Notices by Jan Penfrat (ilumium@eupolicy.social)

For weeks I have been telling reporters that #Trump could have the power to switch off our tech in #Europe. It felt a bit alarmist until I just read that #Microsoft, on the behest of the #US gov, has suspended the email account of Karim Khan, the #ICC chief prosecutor.

One of the most important international courts and a legal bulwark against #genocide, crimes against humanity, and #warcrimes is threatened by #BigTech dependency.

https://apnews.com/article/icc-trump-sanctions-karim-khan-court-a4b4c02751ab84c09718b1b95cbd5db3

#DigitalSovereignty #FOSS #EthicalTech

@protonprivacy and @threemaapp: We offer super safe #privacy made in #Switzerland! 🇨🇭🏔️

Switzerland: Let's ban #anonymity online and introduce #dataretention by decree without parliament.

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Switzerland-plans-to-ban-anonymity-and-data-retention-by-decree-10377287.html

#digitalrights #surveillance #masssurveillance

Reminder that #MusicStreaming does not help musicians. It helps #streaming platforms and locks you into lifelong subscription:

Only 9 album purchases generate @ionafyfe the same income as 140,000 streams: https://mastodon.scot/@ionafyfe/114438267806310626

If you like music, go buy a (digital) album and you'll own it forever. Places like #Qobuz sell them in all kinds of #DRMfree formats.

Very excited to have filed a formal complaint against #Facebook & #Instagram today under the #DigitalServicesAct.

Together with @bitsoffreedom, @Freiheitsrechte & Convocation Design+Research, @edri represents an Irish user and found that #Meta uses #DeceptiveDesign patterns to discourage people from choosing the #newsfeed that's not based on #profiling.

That newsfeeds option is a key requirement under the DSA and deceptive design is prohibited. So there you go.

https://edri.org/our-work/civil-society-files-dsa-complaint-against-meta-for-toxic-profiling-fueled-feeds/

#DigitalSovereignty my ass

"Germany plans to use #surveillance software from #Palantir countrywide."

https://www.derstandard.at/consent/tcf/story/3000000262763/deutschland-will-spitzel-software-von-palantir-flaechendeckend-einsetzen

@Tutanota As long as we talk about tech independence or digital #sovereignty primarily in terms of geography and jurisdiction, we will lose as users and as people with rights:

1. Because this narrative can easily be co-opted by antidemocratic, nationalistic forces.

2. It takes away attention from what actually provides us with independence: software #freedom, #interoperability, a power shift away from #bigtech to small, decentralised, ethical tech.

3. It gives praise to entities...

Yes, "Buy #European" is trending but it also sucks. A lot.

Hear me out: I understand and also feel the urge for tech #independence, particularly from the US, right now.

But just because something is European doesn't make it good or ethical.

@Tutanota People shouldn't trust you because you're "from Europe" or German or whatever. But because you have an #ethical business model, employ good people, care about your users, respect #humanrights and build free and #opensource software.

This is wild: We kindly asked #X to fix their damn #TrustedFlagger online forms and for 4+ weeks nothing happens, they basically ignore our deadline.

Then we spend days preparing and filing a legal complaint under the #DigitalServicesAct for infringing Art 22(1) DSA and, within hours, X makes the changes to comply, the exact changes we asked them for.

https://eupolicy.social/@edri/114195689980850692

**This makes me:**

1. angry b/c we could have done this the easy way.
2. happy b/c it proves the DSA is a sharp sword.

#JohnOliver just did a piece about #Meta's content moderation fuckery and explicitly mentions as alternatives @Mastodon, @pixelfed and @signalapp 🎉

@boud @element @edri @nemobis At EDRi we indeed advocate for *much* more EU funding for free and open source software that is part of the digital commons.

Just this week: https://edri.org/our-work/meta-and-x-are-going-rogue-here-is-what-europe-should-do-now/

We would love projects like the #Matrix Foundation to be on the receiving end of this. There is unfortunately heavy political resistance despite all the talk about #DigitalSovereignty.

Haha I can't believe it but it looks like I'm gonna do a "#Twitter Space" (are they called #X spaces now??)

**at 5pm CET today**

about @edri leaving the hellsite and discuss where people can find us instead (aka here).

Me -- who hasn't touched Twitter in almost 3 years. This is the last thing I'm gonna do on that platform. 😆

And I am super grateful to be joined by the wonderful @catileptic and @jim 🙏

"The use of #Microsoft is likely to be a hot topic in the hearings [for the next #EDPS]. As Parliament and member states are also Microsoft users, the election may come down to whether #Council and #LIBE members value extra #privacy and #security over not having to change their IT systems."

https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/news/internal-documents-reveal-commission-fears-over-microsoft-dependency/

@glynmoody Ha, frankly, if MEPs and national politicians want the Commission to enforce the #DSA faster, maybe they should give them more money and staff to do so. 🤷

My bank yesterday: "Rejoice customer! We give you real-time #SEPA transactions for free. We're the best bank!"

Me reading the news today: "EU makes real-time transfers mandatory: this will change from January 9."

#capitalism

I strongly oppose theft and burglary. But I have a hard time feeling any compassion for the family whose 12 million Euro jewellery was stolen.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/30/jewellery-worth-104m-stolen-from-london-home-in-one-of-britains-biggest-burglaries

#taxtherich #banbillionaires

@evacide Wow so, #Facebook went from "we connect people from around the world with each other" to "we connect everyone to an #AI bot that we control". 🎉

https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-planning-ai-powered-users

I just wanted to write a post about the most shocking major data leak fuckups revealed by awesome people at #38C3 but I can't because they just keep on adding new horrifying things :dumpster_fire:

#healthdata #gematik #vw #aws #s3 #Schaeffler #halfloop

Really sad to see #Divested shut down #DivestOS and with it the brilliant hardened #Mull browser. 😢

https://divestos.org/pages/news#end

Looks like the #DigitalMarketsAct is working rather well.

https://vippsmobilepay.com/en/news/2024/12/09/vippsmobilepay-launches-the-worlds-first-alternative-to-apple-pay-on-iphone

#DMA #competition #iphone #payments #alternatives

I know the outcome of the presidential election in #Romania has a web of complex reasons. But it would be ludicrous to ignore the dangerous impact that #bigtech's laissez-faire and its #trackingads and content #monetisation business model has. Not only #tiktok but also #google and #meta:

Meta’s Role in Romania’s 2024 Presidential #Election - important research by @checkfirst

https://checkfirst.network/research-note-metas-role-in-romanias-2024-presidential-election/

#surveillance #CommercialSurveillance #politicalads #TrackingFreeAds #digitalservicesact #gdpr