It seems the widespread efforts in Europe to drastically reduce its dependency on US technology companies is starting to worry some people.
President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered U.S. diplomats to lobby against attempts to regulate U.S. tech companies’ handling of foreigners’ data, saying in an internal diplomatic cable seen by Reuters that such efforts could interfere with artificial intelligence-related services.
Experts say the move signals the Trump administration is reverting to a more confrontational approach as some foreign countries seek limits around how Silicon Valley firms process and store their citizens’ personal information – initiatives often described as “data sovereignty” or “data localization.”
↫ Raphael Satter and Alexandra Alper at Reuters
It’s going to take time, but untangling the EU from the US – especially technologically and militarily – is worth the effort. I’ll gladly pay more taxes to make this happen.
In a weird way, US is right here. Of course they might be right for the wrong reasons. But that is another discussion.
“Data sovereignty” is the initial step on the path to losing Internet freedoms. It has always been the case.
It started in China, and over time other localities followed suite.
You start by saying “all your users belong to us”. Then the company either has to entirely exit the country (like Google back then), or give up and make a deal to store user data in their domain. The second step is requiring a “safety officer” in the country. Their only purpose is being a pawn, a hostage during negotiations. And the final step is requiring per country rules on what the users can or cannot do.
This path has been followed so many times, by so many countries, it no longer is a surprise when we ultimately reach a situation where everyone has to show an ID in order to use the device they themselves bought.
I wish I was wrong. But deja vu has happened so many times.
As we have seen in another recent article, Google have very little to do with internet freedoms.
OlaTheGhost,
Of course… not “today’s” Google.
Back then they exited an entire market not to give their users to a tyrannical regime.
Things can change over time.
Of course, your comparison about power over people’s data comes from a time when, in the path towards authoritarianism, China would look worse than the US
But you need to compare today’s US with today’s EU governments’ advancement in that path. Unless you live in one of these Russia-aligned members, it’s the US that looks worse now.
Yes. Things can change over time.
skandalfo,
Yes, maybe 5 years ago, those were true.
I would say… “Of course, your comparison about power over people’s data comes from a time when, in the path towards authoritarianism, EU would look worse than the US”
Okay, half joking, but Europeans who were supposed to be more liberal looked at what US is doing and said “hold my cup”
I’m not sure why people don’t register things like banning civilian encryption (UK, not EU, but they are following close with Chat Control), requiring ID verification mandates (many), or censoring speech (DSA, France and others) not worrisome.
Yes, tracking people to show ads is not great, especially without consent. But… these are not even in the same league.
EU is rolling ID verification as well. The EU Digital Wallet used for ID verification will be rolled out later this year.
Note that ChatControl 2.0 will no longer ban civilian encryption. Instead ID verification will be required for messaging apps. This will have the same result since enforcing this will require allowing only authorized operating systems that only allow installing signed apps to access the Internet to kill open-source apps like Signal. They can pass another law to either ban end-to-end encryption or workaround it later.
To me the UK and EU have allowed this to happen by not developing any social networking platforms that can compete with other foreign countries, they have allowed it to happen by inaction and then complain that UK and EU citizens are using these platforms without offering any viable alternatives,
I wouldn’t be so harsh.
Social network platforms started out as novelties, internet toys — invented by nerds — so governments everywhere ignored them. But those platforms stealthily grew so popular that they became social tools, not social toys — social tools that govts can no longer ignore, social tools that agencies have learned to exploit, social tools that are blocked by some countries, social tools that countries are now having to reckon with if they want to protect their citizens from harm.
How do you wean your citizens off of the social internet version of a diet of “burger and fries” …?
You’re right, we shouldn’t overreact, it is well known that social networking platforms are more addictive than cocaine. I just did a quick check to see what platforms are developed in the UK (I’m based in the UK) and it lead me towards mIRC which I had completely forgotten about. I then checked to see if is a Linux or MacOS client and there isn’t! only Windows of all things, the recommendation was to install Discord! the cycle is endless.
IRC is from Finland. mIRC is just an IRC client. There are a thousand of them out there.
Most US ambassadors are footpads of the orange monkey, and they talk with his level of intelligence (pretty low). So who’s going to listen to them? Governments still have to pretend they care what the US and their clowns say, but the day is near when the US will be an irrelevance.
Every empire falls, eventually, and we are witnessing the end of the US empire. Just as with the British one before them, people living inside the failing empire refuse or are unable tonsee the signs. Let them flail. History is repearing itself once more.
I wonder what country will be the next empire? China seems likely, but we’ll have to wait for the complete collapse of the US to see how things will settle (though it might take some time).
I’m all for EU becoming sovereign technologically. Especially now, with crazy, uneducated, uninformed, criminal and war mongering US govt.