Schlagwort: english

A piece of cheese with holes in the shape of the euro symbol, lying on a blue board with a small cutting knife next to it.

Eighty per cent of all EU citizens should be using a digital wallet by 2030. A group of experts is working on the technical details for this. Because it is not adhering to the legal requirements, it is now being criticised by civil rights activists.

People in suits sit around a negotiating table, an oversized smartphone showing a padlock in the middle

The EU member states are unable to agree on a position on chat control today. The Council Presidency has removed the vote from the agenda because it does not have a sufficient majority. This means that Belgium has failed, and the presidency now goes to Hungary.

Surveillance Eye looking at a person writing a letter.

The planned chat control makes the world less secure and more authoritarian, as it is directed against private and encrypted communication. Proponents are using disinformation, lies, and sleight of hand to push through the project. But chat control can still be stopped. A commentary.

Prompt: police man looking at a computer, encryption sign with padlock, ciphers, code, illustration, --ar 16:9 Job ID: 089c33d3-053b-4006-a205-a15e4b63ca15

Most EU member states welcome the demands of a group of experts for more surveillance. The panel was criticized in advance for being biased and one-sided. Nevertheless, there is hardly any opposition to the panel’s recommendations, as a secret protocol that we are publishing shows.

The right wing dominates the polls, Volt makes gains. The clear losers are the Greens – and the Pirates. Anja Hirschel, heir to Patrick Breyer, misses her entry into Parliament. The Czech Pirates also drop to a single seat.

People on the move face dehumanizing and discriminatory treatment at Europe’s borders. Yet, the EU continues to fund projects that aim to automate these practices with the help of AI and by this exacerbates the plight of migrants. An interview with Antonella Napolitano and Fabio Chiusi.

Person holding AirTag in one and phone in other hand. Phone shows some map with location indicator.

AirTags can be super useful. But in women’s shelters they’re deadly. Topics such as stalking are a new thing for the standards organization IETF. But this is what was needed when discussing a standard for location trackers. Mallory Knodel says the IETF should be proud of itself to be expanding its mandate.

Gravestone showing European stars and a mastodon.

EU institutions are active on Mastodon and Peertube servers, thanks to a pilot project run by the European Data Protection Supervisor. But they’ll be shut down in May – because nobody wants to be responsible for them.

Illustration im Bauhaus-Stil. Zu sehen sind unter anderem ein Flugzeug, die Umrisse einer Person und ein Ausweis.

A data broker is offering sensitive passport data of thousands of people for sale – and publishing some of it openly online. Our investigation leads to an airline as a possible source. Data protection authorities are alarmed.

A wall of glowing red rectangles, in front of it the shadow of a person

Warfare is becoming digitalized and automated. This is shifting the role of citizens within the Geneva Conventions. We urgently require new solutions and international agreements.

Headphones on Russia flag with audio track, symbolic photo Taurus wiretapping affair

The German Taurus leak shows one thing very clearly: encrypted and secure communication does not work for the few. Instead, it must become the standard for everyone.

A red traffic light, with a blue sky in the background.

The planned Directive on Platform Work was supposed to be done, but now there are new problems: EU member states did not agree with the trilogue compromise, endangering the whole project.

Wrapped christmas presents with dark lighting

A document from the AI Act trilogue shows what member states were hoping to push through: Automated classification of people by race, emotion recognition, biometric analysis of video recordings. In some parts, the outcome is still unclear.

Faces of people with IDs on their faces. An EU map with countries highlighted in color. Screenshot of a table showing advertising segments.

For targeted advertising, data brokers want to know about our bank accounts, children and illnesses. Our data research shows the dimension of this dubious business for the first time in a European country comparison. Experts call it a „catastrophe“.

Portrait of person in black blazer with crossed arms

TikTok is struggling to convince Western politicians it is not a security threat. But governments are right to ban the app from official devices, says China expert Rebecca Arcesati. Still she warns the biggest threat is Europe and the US giving up on their democratic values in dealing with TikTok.

The Internet does not forget? The opposite is the case. Huge mountains of data are lost on the internet every day. That’s why the Archive Team scours the vastness of the WWW and rescues data from extinction – around the clock and on a voluntary basis.

While there is a lot of discussion about new Twitter alternatives and the relevance of journalists and other critical groups of users, the potential of university-based Fediverse instances has hardly been addressed. It is high time for universities to get involved in the Fediverse. This is a call to action.

Computergenerated image of a young woman typing into a smartpohne, surrounded by data and screens

The advertising industry has more than 650,000 labels to target people. Reading through them reveals how even the most sensitive aspects of our life are monitored. EU-based data brokers play a vital role in this system.

Hardly anyone reports on TikTok as much as US journalist Emily Baker-White. In an interview, the Forbes editor tells how TikTok spied on her and what danger she sees in the Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Émile P. Torres, in the background a picture of the Virgo Supercluster

Émile P. Torres calls one of the most influential philosophies of our time an ideology: Longtermism is the central school of thought of tech giants like Elon Musk and Skype founder Jaan Tallinn. In an interview, Torres explains why it is so dangerous.

english

EUDI Wallet: A wallet full of loopholes

Victory, for now: No Majority on Chat Control for Belgium

Client-Side-Scanning: Chat Control is Pure Surveillance State

Going Dark: EU States Push for Access to Encrypted Data and Increased Surveillance

European Election: German Pirates will not re-enter EU Parliament

Interview: AI at Europe’s Borders

Interview on location trackers: Google and Apple „are hoping to avoid being banned“

Mastodon and Peertube: EU closing up shop in Fediverse because nobody wants to run servers

European data broker: Sensitive passport data of Germans published online

"Artificial Intelligence": Automated Warfare and the Geneva Convention

Taurus leak: When it comes to privacy, it’s all or nothing

Platform Work: Member states torpedo workers‘ rights

AI Act: The Member States‘ Wish List

Interview: „TikTok’s power to say no is shrinking by the day“

Archive Team: Shutdowns don’t stop during the weekends

Surveillance advertising in Europe: The adtech industry tracks most of what you do on the Internet. This file shows just how much.

Journalist under surveillance: „TikTok was scared and freaked out“

Longtermism: „An odd and peculiar ideology“