⚠️ Privacy alert

Chat Control: the EU wants to search through all your private messages

Under the pretext of fighting child sexual abuse, the European Union is building the largest communications surveillance infrastructure ever conceived in a democracy: the automated scanning of every private message from every citizen, encrypted messages included. This is mass surveillance with no suspicion, no warrant, no limit. We denounce it, and it directly threatens the existence of mail123.click.

📢 Take action now The threat to mail123

1. What is Chat Control?

"Chat Control" is the nickname given to the EU's CSAR regulation (Child Sexual Abuse Regulation), proposed by the European Commission on 11 May 2022. Officially, it aims to detect child sexual abuse material. In practice, it forces online services to scan the content of everyone's private communications, messages, photos, links, looking for "suspicious" content, via automated "artificial intelligence" filters. It exists in two forms.

Chat Control 1.0

The "voluntary" derogation (EU regulation 2021/1232) that allows platforms to scan messages. Presented as temporary, it expired on 4 April 2026, then was reactivated on 9 July 2026 after Parliament failed to gather the majority needed to reject it. Mass scanning is thus extended until 2028.

Chat Control 2.0

The permanent, mandatory regulation. In its harshest version, it would even force end-to-end encrypted messaging apps (WhatsApp, Signal) to install spyware on your device ("client-side scanning") to inspect your messages before encryption. The real end of encryption.

2. Why it's a disaster

  • Mass surveillance with no suspicion. This is no longer about monitoring suspects: it's monitoring everyone, all the time, preemptively. The Council of the EU's own legal service has deemed this blanket scanning incompatible with Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights when carried out without suspicion or prior judicial authorization.
  • The death of encryption. More than 300 cryptographers, the EFF, and EDRi are unequivocal: "client-side scanning" destroys the promise of end-to-end encryption. The scanner and its update channel become a prime target for hackers, spyware vendors, and hostile states.
  • False positives by the millions. These filters flag innocent family photos, medical images, exchanges between teenagers. Countless private lives exposed to humans and to police, for nothing.
  • The end of anonymity. The text provides for mandatory age verification for communication services, in other words the end of the right to communicate anonymously in Europe.
  • An irreversible infrastructure. Once the scanning apparatus is installed on billions of devices, nothing will stop it from being extended tomorrow to other content: opinions, the press, political opposition.

Experts agree: this technology does not protect children, it mainly serves as a smokescreen to delay real measures, all while installing an unprecedented surveillance capability. Signal has announced it would leave the EU rather than sacrifice encryption to it.

3. Where things stand (July 2026)

  • Chat Control 1.0: reactivated on 9 July 2026 (Parliament mustered only 314 of the 361 votes needed to block it). "Voluntary" scanning extended until 2028.
  • Chat Control 2.0 (CSAR): still under negotiation. Five trilogues have failed; the fifth (29 June 2026) collapsed precisely over suspicionless scanning.
  • Next step: a sixth trilogue is expected under the Irish presidency, likely in September 2026. Nothing is settled, this is being decided now.

4. Who voted for it, who voted against it?

mail123.click does not engage in partisan politics. We back no party and target none. But a vote is a commitment made by those who cast it: if your representatives, whatever their party, supported Chat Control, they are the ones to hold accountable.

In the European Parliament, the lines are fairly clear, even if every group has its exceptions:

Those pushing Chat Control

  • EPP, European People's Party (centre-right): the main driving force behind the text, in favour of mandatory scanning and expanding the rules.
  • S&D, Socialists & Democrats: an ambiguous position. The group's leadership let the July 2026 emergency procedure pass, which enabled the reactivation, even as its rapporteur Birgit Sippel (SPD) denounced the manoeuvre.
  • Support also from some conservatives (ECR) and parts of the right.

Those opposing it

  • Greens/EFA: outright opposition, they call the text "mass surveillance".
  • The Left (GUE/NGL): opposed.
  • A large share of Renew Europe (liberals): opposed to mandatory scanning.
  • And isolated members across nearly every group.

Vote markers: on 25 March 2026, Parliament rejected the extension (311 against, 228 in favour). On 9 July 2026, the attempt to block it fell just short, 314 votes to reject, far from the 361 required, letting the scanning continue.

Check how your MEPs voted, the votes are public, and challenge them via fightchatcontrol.eu. Whatever your political leanings: on your privacy, demand accountability.

5. The direct threat to mail123.click

We are not neutral, and we own that. mail123.click exists for one reason: to offer a temporary, anonymous, sign-up-free email address that protects your privacy. Chat Control strikes head-on at every one of these principles.

  • Content scanning would require inspecting the messages that pass through our temporary inboxes, the exact opposite of a service that keeps nothing and reads nothing.
  • Mandatory age verification would kill the very core of mail123.click: use without an account, without identity, without a trace. A disposable email that requires an ID document is no longer a disposable email.
  • The logic of blanket surveillance is incompatible with a privacy service. If adopted, this regulation would render tools like ours either illegal or stripped of their purpose.

So we say it plainly: Chat Control is an attack on everyone's privacy, and on the services that protect it, mail123.click included. We oppose it, and we call on you to do the same.

6. What you can do

  • Contact your MEPs via the citizen campaign fightchatcontrol.eu (a ready-to-use tool, sample email included).
  • Spread the word. Surveillance's best ally is ignorance. Share this page.
  • Use and support encryption (Signal, encrypted messaging apps) and services that refuse to collect your data.
📢 Contact my MEPs

7. Media & sources denouncing Chat Control

We don't ask you to take our word for it. Read, verify, form your own opinion:

ENFight Chat Control The European citizen campaign ENChat Control 1.0 vs 2.0 The detailed comparison ENPatrick Breyer The reference dossier from the former MEP ENElectronic Frontier Foundation "It still must be stopped" ENEDRi European Digital Rights, client-side scanning ENSignal "For a future with privacy, not mass surveillance" ENThe Register The "snoopfest" makes a comeback (9 July 2026) ENEuronews The EU extends message scanning ENWikipedia Chat Control, overview and timeline FRLes Numériques "A farce that damages democracy" FRLa Quadrature du Net Chat Control: a status update FRBasta! An attack on the confidentiality of communications FRKorben The EU wants to scan your messages FRParti Pirate Breakdown and mobilisation ESEl Salto Reactivation of mass message scanning ESEcologistas en Acción Demanding Chat Control not be approved DEheise Showdown in Strasbourg, the return of Chat Control 1.0 ENProton "The EU's turn to admit Chat Control won't work" ENTuta Encryption and age verification ENBrussels Signal Parliament approves 'mini-chat control' ENAll About Cookies Extended until 2028: what it means FRINCYBER "The EU revives Chat Control (again)" FRKultureGeek Chat Control returns to scan your messages ENComputer Weekly EU Parliament rejects Chat Control message scanning FRL'Usine Digitale Europe refuses mass control of communications FRStop Chat Control No to mass surveillance in Europe (French campaign)

Page updated in July 2026. The situation is moving fast: check the sources above for the latest state of play.