Venezuela denounces Trump’s airspace remarks as ‘colonialist threat’
Caracas has denounced United States President Donald Trump’s announcement that the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela is to be considered closed “in its entirety”, as tensions between the countries escalate.
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said Trump’s statement earlier in the day amounts to a “colonialist threat”.
“Venezuela denounces and condemns the colonialist threat that seeks to affect the sovereignty of its airspace, constituting yet another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people,” the ministry said.
Trump had written on his Truth Social platform on Saturday morning: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY”.
Venezuela denounces Trump’s airspace remarks as ‘colonialist threat’
Venezuelan Foreign Ministry slams US president’s ‘colonialist threat’ amid weeks of escalating rhetoric from Washington.Al Jazeera Staff (Al Jazeera)
Tunisia arrests prominent opposition leader to enforce jail sentence
A prominent Tunisian human rights activist has been arrested in order to enforce a 20-year prison sentence, following a mass sentencing of government critics in a controversial trial.
Chaima Issa, an activist who took part in the 2011 protests that ousted longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was taken by police on Saturday afternoon at a protest in the capital, lawyers said.
On Friday, dozens of opposition figures were sentenced on appeal to prison terms of up to 45 years on charges of "conspiracy against state security" and "belonging to a terrorist group".
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Solus 4.8 Released
General Epoch jump In October, we made the jump to a new epoch, the final chapter of our “Usr-Merge” saga. With the new epoch, we started using a new package repository, named Polaris, after the North Star. This unlocked our ability to remove “Usr-Merge” compatibility symbolic links from packages, update our systemd package, and more.
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Technical issue: can't see some of my own comments
I religiously delete my comments every so often, maybe every few weeks or months. I noticed several months ago that it appeared that my account comments reset on their own, but I still had a marker stating that I had 60 remaining comments. Try as I might, on the Voyager app or through the browser (mobile?), I was unable to see these 60 comments that I know I hadn’t deleted, yet.
Well, just recently I opened the browser version, and realized that I was logged out but still viewing my account externally. I figured I’d go back and see if I could see the comments, and they were there. So, I logged back in and checked and they weren’t. I went back and forth a few times to confirm, and they were there and weren’t there repeatedly. I’m just unable to view them while logged in, and can see them when I’m logged out.
What’s going on? Something in the back end? Is there a way to make these comments visible again for me, or can someone go in there and delete them for me?
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It could be that you made the comment in one language and that language is set to be hidden now.
I made Qogir-style icons for Books, Build, and Games folders since the icon pack doesn't have them by default.
Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well.
I was a wee bit tired of staring at default folders in my home folder for the Games, Build, and Books locations, so I ended up making my own icons for each by using outlines of different already-existing icons from applications. Feedback is greatly appreciated.
In case any of you just so happen to use the Qogir icon theme, and that you have these folders in your home folder, the SVGs are available here if you are interested.
Please note that I threw these files together using the scalable version of the folder icon, and that I don't have any dedicated 32, 48, 96 etc versions of these files. On top of that, I only have the folder versions of these icons, not symbolic. SVGs are difficult (due to my lack of experience), and so I had to cheat by targeting each individual colour, rather than making an outline and then messing with transparency like the rest of the icon set. Needless to say, if anyone has good inkscape tips, please let me know!
Proton Drive
Securely store, share, and access your important files and photos. Anytime, anywhere.drive.proton.me
"Ah fuck it, slap a dot in front of it and shove it in the home folder"
--Way to many devs.
Sticky situation
Maintaining privacy on a new desktop
Hello. I installed Linux Mint on a new desktop that I built about a week ago, and I'm starting to get used to it, so it's probably time to start using it for some actual life things.
A couple of these do involve talking with family members all in Facebook Messenger, as well as the necessity of using Google Workspace for some work-related functions.
I'm aware that using both of these is a compromise of privacy in and of itself, but I'm still interested in mitigating the damages best as I can.
What steps can I take to make the usage of these as private and non-invasive as possible? If it helps at all, the browser I'm using is Firefox and the operating system is Linux Mint.
RIP Windows: Linux GPU gaming benchmarks on Bazzite (Gamers Nexus)
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Switched my gaming rig over a few weeks ago (Fedora 43 with KDE in my case). The games I play have generally performed better than on the same hardware under Windows 11. I'm fortunate in that the only multiplayer game I play is Counter Strike 2, and Valve has a vested interest in making sure that their anticheat works with Linux.
In the past week or so I've played Cyberpunk 2077 with AMD FSR4 support, CS2, and GTA IV with the fusion fix mod (this one runs ridiculously better than it did on Windows) via Steam, and Fallout London from GoG through Heroic Launcher. The hardest part of that was just configuring the wine prefix for Fallout London to be the same as the one Fallout 4, since it needs to share a bunch of the original game files. I've also got my Epic account hooked up through Heroic Launcher, but haven't tried any of their games yet. I mostly just have whatever they were giving away for free for the past few years on that service.
