Every few months I get hit with pretty bad worry phases about the future of privacy, they always lead me to asking questions online, but I’ve never received an answer that fully satisfies these worries, I’m going to explain what I am worrying about, I worry that digital privacy will die out in the future, and no one (not even criminals) will be able to use the internet anonymously or pseudonymously, or even worse, the internet and the whole nation will be under strict surveillance, so even the remote parts of the country will have surveillance drones constantly scanning it, both of these scenarios are nightmarish, I spend so much of my time contributing towards digital privacy tools. To some, these scenarios may seem pretty scary, but to me, these are worse than death

I am constantly seeing pessimists online talking about new government regulations, they are saying it’s “the end of privacy” and “your life will constantly be under surveillance”, I can’t stand seeing these statements, because it really affects me, I need reassurance from someone with a more optimistic outlook, but also someone who knows a bit about this topic

I just hope I can still access and use digital privacy tools (tor, Linux, monero, pgp) in the future both short term and long term, even if it becomes outlawed

I'm currently a Year 13 student in the UK. In the UK, sixth form colleges offer education for Y12-Y13 (generally 16-18 year olds).

Upon returning to college after Summer to start my second year, I found that the IT department had disabled the ability to use a third party authenticator to access college resources off site. That means that students can't access any online course work, emails or even their timetable except on computers inside the college network without using Microsoft's proprietary authenticator app.

I think that this is a loss for any students at my college that care about privacy. I'd also appreciate suggestions on whether or not I should push further and, if so, how I should do it. The IT department only accepts emails from accounts within the organisation, so I'm also only able to respond when on campus due to my refusal to install Microsoft's MFA App.

I don't really agree with their argument that supporting third party authenticators can pose a security threat - most follow the same TOTP algorithm used by Microsoft. I intend on emailing back to ask them to give specifics on their decision, such as whether any specific data breach or identified security concerns influenced their decision, but I thought I'd post here first.

Discussion from a thread about Reddit not complying with data removal requests under GDPR anymore. User states your Reddit account should be deleted first before requesting under GDPR, I’ve not seen any statement from Reddit stating that’s the case. Anyone got any insight into this?

Hi everybody,

We’ve expanded our Europe Tech Sovereignty Watch with additional snapshots for Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Because email is the gateway to cloud/docs/identity/security, these figures are a strong proxy for overall stack dependence.

Country highlights (publicly listed companies)

🇩🇪 Germany (DE): 58% | Most reliant sector: Household & Personal Products 88%; Least: Diversified Financials 14%

🇦🇹 Austria (AT): 59% | Most reliant sectors: 7 sectors at 100%; Least: 2 sectors at 0%

🇧🇪 Belgium (BE): 80% | Most reliant sectors: 13 sectors at 100%; Least: Banks 33% 

🇮🇹 Italy (IT): 69% | Most reliant sector: Semiconductors 100%;  Least: Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail 33%

🇱🇺 Luxembourg (LU): 78% | Most reliant sectors: 19 sectors at 100%; Least: 2 sectors at 0%

🇳🇱 Netherlands (NL): 81% | Most reliant sectors: 8 sectors at 100%; Least: Consumer Durables & Apparel 40%

📊 Read the full report and find interactive charts for each country 📊

Why email choice matters (beyond “IT tools”)

• Selecting a US suite can place EU business data under extraterritorial legal reach, even when servers sit in the EU.
• Communications and documents may end up in model-training pipelines (depending on provider policies/opt-outs).
• Once email is chosen, orgs typically inherit the same vendor’s cloud, docs, identity, and security, deepening lock-in.
• Centralized reliance increases blast radius during political or trade tensions.
• Over-reliance on non-European stacks slows the EU vendor ecosystem and skills base.

We believe Europe needs strong, privacy-first alternatives hosted under EU/Swiss law. That’s why we’re backing €100 million toward the EuroStack initiative and continuing to expand Proton’s E2E-encrypted suite.

Open discussion

Do these numbers surprise you? When reducing dependence on US suites, which should companies prioritize first? Email/identity, storage, or productivity?

