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IT HAS BEEN a busy week in the halls of Brussels as the European Commission revealed its game plan for data regulation, artificial intelligence and “technological sovereignty”.
On Wednesday, the EU executive’s president Ursula von der Leyen and commissioners Margrethe Vestager and Thierry Breton presented both the strategy for data and a white paper on artificial intelligence.
The announcements, at this stage, are merely a set of proposals and ambitious ones that will take years of wrangling, bargaining and compromise to get over the legislative line.
They cover a broad set of themes but at their core are rules that will pave the way for data sharing in industry and greater oversight on artificial intelligence.
“The breadth of our strategy reflects the scale and nature of the transition ahead of us,” von der Leyen said.
She said that Europe wants to carve out a landscape where tech competes under fairer rules for all and people can trust in those rules and technologies, adding that for many, tech has “not yet earned that trust”.
It aims to stimulate Europe’s digital economy in a world where the biggest and most popular tech products and services come from the US and China.
EU regulations, as seen recently with GDPR and antitrust fines, can have a global reach and are a concern for Big Tech.
Data sharing
The commission wants tech companies to make their data available fairly to third parties.
It is taking aim at the staggering amount of the world’s data is stored within the troves of a small number of companies. It wants this data to be more accessible to industry across Europe to foster the growth of data-driven businesses in the bloc.
Ian Talbot, chief executive of Chambers Ireland said the measures would be “especially useful for smaller companies that do not have the means to finance their own research labs”.
Any data sharing initiative will have to fall within the parameters of the EU’s already-stringent data protection regulations.
The shape of these data-sharing rules is up in the air but it may resemble the second payment services directive (PSD2) and open banking, which requires banks to share data with third parties.
Thierry Breton admitted that Europe is playing catch up with the data-driven economy and that regulations should have been introduced when the power of personal data and the platforms that control it started to become apparent.
“We recognise that we missed the battle for personal data to the US,” Breton said. “The battle for industrial data starts now.”
The commission will likely attempt to formalise these plans with a Data Act in 2021.
Artificial intelligence
Von der Leyen’s commission has artificial intelligence in its sights too but is sending some mixed messages.
She said the EU will “invest in a network of local digital innovation hubs and in centres of excellence for advanced research and education” that will help European businesses.
Vestager stated that AI as a whole is a neutral technology but it can be contorted into problematic uses.
One case that causes consternation is facial recognition. In recent weeks, leaked documents revealed that the commission was considering a ban on the use of the controversial technology in public spaces. That proposal was since been pulled back.
Rather, the commission has called for independent testing of “high-risk” AI uses cases before they can be permitted for use in the EU. This may include sectors like healthcare and law enforcement.
Balance
At the heart of the proposals, the EU wants to create a more even playing field for businesses and researchers in Europe that would, at least in theory, bolster innovation and competition.
Europe finds itself stuck in between the US and Asia when it comes to the tech sector. While it has produced a few “champions” such as SAP, Spotify and Nokia, Europe’s tech pedigree pales in comparison to Silicon Valley, China and South Korea.
This is also a political maze to navigate as the US and China butt heads over trade and Europe attempts to play both cards with Huawei and 5G.
It’s one thing to publish a strategy and another thing to implement it so expect only a portion of these proposals to become reality and others to be watered down.
A consultation period with member states, industry and civil groups will play out over the next few months.
Furthermore, the proposals don’t touch on how or if the European Union will try to introduce some bloc-wide rules on the removal of harmful content and who is liable for that content, which will be a tricky debate around free speech online.
Resistance
While the extent of how these proposals will materialise into actual law remains to be seen, the tech industry knows that change is coming in some form.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg attempted to get in front of things on Monday by meeting with EU officials.
He conceded that regulation is inevitable and presented his vision of the direction that this regulation should take but the EU’s top brass weren’t enamoured with the CEO’s overtures.
Executives from Google, Apple and others have made similar lobbying efforts in recent weeks as well to get their two cents in and shape the frameworks to come.
Actions on antitrust and the passing of GDPR have proven that the EU is willing and able to position itself as the world’s tech watchdog.
