You can easily communicate from WhatsApp to Snapchat or Telegram without having to change applications, as part of a new regulation announced by the European Union on Thursday; One customer is a chance for some to succeed and others a risk for their data.

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Mutual functionality. Behind this long word hides the decompressionisation of messaging services that the EU wants to impose on the tech giants by early 2023. According to a press release issued on Thursday, the idea is to “give Internet users more choice”.

This control, called “DMA”, allows users of “small platforms” to “exchange messages, send files and make video calls” to users of major applications without having to download them.

Sacha Haworth, general manager of Tech Oversight Project, a company campaigning to increase the oversight of digital technology giant Big Tech, responded on Twitter by saying, “No more silos.”

“The fact that we’re at a time in computer history when such interactions should be the subject of a law is intriguing,” Mar Hicks, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, commented on Twitter.

But for independent analyst Benedict Evans, the only difference between messengers is that the idea of ​​”their logo” is “a naive idea”, he began on Twitter. “These are systems, and connecting them together raises all sorts of questions.”

Often the issue is about the security of personal data. How to communicate with another messenger and ensure that a user does not reveal himself?

WhatsApp, a subsidiary of Meta (formerly Facebook), has implemented systematic end-to-end encryption of all messages (from author to recipient), including discussion groups.

Telegram, on the other hand, does not offer this by default, and Snapchat only serves photos and videos, not text messages.

Additionally, “it’s a misconception that all couriers use different algorithms for encryption and that some can communicate (…) because they are the same,” says cybersecurity expert Alak Muffet.

According to Benedict Evans, the DMA is “a compromise that is good for competition but bad for privacy and bad for products.” You can not have all three at the same time.

“The interoperability with end-to-end encryption is somewhere between the difficult and the impossible,” said Steve Bellow, a professor and data protection specialist at Columbia University on Twitter.

Beyond message encryption, say, “You’re getting a message (in another messenger) from a WhatsApp user named Steve Blowin. Am I? A pirate? Someone with the same name?”

“From a technical standpoint, it’s not particularly complicated,” replies Ian Brown, an Internet control specialist. “The lack of interoperability was one of the essential elements of their dominance, so major groups opposed it outright.”

Furthermore, although the new framework is intended for Europe, one adviser believes that “once the necessary technology is in place, it will be relatively easy for users around the world to extend it”. US Government and European Commission on Regulatory Issues.

“Today is Global ‘The day we open platforms (into competition), the world will collapse’, lobbies and fake noses sponsor,” tweeted Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of video game publisher Epic Games.

For him, as was the case with electronic mail, 3D animation or machine learning (artificial intelligence), it was through the Chronos Association that the basic standards and protocols for interoperability were developed.

Alex Muffet compares messengers to restaurants. Protocols mean that each courier must provide the same menu, with no further differences. I hope that does not happen, because I use different tools (messaging) for different purposes.

The EU has postponed the interaction of social networks, but has already planned to test it one day.

Created by Fortnight Night Publisher Tim Sweeney is already dreaming more. “One day, we’re going to move on to content (movies, series, games) and then network games that are compatible across metawares.