa propre solution satellitaire, se trouve maintenant dans une position délicate : continuer son partenariat actuel ou céder aux pressions d’Elon Musk, qui n’hésite pas à brandir la menace d’un « téléphone Starlink » propriétaire.

Les implications de cette technologie dépassent le simple confort. Lors de récentes catastrophes naturelles aux États-Unis, 1,5 million de personnes ont pu communiquer via Starlink Direct to Cell quand les réseaux cellulaires terrestres étaient détruits. En Nouvelle-Zélande, une automobiliste a pu alerter les secours via satellite après un accident, permettant aux secours d’arriver en quelques minutes alors qu’elle se trouvait en zone blanche.

Les risques d’un monopole spatial

Cette nouvelle acquisition révèle la stratégie agressive de SpaceX et Starlink : dominer par des investissements massifs sans préoccupation de rentabilité à court terme. La concurrence du projet Kuiper d’Amazon demeure essentielle pour préserver un écosystème sain. Si la promesse d’une connectivité universelle est enthousiasmante, elle ne doit pas faire oublier l’importance d’un paysage concurrentiel équilibré dans ce secteur télécom stratégique de demain.

L’article Plus jamais perdus ? est apparu en premier sur Les Électrons Libres.

Pakistan has built surveillance systems that it is actively using to spy on millions of its citizens and to block millions of internet sessions, according to Amnesty International. The Asian nation's Lawful Intercept Management System enables intelligence agencies to tap calls and texts across all four major mobile operators. A Chinese-built firewall, WMS 2.0, currently blocks approximately 650,000 web links and restricts platforms including YouTube, Facebook, and X. The surveillance infrastructure combines technology from Chinese company Geedge Networks, U.S.-based Niagara Networks, France's Thales DIS, Germany's Utimaco, and UAE-based Datafusion. Balochistan province has experienced years-long internet blackouts under the system.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Just days before Apple's expected launch of the satellite-enabled Apple Watch Ultra 3, Garmin unveiled its Fenix 8 Pro -- the company's first smartwatch with built-in inReach satellite and cellular connectivity, SOS features, and a blindingly bright 4,500-nit microLED display. MacRumors reports: With inReach, the Fenix 8 Pro can send location check-ins and text messages over satellite using the Garmin Messenger app. There is also included cellular connectivity, so the smartwatch can make phone calls, send 30-second voice messages, and provide LiveTrack links and weather forecasts when an LTE connection is available. LiveTrack is a feature that allows the wearer's family and friends to keep track of their location during an activity or adventure. For emergencies, there is an SOS feature that will send a message to the Garmin Response center over a satellite or cellular connection. Garmin Response will then communicate with the user, their emergency contacts, and search and rescue organizations to provide help. Garmin says that its Response team has supported over 17,000 inReach incident responses across over 150 countries. The Fenix 8 Pro smartwatch launches September 8, with the AMOLED model starting at $1,200 and the 51mm microLED version priced at $2,000. Both require a paid inReach satellite plan beginning at $7.99 per month for full functionality.

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A federal appeals court rejected T-Mobile's attempt to overturn $92 million in fines for selling customer location information to third-party firms. From a report: The Federal Communications Commission last year fined T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, saying the carriers illegally shared access to customers' location information without consent and did not take reasonable measures to protect that sensitive data against unauthorized disclosure. The fines relate to sharing of real-time location data that was revealed in 2018, but it took years for the FCC to finalize the penalties. The three carriers appealed the rulings in three different courts, and the first major decision was handed down Friday. A three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously against T-Mobile and its subsidiary Sprint. "Every cell phone is a tracking device," the ruling begins. "To receive service, a cell phone must periodically connect with the nearest tower in a wireless carrier's network. Each time it does, it sends the carrier a record of the phone's location and, by extension, the location of the customer who owns it. Over time, this information becomes an exhaustive history of a customer's whereabouts and 'provides an intimate window into [that] person's life.'"