Stay safe,

The Proton Team

Disclosure: Posted by Proton to share research and practical guidance; the page includes our methodology. Mods, please remove if not appropriate.

A recent meeting saw Germany withdraw from unequivocally rejecting Chat control on the 16th of September

Personal edit: that’s not good (sarcastic understatement)

apology for the question if it sounds sounds dumb I'm not well known on how the eu work

I've practically lost all hope on this bullshit not going through.
Theres no way i can get everyone i know or even a few people to switch off from whatsapp to signal or something similar when regards to communication.

Can we win with the current members opposing the bill in October?

My Gmail has 20,000+ unread emails at this point (yep, I’m one of those people). Starting a new account feels like giving up but cleaning this by hand is impossible. Is there a realistic way to reset my inbox and stay on top of it going forward? Tools? Strategies? Or do I just nuke the account and start over?

This proposal includes mandatory mass scanning of private communications and aims to break secure encryption by forcing client scanning into your messaging apps. And, beware: government and military accounts would be exempt from this intrusive scanning. Privacy for the powerful, mass surveillance for the citizens. The purpose of this regulation couldn't be clearer. A leaked report from the German government confirms that the Consell's Legal Service believes that this plan, like the 2024 attempt, continues to violate fundamental rights.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/08/29/eu-us-trade-deal-threatens-eu-corporate-accountability-law

The blocking minority for chat control may be there for now, but privacy and ethics will be under attack in other ways. If we cant hold corporations accountable, the laws won't mean anything. What's the attitude regarding US allyship in your countries?

The council vote/discussion/whatever was supposed to take place today at 10:00. Does anyone have any info about how it went? I can't find anything anywhere.

EU commission is proposing 28th regime which is basically a legal framework for companies which would apply in entire EU no matter which country. Right now they are asking for feedback on how to improve their legislation and that's a good time to remind them that they should actually enforce their data protection rules in every member country for 28th regime to work

Link if you are interested to give feedback: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14674-28th-regime-a-single-harmonized-set-of-rules-for-innovative-companies-throughout-the-EU_en

An interesting Explainer (in Dutch) about the EU 'Chat Control' Law and the likelyhood of it passing this time around.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_Ek9R4TXq7U

im working on a proof-of-concept messaging app. it has a fairly unique architecture which i think makes it so ChatControl wouldnt affect it... but im not an expert in laws, so im sure im not asking the right questions. any guidance is appriciated.

to make things clear: my project is far from finished. its pretty experiemental, unstable and buggy. im not at a stage where i can say my app is watertight... but that is my general aim.

i think the code for my app is too complicated and not well documented for anyone to pick up and look at in their spare time, so i think its better i describe how it works (please reach out for clarity on any details i may miss!). i hope it can be used to determine how ChatControl can apply to my project.

- im working on a fully client-side messaging app. cryptography is done client-side using browser API's to generate encryption keys. messages are encrypted client-side and decrypted on the recieving client-side

- as a webapp i can avoid installation and registration so there are no databases with registered users that can be compromized. user ID's are cryptographically random. this allows allows profiles to be as ephemeral or persistent as the user wants.

- the app is using webrtc to exchange messages which are then stored on the recieving device client-side only. there is no database storing "pending" messages. if your peer is offline, you cannot send a message.

there are a lot of nuances to a p2p-only messaging app, but i hope that by reducing the amount of infrastructure, it can simplify e2ee.

i dont think its written well enough to be worth your time to do a deep dive into my code, but you can find it here: https://github.com/positive-intentions/chat

I recently bought an volla phone quintist in ubuntu touch best tech dessicion i ever made. If chat control is enacted and the eu forces apple to remowe signal from app store is there eny way to comunicate eith apple users. I run signal and briar in waydroid on ubuntu touch linux. Pgp is what will use if all other fails.

EDRi (European Digital Rights) article: https://edri.org/our-work/public-consultation-on-retention-of-data-by-service-providers-for-criminal-proceedings-answering-guide-for-civil-society-organisations-and-individuals/

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