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Will the far right threaten Europe’s digital future?
To move away from a technosolutionist approach, it is important to envision a future where technology serves humanity, democracy, and the planet by asking the hard question of how technology enables harmful power dynamics in our society.
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Digital futures for all
In recent years, protecting and advancing digital rights feels like a never-ending battle as more and more of our lives get entangled with the digital world. Challenges to our freedoms online and offline continue to pile up as we face tech corporations with ginormous budgets and states with carte blanche to do anything for ‘national security’ reasons.
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It’s time for a heart-to-heart about the EU’s surveillance agenda
The EU prides itself on its worldwide norm-setting influence in the fields of data protection and artificial intelligence regulation. Still, it is not always for the best when it comes to digital state surveillance. Privacy is safety. As we approach the European elections in June, it’s time to discuss the EU's role in shaping how technologies are developed and used.
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Privacy is not for sale: Meta must stop charging for people’s right to privacy
Ahead of a crucial opinion by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) – a grouping of the EU’s chief privacy regulators - on Meta’s plan to charge for privacy, the European Commission has opened an investigation that we hope will cast light on the unlawfulness of Meta’s so-called ‘Pay or Okay’ model, which has become the ‘talk of the town’ in Brussels.
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Tech platforms must drop addictive features that harm young people
Social media companies construct their platforms in ways that make them addictive. Algorithms show individuals things that they think will keep them hooked for longer.
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The colonial biometric legacy at heart of new EU asylum system
On Wednesday (10 April), the EU is set to vote on a new set of asylum and migration reforms. Among the many controversial changes proposed in the new migration pact, one went almost unnoticed — a seemingly innocent reform of the EU's asylum database, EURODAC. Although framed as purely technical adjustments, the reality is far more malicious. The changes to EURODAC will massively exacerbate violence against people on the move.
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Will the Brussels spyware scandal finally convince the EU to act?
In February, Brussels was rocked by reports of phone hacking and spyware attacks on members of the European Parliament’s defence and security committee. Such intrusions are a huge threat to EU democracy — interfering with decision-making and allowing obstructive disruptions to public debate. Three weeks on, nothing seems to have changed with the EU’s approach to spyware.
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Delay, depress, destroy: How tech corporations subvert the EU’s new digital laws
When the DSA and DMA were passed in 2022, major tech industry associations praised the new laws as significant achievements. It is time for Big Tech corporations to stop pouting and live up to their responsibility.
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When law enforcement undermines our digital safety, who is looking after our interests?
Imagine your friend sent you a private DM on Twitter. Now imagine, instead of the content remaining for your eyes only, Twitter letting the police also take a peek at it. Such intrusive practices of state actors accessing private messages have grave consequences for our lives. Some people can be physically harmed, and for some, it can mean that their families and friends could get prosecuted. At a collective level, the harm this does to our communities and society at large is immeasurable.
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The sledgehammer approach of age verification tools won’t make the internet safer
Do you like scrolling through Instagram reels or watching vlogs on YouTube? Soon enough, you may have to give your personal ID details to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg to keep doing so.
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The EU wants to make facial recognition history — but it must be done for the right reasons
Whilst civil rights activists have long called for an outright ban, certain EU lawmakers may see the AI Act as an opportunity to claim that they are doing the (human) right(s) thing — and actually doing the opposite.
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Why your data might already be on a Europol list
Police forces around Europe seem hooked on the habit of collecting information on a massive scale and forwarding it to the EU's police agency, Europol. This undermines privacy, fair trial rights and the presumption of innocence.
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