It’s August, so let the sun shine and ConsEUmer play in your ears! ☀️In this week’s episode: 📦Amazon gets fined by Luxembourg over data use 💨 The World Health Organization gets vaping wrong (w/ Michael Landl) 🇨🇭Switzerland backs out of trade negotiations with the EU (w/ Frédéric Jollien) You can follow Frédéric Jollien on Twitter […]
ConsEUmer podcast / EP22: Junk food ads, Consumer privacy, and Streaming quotas (w/ Fernando Valdés)
This week: 🍔 The EU wants to crack down on junk food ads 💽 Yaël Ossowski presents his new policy note on data privacy 🇨🇿 The Czech Republic drops anti-consumer rules 🇲🇽 Mexican streaming quotas are bad (so are the European ones) (w/ Fernando Valdés) You can follow Fernando Valdés on Twitter @fervaldes_ and the […]
This Pandemic Has Too Many Predictable “I Told You So’s”
Most of Europe is back in lockdown, presumably as punishment for our sins of going outside during the summer, and as preparation for the Christmas holidays. It feels like being back in school, where a patronizing teacher indicates that the children are incapable of behaving themselves. To some Europeans, this is a surprising development. Yet […]
[Reportage] Bréissel gëtt Recommandatioune fir de Gebrauch vun “Tracing”-Apps eraus
Dëse Reportage gouf fir RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg produzéiert, an ass den 23. Mee iwwerdroe ginn. De ganze Beitrag fënnt een och hei. D’Europäesch Unioun huet Recommandatioune fir d’Benotze vu sougenannten “Tracing”-Apps verëffentlecht. Duerch esou Applikatioune soll d’Verbreedung vum Coronavirus minimiséiert ginn. Eng “Tracing”-App ass eppes aneres wéi eng “Tracking”-App. Eng “Tracing”-App seet engem Bescheed, wann […]
Quoted in the Financial Times
I was quoted in the Financial Times on the issue of mass surveillance. You can read the full article here. “Privacy advocates aim to spot potential transgressions. “If tracking of individual movement is on the table, then that is unlikely to be in line with existing privacy laws, even in a crisis,” says Bill Wirtz, […]
The worrying acceptance of tracking our phones
“Corona apps” are coming to Europe, to help governments in “trace and track” efforts to manage their coronavirus response. Tracking apps were already widespread in some Asian countries before the now but privacy rights have largely discouraged their adoption in the West. Even in the face of a global pandemic, we shouldn’t rush to discard […]
[Video] Apocalypse Weekly live stream
Click below to watch the full second edition of the Apocalypse Weekly live stream I’m doing with Rob Duffy and Kevin Flanagan.
[Reportage] Privatsphär : Isabel Wiseler fir anonymiséiert Donné’en, mee géint obligatoresch Corona-Apps
Dëse Reportage gouf fir RTL Radio Lëtzebuerg produzéiert, a gouf de 4. Abrëll iwwerdroen. Am Kampf géint de Coronavirus versiche Staaten op der ganzer Welt fir mat Handy-Donné’en méi Informatiounen ze sammelen. An der Europäescher Unioun gi verschidde Modeller getest, déi schnell zum Asaz kéinte kommen, mee déi och Froen iwwer d’Privatsphär opwerfen. Wéi […]
[Event] Join me in Ankara!
I will be speaking at the Students For Liberty Turkey annual conference in Ankara on Saturday this week. If you’re in or around the area, please join us for this amazing event! More info here: https://www.esflconferences.org/event/turkey/
5G: Il ne faut pas mettre en danger la vie privée des consommateurs
Les télécommunications n’ont jamais été autant politisées qu’aujourd’hui. Alors que la Commission européenne présente des propositions pour une approche européenne coordonnée de la sécurité des réseaux 5G il est important de souligner que, dans le bastion européen de la protection des données, la technologie 5G repose sur la technologie d’un pays où la protection des […]