The European Commission’s so-called Digital Omnibus would gut the GDPR, the EU’s tough online privacy law. Doing so would just be the latest example of capitulating to President Donald Trump and his Big Tech pals, including AI companies. Instead, Europe should be making sure it can break free of US tech and finally achieve digital sovereignty.

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Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades.

To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on:

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REFERENCES:

Final version of Digital Omnibus proposal https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/digital-omnibus-regulation-proposal

Leaked draft of Digital Omnibus proposal https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2025/11/EU-Kommission-Digital-Omnibus-A-Data-Act-und-DSGVO.pdf

Trump administration threatening Europe with NATO withdrawal over tech rules https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-nato-support-eu-regulation-x-musk-free-speech-2024-9

Dave Keating on Europe's various moves to appease Trump https://davekeating.substack.com/p/eu-bends-to-us-pressure-again-by

A leaked draft proposal shows the European Commission wants to remove key protections from the tough General Data Protection Regulation. The changes in the so-called Digital Omnibus would make it easier for AI companies to train their models on people’s personal data, even sensitive information like medical data.

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Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades.

To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on:

Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

REFERENCES:

Leaked Commission proposal https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2025/11/EU-Kommission-Digital-Omnibus-A-Data-Act-und-DSGVO.pdf

Paul Nemitz’s LinkedIn comment https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7391511950519840769?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A7391511950519840769%2C7391530716725071873%29&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A%287391530716725071873%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7391511950519840769%29

Noyb analysis of leaked draft https://noyb.eu/en/eu-commission-about-wreck-core-principles-gdpr

Lukasz Olejnik’s analysis https://blog.lukaszolejnik.com/european-commission-proposal-to-overhaul-the-gdpr-risks-user-privacy/

The AI data centre boom is becoming a significant factor in water shortages and power outages, with the technology adding to the energy-grid stress caused by things like electric vehicles and air conditioning. With electricity demand soaring, solar and wind power are the best solutions for building out more capacity quickly. But AI’s thirst needs different solutions.

If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful. Please also consider subscribing to my mailing list: https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/d763645e-9f25-4e6c-839a-da39daa947df

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering topics like online privacy and freedom for two decades.

To contact me, please email david@techgetsreal.com or connect on:

Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.bsky.social

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

REFERENCES:

NYT on data centre water outages and power cuts https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/20/technology/ai-data-center-backlash-mexico-ireland.html

Guardian on Arizona data centre protests https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/15/tucson-arizona-ai-data-center-project-blue

James Ball on AI’s current environmental impact https://www.transformernews.ai/p/ai-energy-water-use-environment-argument-wrong

Visual Capitalist chart on data centre boom https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-the-growth-of-global-data-center-capacity-2005-2025/

My Fortune article on the nuclear industry’s AI hopes https://fortune.com/2024/11/21/tech-nuclear-energy-google-microsoft-amazon-ai/