Friday, May 9, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

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USB-C is now a common standard in the EU

Published 31 December 2024
– By Editorial Staff
The idea is that all electronics can be charged with the same cables.

This week, USB-C officially became the standard for chargers in the EU, meaning that all new mobile phones, tablets and other portable electronic devices sold in the Union must use this particular variant as a charging socket.

The rule aims to reduce electronic waste and simplify for consumers by eliminating the need for multiple chargers. Existing products will not be retroactively affected, but new devices will have to comply with the new requirements.

Advocates describe the standardization as an important step towards uniform charging solutions across Europe, and many manufacturers have already started adapting their products to meet the new rules.

It means better-charging technology, reduced e-waste, and less fuss to find the chargers you need”, the European Commission says.

Note that laptops are temporarily exempt from the new rules – but they will also be subject to the requirements in 2026.

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EU Parliament threatens legal action against von der Leyen

Published yesterday 11:03
– By Editorial Staff
Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen belong to the same group and usually agree on most things.

The President of the European Parliament has warned the European Commission that legal action may be taken if the Commission bypasses EU lawmakers in its efforts to create a €150 billion loan program for military rearmament.

In March, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented a plan to mobilize a total of €800 billion to increase the EU’s military capabilities. The initiative was justified by claims that Russia poses a major threat to Europe, which justifies a significant and rapid military buildup.

To finance the initiative, the Commission invoked Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This article allows for quick decisions in emergency situations without having to go through the regular legislative process, where members of the European Parliament have a say.

In a letter to von der Leyen on Monday, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola urged the Commission to use a different legal basis for the initiative. She also warned that the Parliament could take the matter to court if the request was not complied with.

Implementing the plan without the correct legal basis would end up “putting at risk democratic legitimacy by undermining Parliament’s legislative and scrutiny functions”, the letter said.

Referring to “exceptional” threat

Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told Euronews that the Commission “will always be available to explain why Article 122 has been chosen as the appropriate legal basis”.

Europe faces an unprecedented security threat. As stated by President von der Leyen in her Political Guidelines, Article 122 will only be used in exceptional circumstances, as the ones we are currently living in”, Regnier added.

The €150 billion loan program is seen by the Commission as a central part of the broader Readiness 2030 proposal, which aims to invest over €800 billion in EU defense by 2030. The Commission has repeatedly claimed that Russia could be in a position to threaten an EU member state militarily by that date.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently dismissed such claims as “nonsense” and argued that they are being used to spread fear in Western Europe and legitimize a sharp increase in military spending.

PoX: New memory chip from China sets speed record

Published 7 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Fudan engineers are now working on scaling up the technology and developing new prototypes.

A research team at Fudan University in China has developed the fastest semiconductor memory reported to date. The new memory, called PoX, is a type of non-volatile flash memory that can write a single bit in just 400 picoseconds – equivalent to about 25 billion operations per second.

The results were recently published in the scientific journal Nature and unlike traditional RAM (such as SRAM and DRAM), which is fast but erases data in the event of a power outage, non-volatile memory such as flash retains stored information without power. The problem has been that these memories are significantly slower – often thousands of times – which is a bottleneck for today’s AI systems that handle huge amounts of data in real time.

The research team, led by Professor Zhou Peng, achieved the breakthrough by replacing silicon channels with two-dimensional Dirac graphene – a material that allows extremely fast charge transfer. By fine-tuning the so-called “Gaussian length” of the channel, the researchers were able to create a phenomenon they call two-dimensional superinjection, which allows effectively unlimited charge transfer to the memory storage.

Using AI‑driven process optimization, we drove non‑volatile memory to its theoretical limit. This paves the way for future high‑speed flash memory, Zhou told the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

“Opens up new applications”

Co-author Liu Chunsen compares the difference to going from a USB flash drive that can do 1,000 writes per second to a chip that does a billion – in the same amount of time.

