I have complete confidence the EU will realise this may violate transparency laws, it will go to court in 7-8 years, publish a response in the next 5 finally getting this law fixed in about 2040. They always get these things right, in the end
The obvious compromise seems to be to limit the duration of confidentiality to something reasonable. Let's say 1-2 years.
Furthermore the initial draft talked about aggregate data anyway. The EU really shouldn't care about individual DCs anyway.
As long as they keep the water clean (and pay for the relevant environmental load quotas) and have the permits who the fuck cares? It's idiotic anti-AI hysteria.
The quote about "ramping up their lobbying efforts" is also absurd, it's just a few lines after the paragraph that describes that the commission asked for feedback from the industry as part of some standard consultative process.
The most crazy part seems to be the commission's "we have always been at war with Eastasia" behavior regarding the confidentiality.
GDPR made rating agencies a lot more transparent than they used to be. There was a lot of guessing about why your Schufa score might be bad in Germany. I can now get a detailed breakdown of the data they have of me for free.
It’s not "no one", but rather "almost no one". The difference is small, but still big enough to make room for me and a surprisingly large number of my friends and acquaintances—including our raised middle fingers.
We don't have to be in the majority; the main thing is that there's a niche for us. If the whole world is smoking crack, that's not ideal. But at least we don't have to go along with it.
Oil countries (that includes the USA) buying political will in Europe is nothing new. The EU was already fighting against its own internal corruption and inequality, the state of the world is not helping at all.
As inequality grows in any part of the globe that money will be used to corrupt the rest of the world. The EU is not immune to it.
So, we all need to fight against wealth accumulation, inequality and corruption.
It isn't just the EU. Anytime $1M in lobbying will buy you $1B in contracts or regulatory capture, it will always be a no brainer. We need better transparency about the money trail and full disclosure before things go to vote so the public can weigh in.
This is an example. The corrupting influence of "Big money" up against transparency
Transparency helps, especially in Europe where civil society runs deep.
My mind is blown by the USAnian president blatantly grafting, out in the open, and it is not a political liability. Many political analysts think that is what cost Orbán the Hungarian election
I mean if you're gonna regulate, then regulate. But what's the point of making everyone do extra paperwork if there's no actual environmental effect of doing the paperwork because the big guys have loopholes
I wonder if this is less about the environmental impact (which can be greenwashed as necessary), and more about the power consumption of individual data centres.
I find this facet of Capitalism the most concerning; fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder. It breaks the link between people and matters that concern society (like the environment, in the case of this article). In the drive to increase profit, individual legislators can be convinced to tweak a law or two for 'greater economic growth' somewhere. Over the decades, the effect is a shift in political power away from the people and into industry and ultimately into the hands of a few. I've come to think that this is what we're witnessing in the US. While we're not looking, the landscape is changing behind the scenes. Bram Vranken's quote from the article is poignant: 'Who does the Commission really represent: Big Tech or the public interest?' I often wonder what can be done by us (i.e. all people) to push back and it mostly requires a lot of effort from everyone; participation in Democracy.
Can anyone name any other industry that is as open and transparent about power and water usage as the IT industry? How much energy does your local oil refinery, metal smelter, borax plant use?
Large data center operators are already far more transparent with their annual reports than any other industry.
Data centers are uber resource hogs: land, water, power. They compete for the same resources as other industries but also against the local citizenry. Who benefits from mass consumption of the resources and at what cost. Age old debate.
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Furthermore the initial draft talked about aggregate data anyway. The EU really shouldn't care about individual DCs anyway.
As long as they keep the water clean (and pay for the relevant environmental load quotas) and have the permits who the fuck cares? It's idiotic anti-AI hysteria.
The quote about "ramping up their lobbying efforts" is also absurd, it's just a few lines after the paragraph that describes that the commission asked for feedback from the industry as part of some standard consultative process.
The most crazy part seems to be the commission's "we have always been at war with Eastasia" behavior regarding the confidentiality.
> alternative app stores no one really uses
It’s not "no one", but rather "almost no one". The difference is small, but still big enough to make room for me and a surprisingly large number of my friends and acquaintances—including our raised middle fingers.
We don't have to be in the majority; the main thing is that there's a niche for us. If the whole world is smoking crack, that's not ideal. But at least we don't have to go along with it.
As inequality grows in any part of the globe that money will be used to corrupt the rest of the world. The EU is not immune to it.
So, we all need to fight against wealth accumulation, inequality and corruption.
This is an example. The corrupting influence of "Big money" up against transparency
Transparency helps, especially in Europe where civil society runs deep.
My mind is blown by the USAnian president blatantly grafting, out in the open, and it is not a political liability. Many political analysts think that is what cost Orbán the Hungarian election
[1] https://datacenters.hubblo.org/
[2] https://dcwatch.hubblo.org/
Large data center operators are already far more transparent with their annual reports than any other industry.
https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2026/04/17/comm...