You do research on a product, maybe a pair of shoes, a gadget, or a flight ticket. And all of a sudden, every other ad on your screen is a copy of the same. It is easy and convenient to get over it – until you stop to think: how come the internet knows me so well?

• This is not how the periphery of an algorithm works, but a systematically curated process designed to influence user behaviour, shaping not just what we buy, but how we think and choose.

As Europe now discusses “digital sovereignty,” it’s worth asking: who truly holds the reins of your digital life—you, your government, or the tech giants?

A recent article by Politico explains how France and Germany, in alliance with the United States, are championing a “sovereign digital transition,” the idea that Europe must reduce its dependence on foreign Big Tech giants and establish its own technological foundations. On paper, it appears to be a bold step toward autonomy. In practice, however, citizens across Europe are asking: What does this mean for me, my data, my digital life? (archive.ph/k7Nyz)

The Promise of a European Stack – What’s at Stake?

The ambition is high: from sovereign cloud infrastructure to home-grown AI and chip design, the goal is a Europe where tech is owned, governed, and secured by Europeans. But this raises significant questions. Who controls these platforms? Are they built for citizen empowerment or just national-industrial competition? Is “sovereignty” being framed as freedom, or as new walls around users’ data and digital behaviours?

Ground-Level Reality: Data, Dependence, and Digital Discomfort

• Commuters from the EU are receiving fines from London’s ULEZ zone even though they never drove there. The cross-border data sharing behind that fine is not some distant regulation—it’s a personal intrusion. (Source: Guardian – theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/j…? | archive.ph/s9EBF)
• DataReportal’s “Digital 2025: Online Privacy Concerns” section highlights that in Europe, the number of connected adults worried about how companies use their personal data is a meaningful trend (although slightly down from previous years). (Source: Dataportal – datareportal.com/reports/digit… | archive.ph/vOwZp )
• A case where the European Commission was ordered to compensate a citizen for improperly transferring his personal data outside the EU, illustrating how even high-level institutions can breach data-protection rights. (Source: Brussels Signal – brusselssignal.eu/2025/01/eu-c… | archive.ph/bN5lF)

These stories illustrate that what starts as “digital sovereignty” in high-level Brussels dialogue ends up in your bank records, your home, and your social feed.

Where Sovereignty Risks Turning Into Surveillance

According to the Politico piece, Europe’s push to take control of its tech stack is partly a response to U.S. dominance. But replacing one system with another raises the same concerns:

Will European infrastructure keep privacy at the centre, or will it become just another corporate/state-controlled ecosystem?

When national or bloc-level systems enforce age checks, data localization, and surveillance capabilities, will citizens gain freedom or lose it?

The Pirate Perspective: Tech for People, Not Power

For the European Pirates Party, the question isn’t whether Europe should build tech. It’s how and for whom. True sovereignty starts with the user’s choice, not just the state’s contracts and cloud servers.

Digital freedom means:

• Transparent platforms where citizens can inspect how their data is used.
• User-controlled infrastructure, where opting out isn’t a penalty.
• Open standards and interoperability, rather than locked-in systems that create new dependencies.
• Governance by citizens, not just by ministers or industrial lobbyists.

What It Means For You

Ask: Who owns the cloud where your photos are stored? If Europe builds its own stack, will you still have the right to move your data freely?

Watch for: Platforms that claim “European control” but push the same manipulative algorithms and business models as before.

Insist on: User education and choice because no matter how sovereign the tech gets, if you don’t understand it, you are still powerless.

Final Word

Europe’s digital sovereignty drive is exciting and potentially transformative. Europe’s digital sovereignty drive is exciting and potentially transformative. However, if it continues without electing citizens to govern, we risk establishing a “sovereign tech” environment that denies users authority.

The Pirates’ message is unmistakable: sovereignty devoid of popular authority is merely another form of reliance. Let’s ensure that users, not tech companies or anyone else, own the data revolution.

european-pirateparty.eu/when-d…

We will hold our next GA on January 10th, 2026.

As usual, this will be an online conference. However, we will have an in person meeting in Potsdam, Germany. Please let us know if you are planning on physically coming to Potsdam, so we can plan a proper venue.

As usual, we will have speakers, elections, motions, and any other business. Please remember to suggest any statute revisions at least a month beforehand, if any. We will present more detailed announcements about motions. You are free to join in the organization by joining the Discourse: ga.pp-international.net/c/wint…

Thomas Ney and Lilia Kayra Kuyumcu will speak on behalf of the German Pirate Party.

All Pirate Parties and supporters are invited to attend.