Really, gaming on Linux has improved in massive leaps and bounds over the past few years. It is unrecognizable compared to even 5 years ago.
An update on the move from one motherboard to another.
Hi all,
Just wanted to update y’all about the move. Windows worked with zero issues, it just rebooted a couple of time and then took over the boot menu, and I couldn’t get to grub. Basically windows told grub to kick rocks and put itself at the top of the boot sequence. No big deal and fixed it real quick.
Grub did get messed up, it wasn’t there. A chroot from a live environment, and a couple of commands fixed it.
All good and running now. 😀
Thank you so much to all who replied and helped. Y’all are amazing ❤
Trump's Bigoted Attack on Somalis Denounced From Minneapolis to DC to Mogadishu
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1173…
President Donald Trump is being roundly condemned for making bigoted attacks on Somalis, whom he referred to collectively as "garbage" earlier this week.
During a Tuesday Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump unleashed a racist tirade against Somali Americans living in Minnesota, whom he falsely portrayed as layabouts who sponge up welfare money.
"I don't want 'em in our country, I'll be honest with you," Trump said. "Their country's no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don't want 'em in our country. I can say that about other countries too... We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country."
Trump then singled out Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a refugee from Somalia, as being "garbage," and then added that "her friends are garbage."
Trump on Somalis: "We're gonna go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage." pic.twitter.com/xtRtiTLzLz
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 2, 2025Omar fired back at Trump in an op-ed published Thursday in the New York Times in which she said the president was resorting to overt bigotry against her community because he is rapidly losing popularity as his major policy initiatives fall apart.
Omar also defended her community against the false stereotypes deployed by Trump to disparage it.
"[Trump] fails to realize how deeply Somali Americans love this country," she wrote. "We are doctors, teachers, police officers, and elected leaders working to make our country better. Over 90% of Somalis living in my home state, Minnesota, are American citizens by birth or naturalization."
Speaking on behalf of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) defended Omar and the Somali community, and called Trump's attacks on them "unacceptable and un-American."
"Not only does Trump's dehumanizing language put a target on her back and put her family at risk, it endangers so many across our country who share her identities and heritage," García added. "We know just how dangerous this racist and inflammatory rhetoric is in an already polarized country."
In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh (D-62), who is also of Somali descent, said Trump's attacks were "hurtful" and "flat-out wrong" given what many Somalis in the US have accomplished.
"It is a community that has been resilient, that has produced so much," he said. "We are teachers and doctors and lawyers and even politicians taking part in every part of Minnesota’s economy and the nation’s economy."
He also emphasized that Trump's rhetoric was putting the entire Somali community in danger.
“We’ve had our mosques be targeted," he said. "Myself, I had a campaign office vandalized earlier this year, and so we want to make sure that our neighbors understand that we’re standing up for one another, showing up in this time in which we have a hostile federal government."
Trump's bigoted attacks on Somalis are also making waves overseas. Al-Jazeera also spoke with a resident of Mogadishu named Abdisalan Ahmed, who described Trump's remarks as "intolerable."
“Trump insults Somalis several times every day, calling us garbage and other derogatory names we can no longer tolerate," he said. "Our leaders should address his remarks."
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
From Mogadishu to Minneapolis, Somalis reject Trump’s bigoted remarks
Advocates warn that Trump’s anti-Somali rhetoric has fuelled fear in US communities and anger abroad.Faisal Ali (Al Jazeera)
Judge in Palestine Action case has ties to Israel lobby
Judge in Palestine Action case has ties to Israel lobby
Victoria Sharp worked for Robert Maxwell and her twin brother sits on charity board with Trevor Chinn.The Electronic Intifada
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Well, of course. If the judge was impartial there is a very real risk Palestine Action would win its case. We can't have that, can we?
Best regards,
The Government
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Does anyone know how to fix this?[SOLVED]
By this I mean the psensor applet icon (second from the left) being to big.
I was messing arround trying to customize my desktop and i followed a guide on how to install and setup latte-dock (kde).
Long story short, i failed removed latte (although I think it may have left some stuff behind) and when I restored my cinnamon panel the icon was like this. I've already restored the system with timeshift but it made no difference and tried to set "symbolic icon size" in panel settings but it completely ignores it. I googled for a solution but cant find any :c
Any ideas?
P.S. If I set panel height too small, all the applet icons go halfway off screen through the bottom, something they didnt used to do.
SOLVED: Using this comand:
gsettings reset-recursively org.cinnamon
Reverts the icons to their normal behaviour. Thanks to potatoguy
I tested all the parameters mentioned in the thread and none worked. Thanks tho.
With this command:
gsettings reset-recursively org.cinnamon
After I used the command the window list applet stopped working but a reboot fixed it
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Root on disk storage pool?