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Russian authorities are "partially" restricting calls in messaging apps Telegram and WhatsApp, the latest step in an effort to tighten control over the internet. From a report: In a statement, government media and internet regulator Roskomnadzor justified the measure as necessary for fighting crime, saying that "according to law enforcement agencies and numerous appeals from citizens, foreign messengers Telegram and WhatsApp have become the main voice services used to deceive and extort money, and to involve Russian citizens in sabotage and terrorist activities."

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United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket successfully completed its first-ever national security mission, launching the U.S. military's first experimental navigation satellite in 48 years. Space.com reports: The mission saw the company's powerful new Vulcan Centaur rocket take off from Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Vulcan launched with four side-mounted solid rocket boosters in order to generate enough thrust to send its payload directly into geosynchronous orbit on one of ULA's longest flights ever, a seven-hour journey that will span over 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers), according to ULA. The payload launching on Tuesday's mission was the U.S. military's first experimental navigation satellite to be launched in 48 years. It is what's known as a position, navigation and timing (PNT) satellite, a type of spacecraft that provides data similar to that of the well-known GPS system. This satellite will be testing many experimental new technologies that are designed to make it resilient to jamming and spoofing, according to Andrew Builta with L3Harris Technologies, the prime contractor for the PNT payload integrated onto a satellite bus built by Northrop Grumman. The satellite, identified publicly only as Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3), features a phased array antenna that allows it to "focus powerful beams to ground forces and combat jamming environments," Builta said in a media roundtable on Monday (Aug. 11). GPS jamming has become an increasingly worrisome problem for both the U.S. military and commercial satellite operators, which is why this spacecraft will be conducting experiments to test how effective these new technologies are at circumventing jamming attacks. In addition, the satellite features a software architecture that allows it to be reprogrammed while in orbit. "This is a truly game-changing capability," Builta said.

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After four weather-related delays, Amazon successfully launched 24 more Kuiper internet satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, bringing its total to 102. CNBC reports: SpaceX's Starlink is currently the dominant provider of low-earth orbit satellite internet, with a constellation of roughly 8,000 satellites and about 5 million customers worldwide. Amazon is racing to get more of its Kuiper satellites into space to meet a deadline set by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC requires that Amazon have about 1,600 satellites in orbit by the end of July 2026, with the full 3,236-satellite constellation launched by July 2029. Amazon has booked up to 83 launches, including three rides with SpaceX. While the company is still in the early stages of building out its constellation, Amazon has already inked deals with governments as it hopes to begin commercial service later this year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The Federal Communications Commission is planning a review of the US emergency alert systems. Both the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WAS) will be subject to a "re-examination" by the agency. "We want to ensure that these programs deliver the results that Americans want and need," FCC Chairman Brendan Carr posted on X. The announcement of this plan notes that the infrastructure underlying the EAS -- which includes radio, television, satellite and cable systems -- is 31 years old, while the framework underpinning the WAS mobile device alerts is 13 years old. The FCC review will also assess what entities should be able to send alerts on those systems, as well as topics such as geographic targeting and security.

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The Trump administration has reportedly directed NASA to draw up plans to shut down its Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite missions, which provide vital climate and agricultural data for scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. As NPR reports, the satellites are "the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases." From the report: It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions. The equipment in space is state of the art and is expected to function for many more years, according to scientists who worked on the missions. An official review by NASA in 2023 found that "the data are of exceptionally high quality" and recommended continuing the mission for at least three years. Both missions, known as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, measure carbon dioxide and plant growth around the globe. They use identical measurement devices, but one device is attached to a stand-alone satellite while the other is attached to the International Space Station. The standalone satellite would burn up in the atmosphere if NASA pursued plans to terminate the mission. NASA employees who work on the two missions are making what the agency calls Phase F plans for both carbon-monitoring missions, according to David Crisp, a longtime NASA scientist who designed the instruments and managed the missions until he retired in 2022. Phase F plans lay out options for terminating NASA missions. The OCO missions would lose funding under the Trump Administration's budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026, which begins Oct. 1 but has yet to pass. "Presidential budget proposals are wish lists that often bear little resemblance to final congressional budgets," notes NPR. "The Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions have already received funding from Congress through the end of the 2025 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30." "Draft budgets that Congress is currently considering for next year keep NASA funding basically flat. But it's not clear whether these specific missions will receive funding again, or if Congress will pass a budget before current funding expires on Sept. 30."