It will want to repeat these actions but as it juggles contentious budget debates – that will affect how all of these tech efforts will be financed – and trade deals, there’s a long road ahead.
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Written by Jonathan Keane and posted on Fora.ie
Great to see it leading to better publicity than it would have ever gotten if some vandal hadn’t removed them
Sure it can only be the famous 3 they have the most to hide
Another classic publicity stunt knowing that the usual trolls will run with any negative sentiment .Cheap unproven stunts should not be accepted as an excuse for policy .
It echoes fear from someone. It’s sad that they are afraid to let people know about a public meeting on corruption in an area riddled with it by Liam Lawlor the #FiannaFail man
AHEM!! The same constituency where the FG er nicked all those newspapers.
Riddled with it indeed Alan
The Social Democrats are in Friday’s news with suspected phone tapping. Catherine Murphy, her staff and their sources used throw away mobiles to protect data relating to Siteserv getting “stolen”.
Jez, now I think of it, I thought I saw Enda Kenny the other night on Varadkar’s shoulders trying to unclip a poster from a pole in Lucan. The sheer nerve of those guys!
I hear they have the guys installing Water Meters around the country taking down rivals posters also.
Wouldn’t surprise me if you did. Wait to see what happens when the election date is actually set (after the flood waters go down across the country and Joan no longer needs her canoe for 3 inches of water), then see what the establishment parties get up to. They own the vast majority of media outlets, so after that, get ready for a spate of ‘the people dont care about water charges, property tax or liveable salaries, it is the future stupid’ comments/analysis stories.
I thought it was Leo and enda though as that would mean they were actually doing something bar spoofing.
Seems a common theme with establishment parties. Hide anything trying to expose corruption. Just look at Moriarty, irbc, siteserv.
Well I bet whoever stole her posters thought they were smart. Not letting people know about meeting on corruption. All its done is highlighted the theft and what the meee was about and gave her free publicity. Another own goal by someone.
Meeting was about
Do you always reply to your self
Well as you can see they are actually different comments . after I had wrote one , I decided to write another. Be bit silly replying to someone else
:)
Yesterday, I posted 2 comments together on an article here on the journal with regard to the Labour party and RNU. One of those comments was taken down. I did not use bad language, insult anybody and just posted about what is already in the public domain. Yesterday, in a separate thread, a poster got into a disagreement with another poster. That poster then went on to put up the name, address, even the house number of the other poster. I checked today, it is still there. Where is the reasoning in that. I have previously put up links to an Irish TImes article which in the past was also taken down for no reason. I cannot red/green thumb comments on the journal for a while now and have sent several emails to the journal and it is still no fixed. I like reading the journal and posting comments. I hope things change.
Proctor what do you do ? Make replys to someone , just to ask them about a reply?
FG Blueshirt gangsters at it again
@watersedge, that poster seems to have some serious issues, read him losing the plot before. But to do like he did is digraceful.
@ Journal, it’s still there.
Watersedge, Distilled Media own the journal. Google it and get the address. You might even get a reply from a very famous media guru.
Maybe one poster was ridiculing another poster over the poster on the pole about the corruption!!!
Looks like she has only got her toes wet. Wait till the Election Machine really clicks in to gear and she gets shoved into the deep end. Needs to learn to swim real quick.
Surprise Surprise !
Sure its a perfectly fine and tolerable action ever since the marriage referendum. Posters are fair game.
AAA posters for a meeting in Donnycarney nearly a month ago still up. Obviously local candidate doesn’t care about the ambience of the area.
Report it. If it’s more than 7 days after the event, it’s a litter fine
Are they the shower that plaster polls with adverts for meeting about the teachings of Karl Marx?
Same in Tallaght.
But now the put up these hideous boards saying ban “ttip”and the “great giveaway of our natural resources”.
No party or political names on them,
But it’s easy enough to guess who’s behind it
For the fiftieth time I call for a ban on ALL election posters, and posters advertising ‘meetings ‘. They are a hideous eye sore and extremely annoying.