So far all my setups have had root on SSD mirror with separate hard disk storage pool for all the data. Years ago I used to keep the app config, databases and docker files on the root filesystem, while the app data resided on the storage pool. That was cumbersome for backups and storage size. Eventually I moved all app data to the storage pool. Essentially the apps can be started on any machine with a Linux OS that has docker installed. Database access is slower but it's a decent compromise for having trivial all-in-one snapshots and backup. Now I'm setting up a new NAS for a friend and I'm wondering whether it's worth keeping the root filesystem separate from the storage pool. If I put it on the disks, I'd get trivial full system snapshots and backups. I'd have the same hardware reliability as the storage pool. There wouldn't be issues with root filling up. The caveat is that the OS would be slower. Has anyone reasoned and/or tried this? Should I go for it?
E: I recently put my laptop's root on ZFS and the ability to do full backups while the system is running is pretty great. The full system can be pretty trivialy restored to a new drive with zfs send / recv during setup.
You generally keep OS and storage separate for functionality, not necessarily because one is more safe than the other these days with more advanced journaling filesystems that can self-heal and keep things pretty safe and sound.
The main drawbacks to having them combined is all surrounding flexibility. If one fucks up, everything is fucked up. You won't be able to perform rescue operations on either without impacting both at the same, you can't change the layout of one without affecting both...etc.
Performance is obviously another one, but if you're not running critical operations for a business or whatever, it probably doesn't matter.
Which company has a better reputation Lenovo or ASUS?
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/39088745
Lenovo or ASUS? Trying to figure out which laptop to go with.Which company has a better reputation (in quality, privacy...), or are they both bad?
EDIT:
I have come to the conclusion that both Lenovo and ASUS are extremely terrible, anyone who sees this post should go straight to framework laptop
Never be loyal to companies. Ever.
That said, I've usually had good experience with Asus motherboards and the routers have served me well as well. Being able to throw merlin on them was very important to me.
Trotsky was both wrong and an asshole. Trotsky’s plan of Permanent Revolution rested on the idea that the peasantry would erode socialism, because he thought they could not be truly aligned with the proletariat. That’s why he wanted to kick off revolution in the west, hoping that would save Russian socialism. This was, of course, proven false, as socialism survived and trying to build up socialism together with the peasantry worked out.
Trotsky then spent much of his time attacking the soviet union, essentially whining due to his loss.
distros with isolated programs?
I think that really depends on why the app made the system hang.
Can you reproduce it consistently? If so, you could try out different forms of isolation, like flatpak, docker, a VM. And there are linux distros focused on each of those, but you can try a solution on whatever distro you're running.
If for some reason your system hangs due to resources (which is the only case I have ever experienced), that can be limited through cgroups and such. The only resource I don't know how to limit is GPU compute.
Why I Dumped YouTube (and Why You Might Want to Too – No More Crap)
Hey Lemmy fam,
After years of wading through endless crap—click‑bait thumbnails, algorithmic rabbit holes, and non‑stop ads—I finally stopped using YouTube. Below are the main reasons I walked away and a handful of privacy‑friendly alternatives that let you keep the content you love without the garbage.
YouTube’s recommendation engine throws endless crap at you, turning a 5‑minute tutorial into a 2‑hour binge you never signed up for.
What I do instead:
- Lemmy – I follow specific communities (
r/technology,c/firefox,c/degoogle ``) and browse chronologically or by “Hot”. No hidden agenda, just the posts I chose. - RSS feeds – Subscribe to the channels I actually care about via an RSS reader (Feedly, Newsboat, or Lemmy’s built‑in RSS). New videos appear as they’re posted, no surprise junk.
Every view, pause, and hover is logged and sold to advertisers. Even with an ad‑blocker, YouTube still harvests data through its API calls and cookies.
What I do instead:
- PeerTube – Decentralized, ad‑free video hosting. Each instance runs its own moderation and privacy policies. You can even self‑host a node if you want full control.
Zelenskyy’s top aide quits after anti-corruption searches of his home
A seemingly indispensable aide until today, Yermak was a former intellectual property lawyer and film producer who knew Zelenskyy in his days as an actor and comedian before helping him be elected as president. Yermak became a foreign policy adviser, then the president’s chief of staff in February 2020.Rapidly he assumed a central position as Zelenskyy’s gatekeeper in the charge of the president’s office. He was routinely consulted on foreign policy, domestic affairs and appointments. Never far from Zelenskyy’s side, the two were particularly close during the early days of the invasion, when Kyiv was under threat.
Zelenskyy’s top aide quits after anti-corruption searches of his home
Ukrainian president announces departure of Andriy Yermak, who was leading peace talks with USDan Sabbagh (The Guardian)
Switch to a Fully free Operating System
As per fsf only those linux distributions are 100% free:
Dragora
Dyne
Guix
Hyperbola
Parabola
PureOS
Trisquel
Ututo
libreCMC
ProteanOS
Do you agree or no?
I see a lot of people that want to switch from windows to a linux distro or a open os. But from what i see they tend to migrate to another black boxed/closed os.
What is a trully free os that doesnt included any closed code/binary blobs/closed drivers etc.
Just 100% free open code, no traps.
