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Comment by jdrek1 | Hacker News Reader

The problem is they only need to win once. What we really need is an immutable section in the EU constitution that anyone who tries to take away basic privacy rights like this is immediately tried for crimes against humanity and sent to prison for the rest of their lives.

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> The problem is they only need to win once.

and due to the structure of the EU: once it is has passed it is almost impossible to rescind

no matter who you vote for in the future

You can't even vote out people who keep bringing it in in the first place.

Privacy rights are in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which is indirectly part of the Treaty of Lisbon, the closest thing to an EU constitution.

The CJEU has stuck down laws affecting privacy multiple times.

There is always wiggle room of course, and vigilance has to be eternal.

They just change it slightly every time until it passes. But it won’t be very potent in the end; I cannot imagine blanket encryption backdoors etc will be voted in. But if it does I am gone, out of principle. As tech person I cannot stand the stupidity of this all. I hope I am dead before I run out of countries to go to.

> The problem is they only need to win once.

This is a classic EU tactic

Conversely, perhaps protection against this kind of dragnet can be enshrined in Constitutions / Bills of Rights / UN Charters to defend against these attacks more fundamentally.

No, they don't need to "win once", rules can be changed.

And the ECJ/ECHR are a thing (and yes they have ruled against overreaching rules in the past)

(though I like your suggestion)

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