December 2025 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

"National Sovereignty Under Siege,The Shadow of Surveillance: Germany’s New Era of State Intrusion in Berlin"

by J.C. DE MARTIN

*The Shadow of Surveillance: Germany’s New Era of State Intrusion in Berlin* With each passing day, German democracy is becoming a more relative category. In Berlin, the city authorities have adopted a new law giving local security forces the authority to surveillance. The Berlin House of Representatives passed an amendment to the General Security and Order Act (ASOG), granting law enforcement unprecedented authority to infiltrate the most private sanctums of citizens’ lives. This law, ostensibly designed to combat terrorism and serious crime, allows police to secretly enter homes to install spyware—known as “state trojans”—on personal devices, alongside a suite of other invasive tools like mass geodata requests and biometric scanning of social networks. But beneath the veneer of public safety lies a deeper narrative: a government grappling with economic turmoil and plummeting leadership approval, potentially wielding these powers as a blunt instrument for political control. As we dissect this development, one can’t help but wonder— is this the price of security, or the dawn of a surveillance state? [...] continua qui: https://restmedia.st/the-shadow-of-surveillance-germanys-new-era-of-state-i…

Dec. 17, 2025

"AI is making us work more" - by Tawanda Munongo

by Damiano Verzulli

Un punto di vista... interessante, completo di riflessioni che non mi pare di aver letto/sentito in giro... "AI is making us work more" https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/ Bye, DV --------------------------------- Intro <https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/#intro> I was listening, recently, to an episode of /The Pragmatic Engineer/ podcast with Armin Ronacher <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45kVol96IlM>, and something he said really resonated with me. He pointed out how paradoxical it is that AI was supposed to /free us/ and allow us to work less yet, somehow, we find ourselves /working more than ever before/ (timestamp <https://youtu.be/45kVol96IlM?si=1KM2tNSzrU8lQA3g&t=2536>). I have seen the same trend in my own work patterns. This increase in work is not necessarily in the sense of being busier because there’s /more/ work to do. Instead, it manifests as a psychological compulsion to keep going. The very existence of these /hyper-capable/ tools seems to have created a /new kind of pressure/, an existential duty to keep working, to keep driving *the machine that never sleeps*. 996 in the Valley <https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/#996-in-the-valley> The /996/ concept - working from 9AM to 9PM, six days a week - used to only be associated with Chinese tech companies, having been championed by the founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma. The rest of the world, however, used to see it as nothing more than an extreme, sustainable model of hustle culture. In 2025, however, there have been several reports of this (toxic?) work culture /migrating west/. According to a recent Wired investigation <https://www.wired.com/story/silicon-valley-china-996-work-schedule>, AI start-ups in Silicon Valley have begun to adopt 996-style work schedules. The rationalisation, of course, is /“to stay competitive”/. Leaders at these companies believe that with things moving so fast, especially in the AI space, and with developers having access to tools that can keep going so long as there’s a human there to steer them, people must worker harder to keep up with that. It has become not at all unusual to see job postings that make it clear to prospective hires that they should look forward to long, gruelling hours. When the machine never tires <https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/#when-the-machine-nev…> Throughout human history, the natural constraint on work was always /human fatigue/. We stopped working when we were tired. And, we took time to rest because our minds and bodies needed to recover. However, the introduction of generative AI and agents fundamentally shifts the status quo. These tools never tire, never switch off, and never lose motivation. even as you rest, the tool keeps running, always available to generate ideas, code, text, designs, etc. As a result, a new psychological loop forms: “Every moment I don’t spend prompting, I’m falling behind.” The system insidiously guilts you for not /leveraging/ it constantly. Allowing AI to sit there, just waiting, feels like a waste. It’s subtle, but corrosive. Any downtime becomes a missed opportunity, and rest turns into inefficiency. Within this framework, leisure becomes a moral failure. From the lamp to LLMs <https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/#from-the-lamp-to-llms> Of course, this is not an entirely novel development. From lamps to lightbulbs, and now with LLMs, certain human advancements have had the capacity to transform the nature of work. This transformation comes in the form of leverage, allowing