What are the options and what should one go with if they want fully free os that rejects any closed code?
Hard disagree. Only people that are already in linux-land should even think or talk about this, and only after they're aware of what they depend on and whether they can even do that in the first place.
Main reason: biggest thing holding Linux back is user-base. The more users there are, the more that companies will actually care about supporting the OS. In the meantime, newbies to Linux need an OS that is as hassle free as possible that supports what they need. Windows and macOS have their downsides, but you can't disagree that they work out of the box. You only get a few chances to get someone to even think about switching ecosystems, and going to a straight free distro is another huge hurdle on top of that. Most closed source applications only get tested on debian/rhel based distros anyway, I wouldn't be able to do my my day job on a distro outside of that without some serious headache.
There are many closed source components that don't have equivalent open source alternatives, and features are a thing that will snag many people. Most people aren't technical.
What do you think of tools for setting colorschemes in many apps at once, like pywal and base16?
It's very clear that the ricing community wants to set any given colorscheme in many apps automatically, most tools do so either with wallpapers (which is inherently opinionated), or the base16 spec. The original base16 repo hasn't been updated in over 2 years, and 16 colors simply isn't enough to make rich granular themes, especially when code has many different syntax elements. We need a successor that allows for more colors on both TUIs and GUIs, more than 16 colors (like 24 or even 32), mapped more granularly.
My story:
I've spent lots of time looking at how to have good colorschemes in apps that change dynamically, to make my desktop pretty and with variety. Many tools can apply colorschemes to apps using image / wallpaper colors like Matugen and Pywal. These tools are very well made, but I realized I actually prefer rainbow colorschemes like Catppuccin. Either way I got attached Matugen, fortunately it can be used without wallpapers and supports custom keywords, there are also base16 colorscheme managers like flavours and tinty.
But Cattppuccin's base16 theme didn't look right compared to its Neovim plugin. The plugin is very well integrated and colors a lot things for you that base16 plugins may not, I would have to set certain UI colors myself if I wanted them to match. Some of the major colors (variables, keywords, brackets, etc.) were shuffled around, so out of the box Catppuccin's base16 theme doesn't even match Cattppuccin's original vision / color harmony. All of this probably applies to other colorschemes as well. So if I want to switch between different schemes while staying true to each one, I would need to set up plugins for each app rather than automatically.
GitHub - chriskempson/base16: A Framework for building Themes
A Framework for building Themes. Contribute to chriskempson/base16 development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
If I keep js disabled and then use extension will it still be a fingerprinting issue?
So if I keep js disabled with Ublock origin (I'm doing it for a while now) and then install dark reader will websites still be able to tell that I have dark reader installed?
This could be a fingerprint as very few people keep JS off and you might stand out.
On the other hand, the browser gives out very little information without JS active. Turn off JS and test your browser on deviceinfo, amiunique, etc and see how many entries are "unknown".
I played around with coveryourtracks.eff.org/ and realized that I'm quite unique whether I allow js or not. Many trackers get blocked by the absence of js though so that would hamper them somewhat.
My Sony phone with 21:9 screen ensures I'm uncommon compared to most.
My goal isn't to be untrackable but to block the ads they try to shove in your face as step 2.
Interesting, it seems that while IronFox has the protections activated by default (and with some changes) you can also activate most of them on Firefox.
github.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox…
Ironfox Devs themselves say that the only browser that can truly protect you against fingerprinting is the Tor Browser.
github.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox…
Do you feel IronFox breaks many sites for you?
IronFox/docs/Features.md at dev · ironfox-oss/IronFox
Private, secure, user first web browser for Android. This is a read-only mirror of https://gitlab.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox. - ironfox-oss/IronFoxGitHub
Yermak Resigns After Ukrainian Anti-Graft Investigators Launch Surprise Search Of His Office
Andriy Yermak, the influential chief of staff of Ukraine's President, has resigned hours after the country's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) conducted searches in his office.
Yermak Resigns After Ukrainian Anti-Graft Investigators Launch Surprise Search Of His Office
Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) are conducting searches in the office of the presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, NABU said in a statement on November 28.RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service (RFE/RL)
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Possible to avoid Google's future open source ban on Android devices?
Google cracks down! APKs, ROMs, and Emulators banned — is Android freedom over?
Google is implementing a significant policy shift, banning unverified APKs, ROMs, and certain emulators on certified Android devices starting in 2026.Muskan Singh (Economic Times)
I'm guessing that maintaining such forks would be prohibitive. Especially since they do have resources to play cat and mice
But I don't really know much about Android code, I'm just relying what I've heard
It's not crowd-funded anymore mastodon.social/@Liberux/11561…
Great News, Liberux Community! 🎉1️⃣ The Liberux NEXX is moving forward with new self-funding. We listened to your feedback, and the NEXX will come with improvements. We maintain our #opensource commitment and #privacy focus. More details soon!