The technology combines low power consumption with extreme speed and could be particularly valuable for AI in battery-powered devices and systems with limited power supplies. If PoX can be mass-produced, it could reduce the need for separate caches, cut energy use and enable instant start-up of computers and mobiles.

Fudan engineers are now working on scaling up the technology and developing prototypes. No commercial partnerships have yet been announced.

– Our breakthrough can reshape storage technology, drive industrial upgrades and open new application scenarios, Zhou asserts.

Only one in five deported migrants leave the EU

Migration crisis in Europe

Published 6 May 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Migrants at Stockholm Central Station, 2015.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at the European People’s Party (EPP) Congress in Valencia, expressed frustration that only 20% of migrants ordered to leave the EU are actually deported.

Brussels now says it is stepping up efforts to increase deportations of migrants who do not have the right to stay in Europe, reports Germany’s Welt.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted an alarming statistic during the EPP congress in Valencia: only a fifth of those ordered to leave the Union actually travel back.

She noted that the low deportation rate damages confidence in the EU’s migration policy, but could not say why.

– We cannot explain to our citizens why only one-fifth of the people who have no right to stay in Europe actually leave, von der Leyen pointed out.

She warns that the lack of results is fueling anti-immigration sentiment across the continent and that the Union must act decisively to restore citizens’ trust in the EU project.

Ursula von der Leyen

Significant increase in migrants

Migration to Europe increased significantly in 2023 with more than one million asylum seekers, according to Frontex, the EU’s border and coast guard agency. Member states are struggling to manage the influx, but the deportation process is complicated by several factors.

For example, many migrants destroy their identity documents to avoid identification, making it difficult to determine their origin.

Some countries also refuse to accept their nationals, while others lack diplomatic relations or administrative capacity to manage return migration. The EU is negotiating readmission agreements with third countries, but the process is moving extremely slowly.

Von der Leyen calls for increased cooperation with countries of origin to untie the knots.

– We must show that we can protect our borders and respect the rule of law at the same time, she adds.

She declares that illegal border crossings into the EU will be reduced by 30% by 2025, mainly thanks to cooperation with neighboring countries.

The issue is divisive

Countries such as Poland and Hungary oppose the EU’s attempt to introduce uniform asylum rules. Meanwhile, frontline countries such as Italy and Greece have expressed that they feel abandoned by more northern member states in the face of migration.

The political charge surrounding migration has long hampered cooperation within the EU. National-conservative parties in Parliament are pushing for tougher border policies and large-scale deportations, while left-liberal parties are putting the brakes on such developments.

Ursula Von der Leyen stresses that progress needs to be made quickly, such as faster judicial processes for asylum applications and more effective border controls. However, she acknowledges that the solutions are not simple and says member states need to take more responsibility for implementing common decisions.

– Without concrete progress, the EU risks losing further credibility in the eyes of its citizens, she warns.

Without consent

How parents unknowingly build surveillance files on their children.

Published 3 May 2025
– By Naomi Brockwell

Your child’s first digital footprint isn’t made by them—it’s made by you

What does the future look like for your child?

Before they can even talk, many kids already have a bigger digital footprint than their parents did at 25.

Every ultrasound shared on Facebook.
Every birthday party uploaded to Instagram.
Every proud tweet about a funny thing they said.

Each post seems harmless—until you zoom out and realize you’re building a permanent, searchable, biometric dossier on your child, curated by you.

This isn’t fearmongering. It’s the reality of a world where data is forever.
And it’s not just your friends and family who are watching.

Your kid is being profiled before they hit puberty

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

When you upload baby photos, you’re training facial recognition databases on their face—at every age and stage.

When you post about their interests, health conditions, or behavior, you’re populating detailed profiles that can predict who they might become.

These profiles don’t just sit idle.
They’re analyzed, bought, and sold.

By the time your child applies for a job or stands up for something they believe in, they may already be carrying a hidden score assigned by an algorithm—built on data you posted.

When their childhood data comes back to haunt them

Imagine your child years from now, applying for a travel visa, a job, or just trying to board a flight.