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Longtime Slashdot reader gbkersey shares a report from The Mirror: Elon Musk's satellite internet Starlink has been hit with a global outage preventing thousands of users from accessing the internet. According to DownDetector, reports of issues began to surge around 8pm GMT, with nearly 60,000 global users affected at the peak of the outage. "Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution," the company said in a post on X. "We appreciate your patience, we'll share an update once this issue is resolved." Outages are being reported across the U.S., as well as along the Ukrainian frontline. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people in the UK have logged issues with Starlink since 8pm this evening. "The majority of the reports (64%) are concerning a total blackout, while the rest point to internet problems," the report says. Developing...

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T-Mobile has officially launched its Starlink-powered "T-Satellite" service nationwide, offering off-grid text messaging and location-sharing to both customers and non-customers. The service is currently $10/month (soon to be $15), supports over 60 devices, and will expand to include voice and "satellite-optimized" apps. The Verge reports: Your device will automatically connect to T-Satellite if you're in an area with no cellular coverage. As long as there isn't a heavy amount of cloud coverage or trees blocking your view of the sky, you should be able to send and receive text messages, including to 911, as well as share a link that temporarily tracks your location. T-Mobile's support page says the ability to send pictures is available on "most" Android phones, and the company plans on adding support for more devices soon. T-Mobile is also aiming to enable voice messages and will eventually allow devices to connect to "satellite-optimized" apps, which it previously said could include AllTrails, Accuweather, and WhatsApp. The more than 650 Starlink satellites used by T-Mobile cover the continental US, Hawaii, parts of southern Alaska, and Puerto Rico. The carrier says it's working on offering satellite connectivity while abroad and in international waters as well. [...] In order to use T-Satellite, you'll need to have an unlocked device with support for eSIMs and satellite connectivity.

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T-Mobile is expanding support for the L4S standard across its 5G Advanced network over the next few weeks, becoming the first wireless carrier in the United States to implement the Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable Throughput technology. The standard helps high-priority internet packets move with fewer delays to make video calls and cloud games feel smoother by allowing devices to manage congestion and reduce buffering issues that can occur even on higher bandwidth connections. L4S is already deployed in many cities, the company said. Users will not need special phones or plans to access the network-driven improvements.

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alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Monitoring changes in water temperature and pressure at the seafloor can improve understanding of ocean circulation, climate, and natural hazards such as tsunamis. In recent years, scientists have begun gathering submarine measurements via an existing infrastructure network that spans millions of kilometers around the planet: the undersea fiber-optic telecommunications cables that provide us with amenities like Internet and phone service. Without interfering with their original purpose, the cables can be used as sensors to measure small variations in the light signals that run through them so that scientists can learn more about the sea. Meichen Liu and colleagues recently developed a new instrument, consisting of a receiver and a microwave intensity modulator placed at a shore station, that facilitates the approach. Their work is published in Geophysical Research Letters. Transcontinental fiber-optic cables are divided into subsections by repeaters, instruments positioned every 50 to 100 kilometers that boost information-carrying light signals so that they remain strong on the journey to their destination. At each repeater, an instrument called a fiber Bragg grating reflects a small amount of light back to the previous repeater to monitor the integrity of the cable. By observing and timing these reflections, the new instrument measures the changes in the time it takes for the light to travel between repeaters. These changes convey information about how the surrounding water changes the shape of the cable, and the researchers used that information to infer properties such as daily and weekly water temperature and tide patterns.

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