Years of (big tech) crying about cookie banners and now they are defending it, because not having it would mean it's easier to opt out of tracking: https://noyb.eu/en/eu-member-states-and-google-suddenly-want-keep-cookie-banners

> Max Schrems: “In a democracy, what the majority of people want should actually happen – in this case, getting rid of cookie banners. If decision-makers prefer to follow the will of the tech lobby rather than that of their voters, then something is very, very wrong here."

Excellent read.

#privacy #bigtech #eu #browser

"Marc Andreessen does not need an introduction in this publication, but the position does. The Defense Policy Board is not a ceremonial body.

It advises the defence secretary and the Pentagon’s policy chief on the questions that shape which technologies the military buys, which doctrines it adopts, and which companies it commits to for the next decade of procurement.

It is, in other words, one of the rooms where the direction gets set. And Andreessen arrives in that room with a great deal already invested in where it points.

The positions are not small. Andreessen Horowitz, the firm he co-founded, holds stakes in Anduril, Skydio, Shield AI, Saronic, and Flock Safety, a roster of companies whose fortunes track closely with the regulatory and procurement choices the Pentagon makes.

The best-known of them is Anduril, which a16z helped take to a $61bn valuation in a $5bn round, after the US Army handed the company a $20bn enterprise agreement in March.

This is not a portfolio that happens to sit near defence policy, it overlaps with it almost completely."

https://thenextweb.com/news/marc-andreessen-joins-the-pentagons-board

#USA #Pentagon #a16z #Anduril #BigTech

Now that's interesting

> AI continues to expand technical hiring in IT, but the largest organizations are reporting a negative net hiring effect (-15%) as well as entry-level technical positions (-3%)

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/research/tech-talent-europe-2026

Worth noting: this is self-reported perception. The companies are mostly tech companies that already use AI, so this is not the full picture of Europe

#ai #impact #bigtech #OpenSource

"Lured by tax breaks and a culture of gentle persiflage, giants such as Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok and X all established their European headquarters in Ireland. The EU’s “country of origin” principle determines that the country that hosts a company’s European HQ is the country responsible for regulating it across the EU. This legal quirk has turned the Irish data protectioncommission (DPC) into Europe’s primary watchdog for the tech sector: Ireland pushed to make this happen as council president in 2013.

The effects of this arrangement are staggering. The DPC’s chairperson recently admitted that apart from “amicable resolutions” on trivial issues, Ireland has not completed a single EU inquiry into Google or any of its subsidiaries in the 10 years since the GDPR was enacted. EU-wide protections are paralysed because every other member state must wait for Ireland to act in an EU-wide response.

When the DPC has enforced against big tech firms, it has done so poorly and under duress from other European regulators. It did move with uncharacteristic speed in one instance, against Elon Musk’s Grok AI, but then accepted a settlement that appears to have collapsed. Ireland’s media regulator, Coimisiún na Mean, enjoys a better reputation but has far weaker powers. For a decade now, Ireland has held open the regulatory back door that allows giant US and Chinese companies to operate with impunity across Europe. It has become not only a tax haven, but a haven from regulation.

The economic dependency is stark. Three US firms accounted for almost half of Ireland’s corporate tax revenue in 2024. In 2022, Ireland collected almost five times more corporate tax per person than France or Germany. You may admire a once small, poor and un-industrialised country for having won the race to the bottom and becoming rich. But the consequences have been grim..."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/30/ireland-big-tech-lapdog-eu-presidency-digital-sovereignty

#EU #Ireland #USA #BigTech #Oligopolies #TaxHavens #DigitalSovereignty

This is a privacy victory. It deserves to be celebrated. The Supreme Court ruled that geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment, 6–3.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/court-rules-that-law-enforcements-use-of-geofence-warrant-was-a-search

However, there’s a hidden detail that is worth flagging. And it’s not good.

This ruling arose from Chatrie v United States. Google gave generic cell phone records to the cops. No specificity means unconstitutional. Maybe.

The federal judge on the case agreed that it was unconstitutional. But she allowed evidence from the violation to be used anyway. Why? She cited that “even if there had been a violation of the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement officials had acted in good faith.”

In. Good. Faith.

This translates to “cops can violate the constitution if we believe their intentions are good.”

How many cops do you know who act in good faith?

#FourthAmendment #4thAmendment #Privacy #BigTech #SCOTUS #ChatrieVUnitedStates #Constitution #AbolishThePolice

I've been talking to a lot of people about "flooding the zone with shit" strategy and how we can stop the intentional overwhelm.

Watch the podcast on PeerTube @rootschangepodcast

https://rootschangepodcast.transistor.fm/s3/bonus8

#fascism #resist #activism #BigTech #ElonMusk #uspol #nonprofit #podcast