The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is a significant moment for both technology and geopolitics. Beginning January 19, 2025, TikTok is to be removed from U.S. app stores unless it completely severs its ties with its Chinese parent company, Read More
Meta considers a future where AI-generated bots, avatars or artificial accounts seamlessly integrate into its platforms, filling networks with artificial agents that mimic human users. I must repeat: according to the (so far vague) remarks, these bots are supposedly to interact with people, generate content, and have profiles indistinguishable from Read More
We are at a historical moment where countries are introducing regulations of content distributed online and via social media. In Europe, such regulation is the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is still in its early phases, and we are yet to see its full impact and enforcement in action. Content Read More
The Digital Markets Act is one of the least understood EU technology laws, yet it has tangible impacts—both positive and negative—on the technology landscape. We’ll use the opportunity to study an interesting and real-world case. It concerns the practice of Chrome preloading its web browser extension so Read More
The European Union is regulating disinformation. Well, sort of. While the issue is indeed discussed in regulations such as the Digital Services Act, it seems that the “executive” arm is the Code on Disinformation, as of now strengthened. It builds on the previous 2018 version which I criticised here. The Read More
Privacy and data protection assessment of the eID Regulation. This assessment is prepared in response to a request by the LIBE Secretariat in the name of the MEP Cristian Terhes (rapporteur of eID file; requested on 19.01.2022). The focus of this assessment is data protection and privacy. Although Read More
Should technology be based on some set of moral values? Actually, technology is always based on some set of values. There is no denying that this or another way, technology is a vehicle for some kind of values. Whether these are capitalist, ordoliberal, digital Leninism, some form of digital sovereignty, Read More
Artificial Intelligence and AI Governance are hot topics in this decade. European Union has a pretty ambitious attempt to regulate AI (project here). In this post, I have a look at the proposal through the technical lens, including paying attention to cybersecurity and privacy. The goal of the regulation is Read More
After the success of the GDPR, Europe is doubling down on setting the standards in Artificial Intelligence. It should be clear to everyone, especially after a version of the “REGULATION ON A EUROPEAN APPROACH FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” project leaked. While it contains interesting AI governance ideas, I will withhold further Read More
Technology platforms create technologies with significant impacts on nations, governments, and societies. This impact is increasing, reaching new heights. Many feel that the rules of the game are unclear, insufficient, or non-existent. Without rules, one only wonders who would set out the road to the future. In other words, does Read More
European Commission announced the “Democratic Action Plan”. It is a rather general strategic document. What stands out is the realization that New Digital Technologies have great impacts on democratic societies. Both positive (i.e. like the ability to reach new groups of people) and negative (like the non-transparent campaigning, disinformation, Read More
The Council of the European Union is a group of representatives of 27 EU governments. The institution continues to investigate the challenges caused by encryption technology. Someone in there recently coined a new policy term “security through encryption and security despite encryption” (in this document). What does it mean? The Read More
Privacy Shield provided for simple grounds for transferring data from the European Union to the USA. The news of invalidation of Privacy Shield as a result of the verdict of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has now settled. It’s a matter of law, and the associated decision contains Read More