Today in European Digital
Austria plans government decisions with no human required
Austria wants its administration to let AI systems issue legally binding decisions, with no human overseeing them. As EDRi reports, the plan reaches from social assistance to business licensing, and privacy advocates warn that people could be bound by decisions resting on AI hallucinations, in breach of their right to a fair trial. The Austrian digital rights group epicenter.works is among those scrutinising it.
Europe has already put a price on a machine deciding alone. The Dutch data protection authority fined Uber 824,990,000 euros for unlawful automated decision-making and insufficient profiling of drivers, in a case that started with complaints from drivers in France about deactivated accounts. Article 22 of the GDPR was the rule at stake. A platform that let software cut off a driver was fined for it; a state now plans to let software decide on social assistance.
A decision nobody made is a decision nobody can explain.
The European Commission wants administrations using more AI too. EDRi takes apart the Commission's Tech Sovereignty Package and its Cloud and AI Development Act, CADA, which promotes "European AI" through public funding and mandatory adoption by administrations. EDRi's charge is that it confuses competitiveness with self-determination and repackages deregulation as an industrial win. That criticism lands. European digital sovereignty is about who decides, and CADA answers a different question: whose data centres the deciding runs in. Austria shows why the first question cannot wait for the second.
Consumers…
In Portugal, D3 has filed four class actions against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube over addictive design. The cases go after business models that undermine user control and promote excessive engagement, not after the age gates the EU has so far leaned on. EU academic experts and a Dutch EDRi member back them.
Government…
The Commission is piloting Element Pro as a backup to Microsoft Teams, Agenda Digitale reports, to keep its communications running, while several European countries look at open source and sovereign cloud. A backup is not an exit. It still matters: US giants AWS, Azure and Google Cloud hold 63% of the cloud infrastructure market, as Heise notes.
Portugal shows where supplier risk ends up. A cyberattack on a government supplier exposed 120 GB of non-classified data online, Pplware reports, including source code and personal information, and the data of Portugal's intelligence services among it. Other organisations using the same provider share the exposure.
Further today
- Magnific aims to end AI-generated 'slop' with new tool · Xataka
- EU expands digital border surveillance infrastructure · EDRI
- London's IMMIX secures €3.12M for stablecoin FX infrastructure · EU-Startups
- Ireland's Tech Sector Secures €630M Funding in H1 2026 · Tech.eu
- CNIL closes injunction against France Travail after data security improvements · CNIL
- UK Watchdog Secures Data Handling Pledges from Ten AI Giants · The Register
- TrueLayer secures $27M, eyes Italy expansion · Tech.eu
- Dutch startup Innercrowd raises €750K to turn festival fans into marketers · Tech.eu
- UK Quantum Firm Universal Quantum Raises $100M Series A · Tech.eu
- Estonia's Golbriak Space Raises €4M for Satellite Laser Communications · The Recursive
- TODAY raises €2.8M to scale AI platform for financial advisors · Tech.eu
- German AI startup Finches raises €2M for agricultural sourcing early warnings · EU-Startups
- UK and Germany Launch Industrial Tech Corridor for AI and Deeptech · Tech.eu
- German Cabinet Approves Law Against Digital Violence · Heise Online
- Orange France Launches "Fast Pass 5G+" for Priority Network Access · Presse-Citron
- NextBlock Backs Soda Labs With $3M for Public Blockchain Privacy · The Next Web
- NHS South East rolls out skin cancer AI that can discharge patients alone · The Next Web
Why this matters for European digital sovereignty
If CADA passes with its mandatory adoption by administrations intact, Austria's question stops being Austrian: every public body told to use more AI will have to decide what that AI may settle on its own. The marker to watch is the text Austria eventually puts forward: whether it gives people a right to have a human look again at a decision an AI system issued. With that right, the plan is automation with a safety net. Without it, a hallucination becomes an administrative act.
Sources
- Austria plans to let AI systems issue legally binding government decisions without human oversight · EDRI
- epicenter.works scrutinises Austria's plan for AI-only government decisions · EDRI
- The Dutch DPA fined Uber 824,990,000 euros for unlawful automated decision-making over driver deactivations · EDPB
- EDRi's critique of the Tech Sovereignty Package and CADA · EDRI
- D3 files four class actions in Portugal over addictive design · EDRI
- The Commission pilots Element Pro as a backup to Microsoft Teams · Agenda Digitale
- AWS, Azure and Google Cloud hold 63% of the cloud infrastructure market · Heise Online
- A supplier cyberattack exposed 120 GB of Portuguese government data, including intelligence data · Pplware
This daily debrief is published every evening. Source links lead to the original reporting.
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