2️⃣ We are looking for a Developer (Open Source, C++, Wayland, Linux Kernel, ModemManager, D-Bus, PulseAudio) for #liberuxos. If you are passionate about digital freedom, join our team!
➡️ Send your CV to people@liberux.net.
Google has partly backed away from this plan, and it was only announced for "certified" Android devices, which yours isn't after rooting.
It does affect you indirectly though. If open source on Android gets harder, fewer people will do it.
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Average Debian system update experience:
don't like this
No I'm not using Kali for "hacking" I'm experimenting if I can play games on it
Sorry but.. why on earth would you do that? Kali is a specialized distro, it's not made for day to day desktop use, much less for gaming on it. If you want to game on Linux, pick either a generic or gaming-oriented distro, and use Kali in a VM or dualboot.
Using a custom domain with two seprate email accounts.
I purchased a custom domain to use with mailbox.org.
The MX records are setup and basic tests are working. I'm getting myname@customdomain.com showing up in my mailbox.org account.
But I got confused with setting up a family member with theirname@customdomain.com
Do they need to pay for a plan too?
There not worried about the privacy they just want the custom email address. Is there anyway to do this for free or cheaper, without self hosting email?
Side question. I've been paying for anonaddy to hide my normal @outlook account. Are there any benefits in keeping anonaddy to send emails to my custom domain. Instead of just using a catchall, or pre-configuring some aliases?
The only benifits I see are
- Anonaddy can make accounts on the fly
- On The Fly accounts might be easier to disable than
things sent to a catchall - Anonaddy dosnt reveal your domain (maybe this is the big draw card?)
Thanks.
Is this via a rule, as in the email hits the inbox then gets sent on.
Or is it a setting when you configure the alias.
Where the email goes to fastmail then gets sent onto gmail, are you limited to replying from the gmail?
Each alias has a configured delivery destination. Aliases that only point externally never reach the main account inbox.
You are limited to replying from the gmail unless you jump through more advanced hoops. Those include telling gmail in its settings that it can “Send mail as” something else, and also giving gmail authorization to send mail for your domain by adding them into your SPF and DKIM records. Those are more complicated than I want to describe here, and it will be complicated to merge both mailbox.org and gmail into them, so if you don’t already know about them, let’s just say yes, you can only reply as the gmail user.
Who We Are | A film by Defend Our Juries | Lift The Ban
* YouTube
* Bluesky
Defend Our Juries on Instagram: "Opposing genocide is not terrorism. Make your choice. www.wedonotcomply.org"
3,751 likes, 241 comments - defendourjuries on November 27, 2025: "Opposing genocide is not terrorism. Make your choice. www.wedonotcomply.org".Instagram
West Bank: Israeli troops kill two Palestinians after they appear to surrender
West Bank: Israeli troops kill two Palestinians after they appear to surrender
The Palestinian Authority says the killings are a "war crime", while an Israeli minister backed the soldiers.Jon Donnison (BBC News)
Digital Omnibus: How Big Tech Lobbying Is Gutting the GDPR
Cross posted from: feddit.uk/post/40232992
european funds recovery initiative
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Digital Omnibus: How Big Tech Lobbying Is Gutting the GDPR
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Digital Omnibus: How Big Tech Lobbying Is Gutting the GDPR
Last week we at EFRI wrote about the Digital Omnibus leak and warned that the European Commission was preparing a stealth attack on the GDPR
Since then, two things have happened:
The Commission has now officially published its Digital Omnibus proposal.
noyb (Max Schrems’ organisation) has released a detailed legal analysis and new campaigning material that confirms our worst fears: this is not harmless “simplification”, it is a deregulation package that cuts into the core of the GDPR and ePrivacy.
What noyb has now put on the table
On 19 November 2025, noyb published a new piece with the blunt headline: “Digital Omnibus: EU Commission wants to wreck core GDPR principles”
Here’s a focused summary of the four core points from noyb’s announcement, in plain language:
New GDPR loophole via “pseudonyms” and IDs
The Commission wants to narrow the definition of “personal data” so that much data under pseudonyms or random IDs (ad-tech, data brokers, etc.) might no longer fall under the GDPR.
This would mean a shift from an objective test (“can a person be identified, directly or indirectly?”) to a subjective test (“does this company currently want or claim to be able to identify someone?”).
Therefore, whether the GDPR applies would depend on what a company says about its own capabilities and intentions.
Different companies handling the same dataset could fall inside or outside the GDPR.
For users and authorities, it becomes almost impossible to know ex ante whether the GDPR applies – endless arguments over a company’s “true intentions”.
Schrems’ analogy: it’s like a gun law that only applies if the gun owner admits he can handle the gun and intends to shoot – obviously absurd as a regulatory concept.
arzh-CNnlenfrdeitptrues
european funds recovery initiative
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Digital Omnibus: How Big Tech Lobbying Is Gutting the GDPR
HOME
Related News
Digital Omnibus: How Big Tech Lobbying Is Gutting the GDPR
Last week we at EFRI wrote about the Digital Omnibus leak and warned that the European Commission was preparing a stealth attack on the GDPR
Since then, two things have happened:
The Commission has now officially published its Digital Omnibus proposal.
noyb (Max Schrems’ organisation) has released a detailed legal analysis and new campaigning material that confirms our worst fears: this is not harmless “simplification”, it is a deregulation package that cuts into the core of the GDPR and ePrivacy.
