Messenger services: Threema rejects EU opening plans

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Threema rejects EU plans to open Messenger

The Swiss messenger provider Threema does not want to be connected to the big competitors The Swiss messenger provider Threema does not want to be connected to the big competitors

The Swiss messenger provider Threema does not want to be connected to the big competitors

Quelle: pa/KEYSTONE/CHRISTIAN BEUTLER

The European Union is striving for greater interoperability among messenger services. The Swiss provider Threema is now speaking out against this planned opening. CEO Martin Blatter has privacy concerns and predicts the deal will “remain a paper tiger.”

EOne of the most important European messenger providers speaks out against the opening of messenger services, which the forthcoming EU law on digital markets provides for. “We will not participate in interoperability,” said Threema boss Martin Blatter in an interview with WELT AM SONNTAG. Negotiators from the EU Commission, the Council and the European Parliament agreed last week that larger messengers must open up if smaller providers so wish.

In this way, for example, messages from messengers such as Signal, Telegram or Threema could also be delivered to WhatsApp users. However, only messenger providers above a certain size should be obliged to open it. In addition to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, this also includes Apple’s iMessage.

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The Swiss messenger provider Threema does not want to be connected to the big competitors. “Interoperability sounds likeable at first,” said Threema boss Martin Blatter, according to the report. “But unfortunately that’s not well thought out and will ultimately remain a paper tiger.” Users would choose Threema because there was no metadata and they had high data protection standards found.

Sensitive metadata includes, for example, information about who is communicating with whom and when. “If several messengers are now involved, this metadata accumulates everywhere,” said Blatter. With ten million users, Threema is too small to have to open up to others. But they could very well force large messenger services like WhatsApp to let them in.

“In the end, you would have to trust all providers equally”

Threema boss Blatter points out another problem: When transitioning from one messenger to another, messages would have to be decrypted for a short time. Consistent end-to-end encryption is not possible without agreeing on globally uniform protocols, which is unlikely due to the different orientation and functionality of the messengers.

In fact, such a handover point would be the ideal place for a surveillance system. “In the end you would have to trust all providers equally,” said Blatter. Security can hardly be guaranteed. Especially since some services identify their users with telephone numbers, while others use letter and number codes or user names. “A database would have to bring this information together, that’s every hacker’s wet dream,” said Blatter.

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