Chat Control 1.0
The EU permits email providers to voluntarily scan your private messages. We refuse.
What is Chat Control 1.0?
Chat Control 1.0 is a temporary derogation from the EU ePrivacy Directive, formally known as Regulation (EU) 2021/1232. It creates a legal exception that permits messaging and email platforms to voluntarily scan the contents of private communications for child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The regulation does not mandate scanning. It removes the legal barrier that would otherwise prevent providers from reading your messages. Any platform operating under EU jurisdiction may choose to scan your emails, attachments, and files without violating European privacy law.
A separate proposal — Chat Control 2.0 — would make scanning mandatory and break end-to-end encryption. That proposal remains locked in fierce political battle.
The "zombie" resurrection
Chat Control 1.0 officially expired on April 3, 2026. For three months there was a complete legal gap — platforms had no cover to voluntarily scan.
On July 9, 2026, on the eve of the Parliament's summer recess, EU leadership used a highly criticized procedural maneuver to force a vote reviving the framework until 2028.
The absolute majority trick
To block the law from returning, the Parliament needed an absolute majority of 361 "No" votes. The actual vote was 314 No to 276 Yes, with 17 abstaining. Even though more politicians voted against the law than for it, it failed to reach the 361-vote blocking threshold. Because of this procedural quirk, the law survived.
Chat Control 1.0 enters force as a "temporary" ePrivacy derogation.
The derogation expires. Parliament lets it lapse.
Revived via absolute majority procedural trick. Extended to April 2028.
Council of the EU has 3 months to accept or reject the encryption amendments.
The encryption shield
On the same day as the controversial vote, the Parliament passed amendments that explicitly exclude any service employing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) from the scanning framework.
What this means: E2EE services like Signal, WhatsApp, and Proton Mail are completely excluded from voluntary scanning under Chat Control 1.0. The law only permits scanning of unencrypted communications.
This is a significant win for digital privacy — but it does not protect users of unencrypted email services. Standard SMTP email, which most providers handle in cleartext on their servers, remains within scope.
Is my email being scanned?
Chat Control 1.0 is 100% voluntary. It does not give any government the power to order a company to scan your messages. It simply shields companies from being sued under EU privacy laws if they choose to scan unencrypted communications on their own.
Who is scanning
- Gmail — scans all unencrypted email for CSAM hash matches
- Facebook/Meta Messenger — automated scanning of messages and images
- Snapchat — proactive content scanning on unencrypted messages
- Microsoft (Outlook, Xbox) — PhotoDNA hash matching on communications
Who is not scanning
Privacy-first providers who actively choose not to participate, and any service using end-to-end encryption (which is now legally excluded).
RacterMX does not scan your email
RacterMX does not participate in voluntary scanning under Chat Control 1.0. We have never scanned the content of user emails for any purpose beyond spam filtering (which you control), and we never will.
- We do not read, analyze, or process the content of your messages
- We do not scan attachments against hash databases or AI classifiers
- We do not report message content to any government or third party
- We do not retain message bodies after delivery
- We do not cooperate with voluntary surveillance frameworks
Our infrastructure is hosted in Iceland, outside the EU and the Fourteen Eyes surveillance alliance. Icelandic privacy law provides strong protections for electronic communications, and we intend to keep it that way.
If Chat Control 2.0 passes and mandatory scanning becomes law in the EU, we will evaluate our options — but compliance with mass surveillance is not one of them. We built RacterMX to protect your email, not to read it.
Further reading
For more on how we protect your data, see our Privacy Policy, Warrant Canary, and Security pages.
Last updated: July 15, 2026