Good God. Talk about delusions of grandeur. I’m sure “the establishment” are just crouching in a foetal position in a corner, quaking at the political Tsunami Ms McNally is about to unleash. I’m sure they’re readying their storm troopers as I type. Just what the country needs. Another loony lefty with a penchant for sensationalism and an addiction to media coverage.
I can feel her pain though. With zero funding every poster counts.
Yeah. Tough gig. Trying to ascribe it to a mysterious “establishment” is just silly.
Perhaps, but when you’re in a minor party trying to scrape funds together and then your posters vanish it must feel that way
Who else would be interested in taking them?
Kids.
Many’s the poster I tore down in my yoof.
My other suggestion is that someone was annoyed that election posters thinly disguised as public meeting posters are playing fast and loose with a loophole in the pre-election rules.
Change “Public meeting” to “Vote No1″ and you have an election poster.
I do believe that maybe she has a point and would not be one bit surprised. In my area in the past, establisment parties were seen taking down opposition posters. You see it in the media and censorship of comments ect if you tend to be a left voter.
Fair Play to the culprits for removing the cable ties as well as these are usually left sticking out with pointed end right at eye level on many poles waiting for unsuspecting people to injure themselves. In this age of social media and electronic news access posters should be banned.
True, but a lot of elderly people don’t have access or know how to use social media. This is helpful for them. No issue with it, unless they remove them cleanly once the election is finished.
Helpful for the elderly me arse.
Candidates and their teams call to the door and leaflet drop. There’s enough in there for facial recognition.
These posters are simply for sticking a name and face into your subconscious before the election, so you get used to the names and faces of candidates, and indeed elected politicians, whom you might never hear from again for the next 4 years.
This is not journalism now is it? I am sorry that Anne-Marie McNally’s posters have gone missing but her comment that the indications are that it is “establishment bullies and thieves” is not on. She has offered no evidence to back up her claim other than feedback indicates that it is “par for the course in Irish politics
Hugh O’Connell sees fit to report it as a news story, which it is not. Too much of this type of reporting where some just open their mouths and what comes out is blown up out of all proportion and often taken as ‘fact’
Hugh has already thrown the headshots at Renua now he needs to work the body of SD. McNally is not doing herself or her party any favours though. Stick to policy. Why will things be better rather than not as bad?
The early election/public meeting posters are a grey area anyway….
And how much publicly would she have got if they were left there?
Maybe she doesn’t need to look to far for the culprit
F.G. Hate brigade are out in force lol.
Establishment politicians? I make a hobby each election of removing as many posters as possible from lampposts in my area. Frankly they are an eyesore. I can only imagine a similarly civic minded individual is behind this.
Deadly for when you change oil in the car etc.
They’re good for sliding down a wet grassy hill too.
Hardly deep throat is it?
Shinners on active service ?
Finishing off the last of the Christmas drink tonight are we??
I’m voting against corruption and cronyism. I’m giving the Social Democrats, Independents and SF my vote. There will be no ruling party tds on my voting card. I include the previous government in that.
I think Ms McNally maybe thinking she is more of a political threat than she actually is as the more likely reason for the disappearance of the said posters are (a) pranksters (b) locals generally disenfranchised with politics or even likely (c) The National Roads Authority – they don’t like their lampposts and pillars being used for such items as they are a hinderance to traffic! She may want to put a call into them to see if she can go pick them up from one if their depots!
Did she enquire with the local authority, they probably took them because she was in breach of the litter pollution Act?
She probably wasn’t. I speak from bitter experience of actually having to enforce this. There are several grey areas that can make a prosecution problematic, which is the only route if a fine is unpaid?
I don’t know George under planning enforcement she probably was.
She need to wear a tin foil hat for her new posters.
Where were the posters taken? If it was the ones up in the long-standing Lucan Tidy Towns poster ban area that I saw a few days back I’d say anyone from a range of community groups. Especially if ties and all were taken too. That might just be because they weren’t aware of the local ground rules in Lucan and Palmerstown and Clondalkin village boundaries. But tbh the face is so small and the poster’s not readable from a distance so I wouldn’t say any political group took them. Good publicity either way and looks like an interesting meeting. Good luck to her!
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