More information, including the agenda and connection details, will be published soon.

pp-international.net/2025/11/p…

Saree Makdisi
"La tolleranza è una terra desolata. Come si nega un genocidio"
DeriveApprodi
pagine: 224
deriveapprodi.com/libro/la-tol…

Come può un progetto violento di espropriazione e discriminazione essere immaginato, sentito e profondamente creduto come se fosse l’esatto opposto, ossia un’incarnazione di sostenibilità, inclusività e tolleranza multiculturale? Ecco la domanda a cui questo libro dà risposta. Al centro dell’analisi è lo Stato di Israele, da sempre difeso dai paladini dell’Occidente come presidio di democrazia e progresso in Medio Oriente. Saree Makdisi sostiene che alla base di questo tragico processo di alchimia politica vi è una specifica forma di negazione: la presenza palestinese in Palestina e la sua rivendicazione vengono negate in modo tale che il diniego sia esso stesso negato. Gli effetti della distruzione e della repressione sono dunque rovesciati in affermazioni di virtù liberali. L’autore esplora molti di questi atti di negazione: dalle foreste che coprono le rovine dei villaggi palestinesi distrutti al cosiddetto Museo della Tolleranza costruito sulle rovine di un cimitero musulmano a Gerusalemme; allo stesso modo, pinkwashing e greenwashing sono utilizzati per mistificare la realtà coloniale e costruire una nuova forma di orientalismo, in cui i valori occidentali vengono contrapposti a quelli dei barbari. L’occupazione israeliana ha prodotto così luoghi di cancellazione della memoria e di violenza razziale, in cui la «tolleranza» diventa nient’altro che una terra desolata.

Makdisi ci fa comprendere non solo le radici del massacro di Gaza, ma perché un genocidio sia negato e fatto passare per un atto di democrazia.

La tolleranza è una terra desolata - DeriveApprodi

^{DeriveApprodi}

IT'S MONDAY, AND THIS IS DIGITAL POLITICS. I'm Mark Scott, and have partnered with YouGov and Microsoft for a dinner in Brussels on Dec 10 to recap the digital policymaking highlights of 2025 and to look ahead to what is in store for next year.

If you would like to attend, please let me know here. The event will include exclusive insight from YouGov on Europeans' attitudes toward technology. Spaces are limited, so let me know asap.

— November will again show how much the European Union is split over the bloc's strategy toward technology.

— The annual climate change talks begin in Brazil on Nov 10. The tech industry's impact has gone from bad to worse.

— Big Tech firms have massively increased their spending on tech lobbying within the EU institutions. Here are the stats.

Let's get started:

digitalpolitics.co/newsletter0…

If you’re a musician and you want a reverb effect, there are lots of ways to go about it. You can use software plugins, all kinds of rack-mount effects, or pedals. Or, as [David] has done, you could go with a lamp.

[David’s] build is straightforward enough in concept—he just chose a relatively unconventional item to use as a reverb tank. The lamp might seem like an odd choice, but it actually does a decent job at resonating because of its metal construction and the multiple springs that tension the structure. [David] turns the lamp into a reverb by fitting it with a Vidsonix Ghost audio transducer to put sound into the structure—picture the magnetic driver of a loudspeaker without the cone fitted, and you get the idea. Piezo elements were then used as contact mics to pick up reverberations from the lamp itself. Everything was assembled with a bunch of lab stands that give the build a rather nice aesthetic. The reverb time isn’t particularly long, but the sound is hauntingly beautiful.

You can use all kinds of random stuff as a reverb tank, even a trash can if so desired.

youtube.com/embed/JBb6G1VJM-I?…

hackaday.com/2025/11/03/foldin…

La Duma di Stato della Federazione Russa ha adottato all’unanimità un appello a tutti gli sviluppatori di reti neurali nazionali e stranieri, chiedendo che all’intelligenza artificiale venga impedito di occupare posti di lavoro in Russia.

“Il diritto al lavoro è garantito ai cittadini dalla Costituzione, quindi l’intelligence informatica non deve sostituire i russi nel loro lavoro. Avete un mese di tempo per porre rimedio alla situazione, altrimenti saremo costretti ad agire”, si legge nel documento.

Se i fornitori di sistemi di Intelligenza Artificiale non rispettassero la raccomandazione della camera bassa del parlamento, la diffusione dell’intelligenza artificiale in Russia potrebbe essere limitata e le società che le sviluppano potrebbero essere sanzionate.

“Proteggeremo gli interessi della gente comune che vuole lasciare la tecnologia occidentale nella polvere. Sono fiducioso che entro un anno milioni di americani ed europei verranno a lavorare qui, perché i loro Paesi sono governati dal capitale, non dai lavoratori”, ha affermato Gennady Orlov, vicepresidente del Partito Comunista della Federazione Russa.

Quel che emerge è che questo è il primo emendamento di uno stato — la Russia — che intende proteggere gli interessi dei lavoratori nel rapporto con l’IA e i suoi produttori:

• Il principio espresso: “l’IA non deve sostituire i cittadini nel loro lavoro” richiama direttamente una tutela del diritto al lavoro.
• L’appello agli sviluppatori nazionali e stranieri suggerisce un controllo statale affinché la tecnologia non comprometta l’occupazione.
• La minaccia implicita di limitazioni/sanzioni pone in evidenza che lo Stato ritiene la questione fondamentale a livello legislativo/regolamentare.

In altre parole: se concretamente attuato, potremmo dire che lo Stato sta introducendo un precedente normativo in cui il progresso tecnologico (l’IA) non è più solo una questione di innovazione o competitività, ma anche di tutela sociale — e di bilanciamento tra capitale tecnologico e forza lavoro umana.

L'articolo La Russia limita l’intelligenza artificiale per proteggere i posti di lavoro proviene da Red Hot Cyber.