2 Jun 2021
The European Union will introduce a government-controlled and cross border “digital identity” app for EU citizens as a part of the bloc’s post-pandemic “transition”.
In a speech given to the EU’s 2021 Digital Assembly on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that Brussels is planning to develop a government digital wallet, saying: “We want to offer to Europeans a new digital identity.”
“It will allow everyone to control their identity online, and to interact with governments and businesses, across the EU,” von der Leyen said.
The top Eurocrat claimed that such a government system would protect individual privacy from big tech Silicon Valley companies, with the safeguarding of information being left up to the globalist institution.
12 Apr 2021
Silicon Valley tech giants Apple and Google have blocked an update to the British government’s coronavirus contact tracing app from their respective app stores as the update shared the locations of users with the government, violating privacy regulations.
An update to the National Health Service (NHS) COVID-19 app was intended to be released in time with the loosening of lockdown restrictions in the UK on Monday.
The previous incarnation of the contact tracing app, which is still active on both Android and iOS devices, logs location data on a user’s device rather than it being sent to a centralised database. The app on the user’s device then compares the location data it holds against the NHS database to notify a user if an outbreak has occurred in a place they have visited.
11 Mar 2021
The EU was forced to admit that the United Kingdom had not imposed a vaccine export ban, after earlier accusing the British government of blocking exports.
On Tuesday, European Council President Charles Michel had claimed Britain had “imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines”. Brussels itself can enact export controls to stop the export of vaccines from the bloc even if produced under contract for a non-EU country.
Downing Street had called for an apology and retraction. A European Commission spokesman told
The Guardian on Thursday that the EU’s powerful executive arm accepted the allegations Britain was banning vaccine exports were not true.
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
On Feb. 10, 2021, Acting Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter offered a glimpse of where the FTC may be headed under the Biden administration and confirmed that privacy remains among the Commission’s top priorities.
In her keynote address to the Future of Privacy Forum, Slaughter shared her views on the FTC’s role in privacy and data security, and her priorities for the coming years. While among the first in her new role, Slaughter’s remarks contain familiar themes, including innovative approaches, greater transparency, and comprehensive use of FTC authority – hallmarks of her tenure on the Commission.