Overcoming the lockdown: EU looks to apps as way of easing virus lockdown

As the EU's economy reels from virus lockdowns, Brussels unveiled a proposed roadmap Wednesday to ease restrictions on life and businesses, relying in large part on smartphone tracking apps.

That technology aims to spot localized COVID-19 outbreaks in real-time. Already many individual European governments are on the verge of rolling out their own tracking apps.

But the European Commission is concerned those go-it-alone initiatives will provide incompatible data sets, useless for compiling a whole picture across the single market where people and goods are meant to move freely.

It is also worried these apps could fall foul of strong EU data privacy rules and Europeans' deep-seated wariness of technological prying.

"The aim is to get the single market back on track so that it can work properly," Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told a videolink news conference as she unveiled the 16-page roadmap to phasing out lockdowns that have brought life to a standstill in many countries.

The document puts data collection and contact tracing at the top of its recommended measures, above expanding testing, reinforcing healthcare systems and providing more protective gear.

But it said the use of any apps should be "voluntary" and comply with personal data protection rules.

"Tracing close proximity between mobile devices should be allowed only on an anonymous and aggregated basis, without any tracking of citizens, and names of possibly infected persons should not be disclosed to other users," it said.

An EU official giving more details to journalists later called such apps "very useful to prevent localized flare-ups" of the virus.
 
But, he warned, "they will only work if citizens have full trust in those apps -- this is very important to stress"

Note EU-Digest: It is a good idea - and don't worry about your privacy on the internet, that has already been gone several year ago re: GPS, Bank Cards, Credit Cards, Phone cards etc., which carry just about all your private information.

Read more at: EU looks to apps as way of easing virus lockdown | News , World | THE DAILY STAR

The Netherlands: "Big Brother" Wire Tapping: Government Wire Tapping Powers 'rejected' by Dutch in Referendum

The Netherlands Rejects "Big Brother" wanting to watch them

The Netherlands put to a referendum new legislation, officially the Intelligence and Security Law.

The bill gave new powers to the Netherlands' intelligence services.

They would be able to install wire taps on whole areas, rather than just individuals, store information for up to three years and share this data with other spy agencies.

An independent panel would have to approve these wire taps before they could go ahead.

Both the lower and upper chambers of the Netherlands parliament passed the law last year,

Voters, however, in the Netherlands appear to have narrowly rejected the new online data collection powers for intelligence agencies in the referendum which was held in on March 21.

With about 90% of votes counted, 48.8% have rejected the powers, with 47.3% in favour.

An exit poll by the national broadcaster had earlier suggested a victory for "yes".

Supporters of the law say the powers could help fight terrorism, while opponents say the law could be invasion of privacy.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte has promised to take the Referendum vote seriously --And he better do so, even though the result is non-binding, this no-vote will  require a re-debate in parliament. 

This is a controversial issue, which would have allowed "Big Brother" to put their nose even deeper into Dutch citizens personal privacy, under the nebulous pretext of national security. As if there are not enough government agencies already infringing on citizens privacy say the no-voters.

EU-Digest

Big Brother : Twitter says government requests for your data jumped 52% - most request US followed by Japan and Turkey

Governments want your data now more than ever.

That's according to Twitter, which released its twice-yearly transparency report on Tuesday, revealing that the number of times governments requested user account information jumped about 52% from 2,871 requests during the second half of 2014 to 4,363 requests during the first half of this year. The social network cooperated with 58% of those requests by handing over data.

Jeremy Kessel, Twitter's senior manager of global legal policy, called it, the "largest increase between reporting periods" the social network has ever seen.

Just as notable: Periscope alone received 1,391 copyright takedown requests during the same period — a startling number given the popular live streaming app debuted in March.

Meanwhile, requests from U.S. government officials made up 56% of all requests, followed by Japan, then Turkey, although requests from India spiked a whopping 175% versus the period before to 113 requests, 19% of which produced some information.

Twitter's government transparency report, which the social network began publishing in 2012, covers data requests from the governments of more than 45 countries, from Canada and the Dominican Republic to Cyprus and Serbia, often relating to criminal investigations.

Read more: Twitter says government requests for your data jumped 52%

Surveillance: 9 Ways You're Being Spied On Every Day

Casinos. Banks. Airports. We all know there are public places where we're being watched, ostensibly for crime-prevention purposes. But with the advancement of digital technologies, "Big Brother's" reach has gotten way wider, recording our movements—and our conversations—in a surprising amount of places.

"Big Brother is becoming more and more intrusive in our private lives and until something is done to scale it back or eliminate it, it's only going to get worse," says David Bakke, Money Crashers tech expert.

Read more: 9 Ways You're Being Spied On Every Day