The Covid-19 crisis has turned us into a digital society. Large parts of our day-to-day lives now take place in the digital sphere and this has made Member States much more vulnerable to cyberattacks. To neutralise them, the European Commission launched its new Cybersecurity Strategy in December 2020.

Member states have imposed eight hundred and eighty sanctions since the law was introduced in May 2018, but the war against the tech giants has just begun. If the EU wants to win it, it will need to commit to it with greater investment and cooperation from all its members.

The cost of a good internet connection varies widely within the European Union, with countries around the Adriatic paying the most. Meanwhile, Romania, with a world-class network and competitive prices, is a case apart.

Over the last year and a half internet speeds in Europe have increased by more than fifty percent. Unfortunately, the gap between urban and more rural areas, and between north European countries and those in the south-east, has also grown.

When you open a website, the question immediately pops up: what data do you want to share with the service provider? In the EU, on average, 50% of internet users refuse to allow their personal data to be used for advertising.

Nicolas Kayser-Bril, ​data journalist at ​Algorithm Watch, ​coordinated AW-EDJNet’s ​joint investigation on Instagram’s algorithm. In this video, he explains ​why the subject ​matters and how it could be approached, despite the lack of transparency of the algorithm. Data suggests that Instagram has a bias in favour of pictures of scantily clothed men or women – this has an impact both on creators’ business and on users’ views.

The road towards universally accessible ultra-fast connectivity in Europe still seems long and bumpy.

When it was rumoured that banknotes could be spreading the coronavirus, banks that teamed up with card networks rubbed their hands with glee. Mastercard, Visa or the Internet giants like Google Pay or Apple Pay saw a unique opportunity to convince consumers to use their technology. Overnight, merchants in most European countries allowed card purchases for amounts that were sometimes less than one euro, with lower transaction fees, while supermarkets encouraged customers to pay for their groceries through contactless payment.

Action is being taken to increase transparency on the processing of users’ personal data on the internet, but the main digital advertisers still rely on intrusive practices that try to influence people’s behaviours. European regulation on data protection could mitigate the issue, but its enforcement is limited