What noyb has now put on the table
On 19 November 2025, noyb published a new piece with the blunt headline: “Digital Omnibus: EU Commission wants to wreck core GDPR principles”
Here’s a focused summary of the four core points from noyb’s announcement, in plain language:
New GDPR loophole via “pseudonyms” and IDs
The Commission wants to narrow the definition of “personal data” so that much data under pseudonyms or random IDs (ad-tech, data brokers, etc.) might no longer fall under the GDPR.
This would mean a shift from an objective test (“can a person be identified, directly or indirectly?”) to a subjective test (“does this company currently want or claim to be able to identify someone?”).
Therefore, whether the GDPR applies would depend on what a company says about its own capabilities and intentions.
Different companies handling the same dataset could fall inside or outside the GDPR.
For users and authorities, it becomes almost impossible to know ex ante whether the GDPR applies – endless arguments over a company’s “true intentions”.
Schrems’ analogy: it’s like a gun law that only applies if the gun owner admits he can handle the gun and intends to shoot – obviously absurd as a regulatory concept.
Weakening ePrivacy protection for data on your device
Today, Article 5(3) ePrivacy protects against remote access to data on your devices (PCs, smartphones, etc.) – based on the Charter right to the confidentiality of communications.
The Commission now wants to add broad “white-listed” exceptions for access to terminal equipment, including “aggregated statistics” and “security purposes”.
Max Schrems finds the wording of the new rule to be extremely permissive and could effectively allow extensive remote scanning or “searches” of user devices,ces as long as they are framed as minimal “security” or “statistics” operations – undermining the current strong protection against device-level snooping.
Opening the door for AI training on EU personal data (Meta, Google, etc.)
Despite clear public resistance (only a tiny minority wants Meta to use their data for AI), the Commission wants to allow Big Tech to train AI on highly personal data, e.g. 15+ years of social-media history.
Schrems’ core argument:
People were told their data is for “connecting” or advertising – now it is fed into opaque AI models, enabling those systems to infer intimate details and manipulate users.
The main beneficiaries are US Big Tech firms building base models from Europeans’ personal data.
The Commission relies on an opt-out approach, but in practice:
Companies often don’t know which specific users’ data are in a training dataset.
Users don’t know which companies are training on their data.
Realistically, people would need to send thousands of opt-outs per year – impossible.
Schrems calls this opt-out a “fig leaf” to cover fundamentally unlawful processing.
On top of training, the proposal would also privilege the “operation” of AI systems as a legal basis – effectively a wildcard: processing that would be illegal under normal GDPR rules becomes legal if it’s done “for AI”. Resulting in an inversion of normal logic: riskier technology (AI) gets lower, not higher, legal standards.
Cutting user rights back to almost zero – driven by German demands
The starting point for this attack on user rights is a debate in Germany about people using GDPR access rights in employment disputes, for example to prove unpaid overtime. The German government chose to label such use as “abuse” and pushed in Brussels for sharp limits on these rights. The Commission has now taken over this line of argument and proposes to restrict the GDPR access right to situations where it is exercised for “data protection purposes” only.
In practice, this would mean that employees could be refused access to their own working-time records in labour disputes. Journalists and researchers could be blocked from using access rights to obtain internal documents and data that are crucial for investigative work. Consumers who want to challenge and correct wrong credit scores in order to obtain better loan conditions could be told that their request is “not a data-protection purpose” and therefore can be rejected.
This approach directly contradicts both CJEU case law and Article 8(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Court has repeatedly confirmed that data-subject rights may be exercised for any purpose, including litigation and gathering evidence against a company. As Max Schrems points out, there is no evidence of widespread abuse of GDPR rights by citizens; what we actually see in practice is widespread non-compliance by companies. Cutting back user rights in this situation shifts the balance even further in favour of controllers and demonstrates how detached the Commission has become from the day-to-day reality of users trying to defend themselves.
EFRI’s take: when Big Tech lobbying becomes lawmaking
For EFRI, the message is clear: the Commission has decided that instead of forcing Big Tech and financial intermediaries to finally comply with the GDPR, it is easier to move the goalposts and rewrite the rules in their favour. The result is a quiet but very real redistribution of power – away from citizens, victims, workers and journalists, and towards those who already control the data and the infrastructure. If this package goes through in anything like its current form, it will confirm that well-organised corporate lobbying can systematically erode even the EU’s flagship fundamental-rights legislation. That makes it all the more important for consumer organisations, victim groups and digital-rights advocates to push back – loudly, publicly and with concrete case stories – before the interests of Big Tech are permanently written into EU law.
