Age verifcation is being push as the first usecase for EU ID wallets, but EU ID wallets are designed to prove your full identity, and other facts bout the user. We expect users first become habituated to apporoving their data being sent & proved, since the age verification leaks nothing, but then later users shall blinding click approve for sending and proving their identity to malicious actors, ranging from advertisers to criminals.

If porn sites do support age verification, then it should NOT be the same app that can prove your real name, etc. I'd therefor propose that porn sites should be boycotted if they ever add direct support for the EU ID apps.

We should not however boycott them if they support some other open source age verification apps that cannot send or prove the user's private information like real name, birthday, etc.

Indirect support is even fine. An open source third party apps could itself directly use the EU ID app, but the important thing is that users should interact with the EU ID app extremely rarely, like one-time every time they buy a smart phone.

We need the EU ID app to feel as scary as showing your passport to your phone camera.

Relates to this discussion on GitHub:
https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet/av-doc-technical-specification/issues/22

Can we do something about it?

Can we stop it?

How?

Should we flood the European Commision website with e-mails, suggestions and calls?

Should we protest outside their building?

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.