A background check pulls information from facial recognition databases and AI-generated behavior profiles—flagging them for additional scrutiny based on “historic online associations”.

They’re pulled aside. Interrogated. Denied entry. Or worse, flagged permanently.

Imagine a future law that flags people based on past “digital risk indicators”—and your child’s online record becomes a barrier to accessing housing, education, or financial services.

Insurance companies can use their profile to label them a risky customer.

Recruiters might quietly filter them out based on years-old digital behavior.

Not because they did something wrong—but because of something you once shared.

Data doesn’t disappear.
Governments change. Laws evolve.
But surveillance infrastructure rarely gets rolled back.

And once your child’s data is out there, it’s out there forever.
Feeding systems you’ll never see.
Controlled by entities you’ll never meet.

For purposes you’ll never fully understand.

The rise of biometric surveillance—and why it targets kids first

Take Discord’s new AI selfie-based age verification. To prove they’re 13+, children are encouraged to submit selfies—feeding sensitive biometric data into AI systems.

You can change your password. You can’t change your face.

And yet, we’re normalizing the idea that kids should hand over their most immutable identifiers just to participate online.

Some schools already collect facial scans for attendance. Some toys use voice assistants that record everything your child says.

Some apps marketed as “parental control” tools grant third-party employees backend access to your child’s texts, locations—even live audio.

Ask yourself: Do you trust every single person at that company with your child’s digital life?

“I know you love me, and would never do anything to harm me…”

In the short film Without Consent, by Deutsche Telekom, a future version of a young girl named Ella speaks directly to her parents. She pleads with them to protect her digital privacy before it’s too late.

She imagines a future where:

  • Her identity is stolen.
  • Her voice is cloned to scam her mom into sending money.
  • Her old family photo is turned into a meme, making her a target of school-wide bullying.
  • Her photos appear on exploitation sites—without her knowledge or consent.

It’s haunting because it’s plausible.

This is the world we’ve built.
And your child’s data trail—your posts—is the foundation.

The most powerful privacy lesson you can teach? How you live online.

Children learn how to navigate the digital world by watching you.

What are you teaching them if you trade their privacy for likes?

The best gift you can give them isn’t a new device—it’s the mindset and tools to protect themselves in a world that profits from their exposure.

Even “kid-safe” tech often betrays that trust.

Baby monitors have leaked footage.

Tracking apps have glitched and exposed locations of random children (yes, really).

Schools collect and store sensitive information with barely any safeguards—and breaches happen all the time.

How to protect your child’s digital future

Stop oversharing
Avoid posting photos, birthdays, locations, or anecdotes about your child online—especially on platforms that monetize engagement.

Ditch spyware apps
Instead of surveillance, foster open dialogue. If monitoring is necessary, choose open-source, self-hosted tools where you control the data—not some faceless company.

Teach consent early
Help your child understand that their body, thoughts, and information are theirs to control. Make digital consent a family value.

Opt out of biometric collection
Say no to tools that demand selfies, facial scans, or fingerprints. Fight back against the normalization of biometric surveillance for kids.

Use aliases and VoIP numbers
When creating accounts for your child, use email aliases and VoIP numbers to avoid linking their real identity across platforms.

Push schools and apps for better policies
Ask your child’s school: What data do they collect? Who has access? Is it encrypted?
Push back on apps that demand unnecessary permissions. Ask hard questions.

This isn’t paranoia—it’s parenting in the digital age

This is about protecting your child’s right to grow up without being boxed in by their digital past.

About giving them the freedom to explore ideas, try on identities, and make mistakes—without it becoming a permanent record.

Privacy is protection.
It’s dignity.
It’s autonomy.

And it’s your job to help your child keep it.
Let’s give the next generation a chance to write their own story.

 

Yours in privacy,
Naomi

Naomi Brockwell is a privacy advocacy and professional speaker, MC, interviewer, producer, podcaster, specialising in blockchain, cryptocurrency and economics. She runs the NBTV channel on Youtube.

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