Author: Andrea Monti

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Pandemic, War and the (il)logic of ‘methink’

Polarisation of positions, opinions formulated by ‘experts’ with no real qualifications or by people who have never dealt with a particular subject but who speak out anyway, the need to generate traffic to support the monetisation of content, a paroxysmal search for visibility at any cost, influencers’ self-referentiality pushed to the extreme, ‘moral’ indignation that prevails over the law and the principles of law… It sounds like the umpteenth indictment against the destabilising effects caused by social networks. However, in reality, it concerns the world of so-called ‘professional information, which has demonstrated macroscopically and definitively that it is affected by the same ills. By Andrea Monti – Abridged version of an article initially published in Italian by Strategikon – an Italian Tech Blog

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Japan enters the Analytics War. Is this the end of EU legal imperialism?

The echoes of the first shots fired against Google Analytics by the Austrian Data Protection Authority have not yet died down in the Analytics War, that another attack came from the French front. On 10 February, the Cnil declared that it shared the reading of the Gdpr according to which the use of Google’s data aggregation system allows an illegal transfer of data to the US. The reactions of the American forces were not long in coming, with Meta’s adamantine declaration in a report filed with the SEC, according to which it might be complicated to continue operating in Europe on account of data protection legislation. Google and the other Big Tech companies have not reacted just yet. However, it is probably only a matter of time before a “coalition of the willing” is born to defend the industrial interests of a sector that is strategic for the US, also in terms of international politics by Andrea Monti – published initially in Italian on Strategikon – an Italian Tech blog

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Meta, intelligence and private data. Is it the birth of Technoneomedievalism?

The international order based on the Peace of Westphalia continues to yield to the pressures of a resurgent polycentricity of international powers described by the idea of Neo-Medievalism. However, the ubiquitous role of information technologies makes us wonder whether even this notion is not now obsolete and does not require to match the new interaction between public and private subjects. The East has already chosen. The opinion of Andrea Monti – Professor of Digital Law in the Degree Course in Digital Marketing – University of Chieti-Pescara – Initially published in Italian by Formiche.net Continue reading “Meta, intelligence and private data. Is it the birth of Technoneomedievalism?”

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Meta’s threat is the result of European hypocrisy and cultural subordination to North American models

Like a sovereign state, Meta-Facebook is announcing possible “sanctions” against another (non-)sovereign state, the European Union, because of its policy choices on personal data protection. After decades of guilty inertia, some national data protection authorities (the Austrian and German ones, in particular) have woken up from their torpor and discovered that Google’s ecosystem creates some problems for the rights of citizens of EU Member States. Better late than never? Comments on the news superficially focused on the tired narrative of ‘privacy protection’ and the risk that US authorities might access data imported by Google. However, these analyses fail to grasp some structural aspects of the affair.  by Andrea Monti – Initially published in Italian on Strategikon – an Italian Tech blog. Continue reading “Meta’s threat is the result of European hypocrisy and cultural subordination to North American models”

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GDPR is the victim of the ‘Analytics War’

T-209/21 is the case number that —regardless of the winner— will change if not the world, at least the industry based on personal data. On 1 November 2021, WhatsApp Ireland challenged before the European Court of Justice a binding decision of the European Data Protection Supervisor, which, in summary, questions how the company informs users and the nature and extent of the legitimate interest to profile users without their consent. The messaging platform’s defence argues on seven points, of which the most relevant are: the fact that the European Supervisor has interpreted the definition of ‘personal data’ in an extensive  (and not allowed) way and the violation of the ‘innocent until prove guilty’ principle by requiring Whatsapp to demonstrate the actual effectiveness of its user data anonymisation process instead of leaving the competent authorities with the duty to ascertain violations. These are two deadly blows because they are aimed at the two Achilles heels of the GDPR by Andrea Monti – Initially published in Italian on Strategikon – an Italian Tech blog. Continue reading “GDPR is the victim of the ‘Analytics War’”