Summary on Proposed Crypto Regulation in the EU and the US - EFRI identifies financial crime enablers to curb cyberfraud
EU’s MiCA sets strict crypto rules while US regulation remains fragmented. EFRI compares both regimes and their impact on exchanges, tokens, and DeFi.Elfriede Sixt (European Funds Recovery Initiative (EFRI))
19 Linux resources in 11 minutes | Bread on Penguins [List in comments]
0:00 sg2d - supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-…
0:48 rescatux - supergrubdisk.org/category/dow…
1:06 cmd gems - commandlinefu.com/commands/bro…
1:30 tldp - tldp.org/index.html
2:05 wikis - wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Main_Page… wiki.archlinux.org/title/Main_… wiki.debian.org/
2:38 cmdline weather - curl wttr.in
3:22 sh bible - github.com/dylanaraps/pure-sh-… github.com/dylanaraps/pure-bas…
4:10 shellcheck - shellcheck.net/
4:44 uefi vs bios - rodsbooks.com/gdisk/booting.ht…
5:47 performance guides - brendangregg.com/linuxperf.htm…
6:16 tldr, manual pages - github.com/tealdeer-rs/tealdee…
7:44 cmdline cheatsheets - curl cheat.sh
8:31 fhs - refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/F…
8:58 otw games - overthewire.org/
9:38 awesome lists - github.com/sindresorhus/awesom…
10:40 how to learn.
GitHub - dylanaraps/pure-sh-bible: 📖 A collection of pure POSIX sh alternatives to external processes.
📖 A collection of pure POSIX sh alternatives to external processes. - dylanaraps/pure-sh-bibleGitHub
Why use a terminal pdf viewer?
I've been using Firefox to view PDFs and it works fine. Recently though I wanted to try something more minimal with vim keybindings. Found two options: Zathura and tdf (terminal pdf viewer).
What I'm curious about is why someone would choose a TUI pdf viewer over a regular one (like Zathura). What are the actual advantages people find in practice. tdf mentions being fast but I wonder if that's something you'd actually notice day to day?
Also I remember seeing screenshots where PDFs looked transparent or matched the terminal colors. Is that actually a feature of some of these viewers ? Maybe someone uses one here?
Tdf seems relatively popular with 1.4k github stars.
GitHub - itsjunetime/tdf: A tui-based PDF viewer
A tui-based PDF viewer. Contribute to itsjunetime/tdf development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
I just wanted to compare FOSS Linux budgeting software
Instead YouTube gives me literally nothing but AI spam. :/
I scrolled down a bit more and got this:
i.postimg.cc/fJcPhG45/Screensh…
Scrolled down some more and this:
i.postimg.cc/v1khnhRp/Screensh…
I kept scrolling until I ran out of relevant results. Not a single video was legit. I don't think I've ever seen so much AI slop in one search term and by the gods there is a lot of crap on YouTube.
Anyone have a good comparison video? I'm just wanting a decent comparison of Actual, Firefly III and possibly HomeBank. Feel free to also give me your 2 cents on whatever you use 😀
Supreme Court Conservatives Reinstate Texas’ Gerrymandered House Maps
Supreme Court Conservatives Reinstate Texas’ Gerrymandered House Maps
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 order, has put on hold a lower court ruling that blocked Texas’ aggressive gerrymander, a maneuver the state legislature had carried…John Light (TPM - Talking Points Memo)
I’ve been putting off switching because of everything I have setup for work, but next week I have a new laptop arriving and I’ll be wiping the pre-installed windows and chucking probably fedora on it.
Once I have that first one done, I’ll be able to start moving all my others. I have a bunch of Hyper-V VMs that I need to migrate which has been the main cause of my hesitation.
Reality Check: EU Council Chat Control Vote is Not a Retreat, But a Green Light for Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance and the End of Right to Communicate Anonymously
Cross posted from: feddit.uk/post/40205739
I'm posting this to hopefully stop the posts that keep appearing, suggesting that progress has been made to defeat chat control.
That's not correct.
The article:
Contrary to headlines suggesting the EU has “backed away” from Chat Control, the negotiating mandate endorsed today by EU ambassadors in a close split vote paves the way for a permanent infrastructure of mass surveillance. Patrick Breyer, digital freedom fighter and expert on the file, warns journalists and the public not to be deceived by the label “voluntary.”
While the Council removed the obligation for scanning, the agreed text creates a toxic legal framework that incentivizes US tech giants to scan private communications indiscriminately, introduces mandatory age checks for all internet users, and threatens to exclude teenagers from digital life.
“The headlines are misleading: Chat Control is not dead, it is just being privatized,” warns Patrick Breyer. **“What the Council endorsed today is a Trojan Horse. By cementing ‘voluntary’ mass scanning, they are legitimizing the warrantless, error-prone mass surveillance of millions of Europeans by US corporations, while simultaneously killing online anonymity through the backdoor of age verification.”
