News

Microsoft will set up a ‘data boundary’ in the European Union for its cloud customers. The move allows users to store and process data within the bloc. The boundary will be introduced in phases, beginning in January 2023. Read more

Twitter has closed its Brussels office and the two executives responsible for the company’s digital policy in Europe have left. Some EU officials have expressed concern over the company’s willingness to follow the bloc’s new rules, set out in the Digital Services Act, which are designed to police online content. Read more.

The European Commission has said that it would seek feedback from the technology and telecoms industry in the coming months over the issue of whether technology companies should contribute to network costs. European telecoms operators have long argued that service providers should contribute to the funding of networks. Google rejected the proposal as ‘a 10… [Read More]

This paper will first explain what the Metaverse is by exploring definitions and identifying who is shaping it today, how it differs from the current state of the online world, the possible complexities that arise from the Metaverse, and what policy approaches should be prioritised by governments. Read More here.

Mastercard will go ahead and launch its new biometric checkout programme despite privacy concerns. The system, in which payments can be made ‘with a smile or a wave’, is claimed to cut queues and provide more security than a standard card payment, but lawyers point out that, while passwords can be changed, a smile can’t,… [Read More]

Regulatory Watch Technology companies may have to bear some of the cost of Europe’s telecoms network, according to Margarethe Vestager, the EU competition commissioner. Describing it as an issue of ‘fair contribution’ she went on to say that companies ‘generating a lot of traffic… have not been contributing to enabling the investments in the rollout… [Read More]