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.

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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:

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/

Europe has talked about “tech sovereignty” from America before, but Donald Trump’s second term has made the issue an urgent one. Luckily, a time of massive flux in the tech industry has made it more viable than ever for the EU to declare independence from the US.

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. In TGR, I provide short, jargon-free guides to help you navigate the new AI era.

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:

EU tech sovereignty summit in November https://www.politico.eu/article/france-germany-united-states-big-tech-sovereign-digital-transition/

Survey about Big Tech being more powerful than the EU https://peoplevsbig.tech/large-majority-of-french-german-and-spanish-public-back-tough-eu-stance-on-big-tech-despite-risk-to-trump-relations/

Snowden’s claims about intel sharing https://www.infoworld.com/article/2192246/nsa-created-european-bazaar-to-spy-on-eu-citizens-snowden-tells-european-parliam.html

Problems with Europe’s sovereign cloud https://eliatra.com/blog/the-sovereignty-illusion-why-awss-european-cloud-cannot-escape-us/

The AI bubble is real – even Sam Altman and Jeff Bezos say so – and it’s already affecting you, because fear of the bubble bursting is leading companies to shove AI down your throat. And when it does burst, things will get ugly.

If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

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. In TGR, I provide short, jargon-free guides to help you navigate the new AI era.

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:

OpenAI pledges to spend $1 trillion on AI infrastructure https://www.ft.com/content/a169703c-c4df-46d6-a2d3-4184c74bbaf7

OpenAI is world’s most valuable private company https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/openai-becomes-worlds-most-valuable-private-company-500b-valuation-report

OpenAI’s revenue and losses in the first half of 2025 https://www.techinasia.com/news/openais-revenue-rises-16-to-4-3b-in-h1-2025

AI accounts for huge chunk of markets https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/business/stock-market-nvidia-trump.html

Business return on AI investment remains uncertain https://www.techpolicy.press/generative-ais-productivity-myth/

Altman’s bubble comments https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/18/openai-sam-altman-warns-ai-market-is-in-a-bubble.html

Bezos’s bubble comments https://www.ft.com/content/8d80f601-4725-489a-8d6e-39099a01f9cb

We’ve all seen our social media feeds and the wider web getting taken over by AI fakes, from writing to images and video. It’s a cynical waste of our time — and it could destroy what’s left of public discourse.

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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. In TGR, I provide short, jargon-free guides to help you navigate the new AI era.

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:

Three-quarters of new content is AI-generated https://ahrefs.com/blog/what-percentage-of-new-content-is-ai-generated/

Washington Post on Sora 2 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/10/02/sora-openai-video-face-fake/

Sora 2 watermarks easy to remove https://www.404media.co/sora-2-watermark-removers-flood-the-web/

I'm no AI hater, but I do know AI's limits - and you should too. In this episode of Tech Gets Real, I dig into 3 major pitfalls that people encounter when they use AI today.

If you like this, please share it with others who might find it useful.

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

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AIs are increasingly used to make decisions that have major impacts on people's lives. In this episode of Tech Gets Real, veteran technology journalist David Meyer discusses the risks, and the ways in which we can take back control.

To contact David, 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 for this episode:

Bias in facial recognition https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/unmasking-bias-facial-recognition-algorithms

Bias in speech recognition https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885230823000864

Research into recruitment screening bias https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AIES/article/view/31748/33915

British regulators warning recruitment-tool makers https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2024/11/ico-intervention-into-ai-recruitment-tools-leads-to-better-data-protection-for-job-seekers/

Human Rights Watch on facial recognition and refugee kids https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/07/31/uk-plans-ai-experiment-on-children-seeking-asylum

European law on automated decision-making https://gdpr-info.eu/art-22-gdpr/

EU AI Act on high-risk AI systems https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/chapter/3/