Latest news and stories about digital policy in Portugal for expats and residents.
The European Commission threatened this Wednesday to fine the tech giant Meta for effectively allowing children under 13 to use Facebook and Instagram, deeming their age control mechanisms ineffective. During the morning, it also urged member states to implement age verification on social networks by the end of the year.
The European Commission requests that member countries base their efforts on an application model developed by the EU executive.
A European collective has developed an application that allows users to “prove they meet a certain required age limit, without having to reveal their exact age, identity, or any other personal data.”
The European Commission states that the measures implemented to ensure the restriction of children under 13 “do not seem effective.” Children can enter a false age.
For scientists, it is foreseeable that an increase in the implementation of age verification will result in a growing availability of evasion mechanisms, reducing their effectiveness.
Illegal streaming and distribution of audiovisual content result in significant financial damage, estimated at 260 million euros.
The reports led to the removal of approximately 80% of the content.
Brussels proposes rules for rival AI assistants to access Android. Google rejects the proposal, warning of security and privacy risks for European users.
The use of GenAI, especially in automating checks, document analysis, cross-referencing databases, and anomaly detection, within the framework of what I would call, for lack of a better term, a kind of 'sovereign control cloud' for European funds, could allow for a significant reduction in context costs, accelerate validation processes, and free up capacity for management and control authorities.
The European Commission's major initiative to restrict minors' access to online content has suffered a credibility blow. Less than 24 hours after its official presentation by Ursula von der Leyen, cybersecurity experts revealed that the new EU age verification app is vulnerable to simple attacks. British researcher Paul Moore demonstrated that the app's security can be bypassed in under two minutes by manipulating a local configuration file to reset the PIN. While the Commission claims the version tested was a 'development prototype' intended for open-source review, the incident raises concerns regarding the implementation of age-restriction laws in countries like Portugal, which recently set the minimum age for autonomous social media access at 16.
Cyber experts say they have found holes in Brussels' age verification app, despite claims by the EU executive that it is "technically ready.”
The European Commission has proposed a measure aimed at strengthening competition in the online search market. A Google executive says the privacy protections are “dangerously ineffective”.
The European Union has announced that it has an application ready to verify the age of those accessing social media. The idea is to protect children and adolescents from violence, sexualisation, and disinformation.
The European Commission proposed today that the tech company Google should share its search engine data with competitors and artificial intelligence (AI) services, in a measure aimed at strengthening competition in the online search market.
Content produced by generative artificial intelligence is winning over millions and fueling disinformation. Cases are multiplying.
On Google, nearly 50% of political mentions in response to neutral questions refer to the radical right. On ChatGPT, it is around 30%. If we know a newspaper has an editorial line, we activate critical filters. The simple biased ordering of results can shift the electoral preferences of undecided voters by more than 20%. And the problem is not just the opacity, it is that it is read as neutrality. If we accept that politics depends increasingly on the algorithm, scrutiny must keep pace with this change.
The EU wants health data to circulate for treatment, research, and innovation. But if our medical exams and clinical reports start living in broad networks, who uses them, for what purpose, and with what legitimacy?
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the world’s biggest tech platforms have “no more excuses” for not checking users’ ages before letting them access restricted content.
The Minister of the Presidency guarantees that the digital data collection platform contracted by the Government aims primarily to track citizens' opinions on social media, and has no intention of monitoring journalists or media outlets.
The European Commission has announced a 'zero tolerance' policy for digital platforms that fail to adopt a new European mobile app designed to verify the minimum age for social media access. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that the tool, which functions similarly to the digital passport used during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be available soon to help protect minors from harmful content, violence, and online predators. The app allows for secure, anonymous age verification via national ID cards or passports without compromising personal data. While the Commission emphasises that parental education remains primary, it insists that online platforms must now comply with these safety standards to protect children's rights over commercial interests.
The European Commission warned this Wednesday that it will have “zero tolerance” for digital platforms that do not use the new European mobile application to confirm the minimum age for accessing social media, which is already technically ready. “Our European age verification application is technically ready and will soon be available for...”
The European Commission warned today that it will have “zero tolerance” for digital platforms that do not use the new European mobile application to confirm the minimum age for accessing social networks, which is already technically ready.
“Our European age verification application is technically ready and will soon be available for citizens to use,” announced the President of the European Commission.
The age verification app is seen as a key part of the EU's efforts to keep kids safe from online harms and mental health risks.
Tech companies reaffirmed their commitment, stressing that protecting children is “not just a legal issue, but a fundamental responsibility.”
“The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.” The iconic opening line of William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), one of the most important science fiction works ever published, may help illustrate the growing complexity of the relationship between technology and regulation. Knowing from the outset that...
The new legal framework for Cybersecurity came into force on April 3rd, introducing new rules to strengthen digital protection in Portugal, as part of the transposition of the European NIS2 Directive. The legislation, approved by the Government in November, covers 17 sectors of activity and the Public Administration, imposing requirements proportional to the size and relevance of the entities.
The European Parliament rejected the extension of the exception that allowed for the detection of child sexual abuse crimes. Digital platforms will no longer be able to voluntarily detect child pornography content starting this Friday.
All technology platforms are now prohibited from scanning and reporting images or conversations containing this type of content.
