Big Tech gives EU access to thousands of user accounts each year

Most of us share huge amounts of personal information online, and Big Tech companies are in many ways the gatekeepers of this data. But how much do they share with the authorities? And how often do governments request user data?  According to new research by VPN provider SurfShark, the answer is a lot, and a lot again.  As detailed in SurfShark’s new report which analysed user data requests that Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft received from government agencies of 177 countries between 2013 and 2021, Tech giants get a lot of requests for user data, and the majority of the time,…

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Ukraine’s year of war exposes changing roles for cyber weapons

On the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine is commemorating horrific losses — and remarkable defiance. The country’s fierce resistance on the battlefield has been echoed on the digital front — where Kyiv has unique experience. The conflict with Russia has become the world’s first full-scale cyberwar, but Ukraine was a test bed for digital weapons long before the invasion of 24 February, 2022. Since Putin’s troops began flooding across the border, the cyber tactics have shifted dramatically. These developments have made Ukraine a bellwether for digital warfare. And to the surprise of analysts, cyber attacks have had a limited impact…

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Predictive policing project shows even EU lawmakers can be targets

Predictive policing has exposed a new group of future criminals: MEPs. A new testing systems has spotlighted five EU politicians as “at risk” of committing future crimes. Luckily for them, it’s not a tool that’s used by law enforcement, but one designed to highlight the dangers of such systems. The project is the brainchild of Fair Trials, a criminal justice watchdog. The NGO is campaigning for a ban on predicting policing, which uses data analytics to forecast when and where crimes are likely to happen — and who may commit them. Proponents argue that the approach can be more accurate,…

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