**
Continue reading here - patrick-breyer.de/en/reality-c…
Reality Check: EU Council Chat Control Vote is Not a Retreat, But a Green Light for Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance and the End of Right to Communicate Anonymously
Contrary to headlines suggesting the EU has "backed away" from Chat Control, the negotiating mandate endorsed today by EU ambassadors in a close split vote paves the way for a permanent infrastructure of mass surveillance.Patrick Breyer
like this
The timeline is here
Currently Denmark pushing it, they hold the EU presidency at the minute. Their minister for justice - Peter Hummelgaard is responsible for the big push and the wording. Specifically trying to pull the wool over the general public.
Ireland are next (they take over in January)
And the minister for justice in Ireland (Jim O'Callaghan) is also in favour of it.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights - Right to privacy in the digital age
U.N. - Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Data privacy: A right to read without being read | United Nations
According to the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, libraries play a vital role as the privacy rights of their users are under increasing threat.United Nations
Thank you.
But what groups are advocating for this? There is clearly a significant campaign behind this. It doesn't seem at all grassroots.
At a guess, I'd imagine big tech companies are lobbying as most of the information that they use comes from data gathering. Using data directly from texts etc. Leaves them open to court cases.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
The options are limitless to the politicians regarding money making opportunities pushing x,y and z through once our private correspondence and devices are being scanned.
For example, in years to come insurance companies could refuse to pay out on all sorts of claims using that data.
Doctor may have recommended you walk a mile a day and change your diet.
You don't do it, or just miss a day, your life insurance policy is voided.
Car crash not your fault, no payout because you missed something else etc.
I couldn't begin to to guess the amount of ways that this information could be used, but it's a complete u-turn from what the EU was saying only a few years ago
They still recommend using signal - but only internally.
Which in itself is bizarre.
And exempting themselves from being scanned is just showing what they really think.
What is GDPR, the EU’s new data protection law? - GDPR.eu
What is the GDPR? Europe’s new data privacy and security law includes hundreds of pages’ worth of new requirements for organizations around the world. This GDPR overview will help...Ben Wolford (GDPR.eu)
I'm trying to learn more about EU politics, and when something like this won't die after being beat down several times, in the US it's almost always some industry lobbying organization.
And a problem we have globally, is that there isn't an organized counter movement in the opposite direction (that privacy is a human right, that this isn't a path to security, that states need to be restrained and restricted in their tendencies towards authoritarianism).
Without that countermovement, it's almost inevitable something like this will pass as the lobbying organization can long outlive the current generation of activists or politicians who see the problems with something like chat control.
corporateeurope.org/en/2025/11…
Yes, that's the same with many things. No counter movement.
We will see how transparent it all is
We have to be the ones that continue building the movement. Plenty of us already are but with each of us active, and getting others active-connected it will help so much. We all can way more in a healthy way get things done. Let's not make it easy for them at all.
Getting people to switch to Matrix, & Stoat for real-time collaboration.
Piefed for overview and more organization by having people doing.
Pixelfed, & Loops by Pixelfed for Live-Streaming Incidents.
Also, to stop them infecting people's minds with their virus
I agree. A proper counter movement is needed.
Big American corporations are heavily lobbying EU council and governments.
Transparency is not working, EU council are rolling back on GDPR, massively eroding our privacy, which is irreversible.
With the likes of Trump in charge the US are not trustworthy with any data. The data that they already take illegally is too much.
The UDHR article 12 is supposed to protect our privacy.
We need a counter movement big enough to scare the politicians when they start bending to the Big-Tech.
They are not in the least bit worried as things stand now.
Peter Hummelgaard (among others) and his arrogance does not seem even a little concerned about his position.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations
A milestone document in the history of human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. It has been translated into over 500 languages.United Nations
I posted this before, but it doesn’t even seem to be voluntary at all, from what I can tell from the draft:
“Upon that notification, the provider shall, in cooperation with the EU Centre pursuant to Article 50(1a), take the necessary measures to effectively contribute to the development of the relevant technologies to mitigate the risk of child sexual abuse identified on their services. […]”
“In order to prevent and combat online child sexual abuse effectively, providers of hosting services and providers of publicly available interpersonal communications services should take all reasonable measures to mitigate the risk of their services being misused for such abuse […]”
These quotes sound mandatory, not voluntary. And let’s look what these technologies referenced are:
“In order to facilitate the providers’ voluntary activities under Regulation (EU) 2021/1232 compliance with the detection obligations, the EU Centre should make available to providers detection technologies […]”
“The EU Centre should provide reliable information on which activities can reasonably be considered to constitute online child sexual abuse, so as to enable the detection […] Therefore, the EU Centre should generate accurate and reliable indicators,[…] These indicators should allow technologies to detect the dissemination of either the same material (known material) or of different new child sexual abuse material (new material), […]”
Oops, it sounds again like mandatory scanning.
Source: cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/…
The new draft seems to pretend better to look less mandatory, but it still looks mandatory to me. Feel free to correct me if somebody can figure out that I’m wrong.
funkajunk
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