us to do more, to transcend limitations, and manifest more than we ever could. In the case of the aforementioned illumination technologies, people who had to set their tools down at sundown because it was now too dark to work could now go on well into the night. And, with that came a subtle shift as /“can work”/ transformed into /“should work”/. Such is the nature of advancement - recently acquired luxuries quickly transform into necessities, and pushing our newfound capabilities to their limits becomes an expectation. With this, the /996/ culture re-emerges, not because someone imposed it but because the tools themselves, and the culture surrounding them, make rest feel like lost potential “One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations.” - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Book by Yuval Noah Harari The Burnout Society, Upgraded <https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/#the-burnout-society-…> The Korean-German philosopher, /Byung-Chul Han/ saw this coming. In his book, /The Burnout Society/, he argued that modern work culture replaced external oppression with internalised /“self-discipline”/. We don’t need anyone shouting orders at us anymore. Instead, we do it to ourselves in the name of /“productivity”/, /“passion”/, and /“self-actualisation”/. AI amplifies this dynamic. It extends what Han calls /“the excess of positivity”/ - what I would call /the tyranny of can/ - which is the idea that we /can/ always do more, and therefore /must/. “/Possum, ergo debeo./” “/I can, therefore I must./” There is no external whip required here. Just a quiet, internalised command: /the machine can keep going, so why can’t you?/ The Psychological Toll <https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/#the-psychological-to…> The recurring narrative within the tech community is mostly the same: infinite tools + infinite leverage = infinite potential. But, I find this to be a corrosive mentality with potentially devastating effects on our psyches. Where feeling tired used to be a signal to rest, now it’s a /sign of weakness/. Every break you take feels like a gap in your /potential productivity/. What we become, then, is our own taskmasters. From the moment we wake until our heads hit the pillow in the evening, we must make use of every available moment. We internalise the myth of this infinite potential and, under the guise of our own search for freedom, we exploit ourselves, putting constant pressure on ourselves to prompt, iterate, and improve. All to keep up with a *machine that never sleeps*. Sadly, as a recent NextGen Hero analysis <https://nextgenhero.io/why-ai-firms-embracing-996-culture-may-be-sabotaging…> pointed out, this “hyper-productivity loop” is self-defeating. As burnout rates climb, creative output falls, and the majority of teams working /996/ often become /less/ instead of more innovative when compared to balanced ones. And, as the machine continues to improve, so too does the baseline expectation of what you should get out of it. What once looked like “good output” becomes “not enough”. We struggle to improve our prompts, and mould the deluge of mediocre output into something useful. Meanwhile, as a consequence of how the loudest proponents of this technology speak about it, we absorb the belief that we /can (and should)/ be orders of magnitude more productive, we /can (and should)/ build lucrative businesses, and we /can (and should)/ multiply our abilities with AI tools. Any kind of doubt, scepticism, or negativity is shunned. Any failure on your part to use AI tools to elevate yourself is, at best, a skill issue and, in the worst case, stubborn refusal to embrace a revolutionary technology. Rest as resistance <https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/#rest-as-resistance> In such a world, rest itself becomes an act of rebellion. If AI gives us near-limitless productive capacity, the truly radical act might be to /not/ use it at all. By setting realistic targets for ourselves, and putting up boundaries, we can slow the erosion of our humanity. Similarly, AI creates nigh-infinite consumption potential. /OpenAI/’s Sloptok <https://openai.com/index/sora-2/> can generate endless content, which could just as easily trap us in a /Sisyphean-loop/ of consuming limitless content. In itself, saying /“enough”/ might be a kind of innovation. Because, ironically, most research supports the idea that innovation and creativity emerge from reflection <https://pcad.edu/ctl/the-role-of-reflection-in-creativity-and-learning/> not exhaustion. Our best ideas usually come not from being “on” all the time, but from being free enough to /ponder/ and let our minds /wander/. So, what now? <https://tawandamunongo.dev/posts/2025/10/ai-work-more/#so-what-now> The way I see it, this is ultimately a story about culture. Tools don’t demand work; /people/ and /systems/ do. The machine doesn’t care whether or not you sleep. What keeps us awake are the stories we tell ourselves about what it means to be /“productive”/. So, maybe, the challenge of the AI era isn’t just learning how to /leverage/ these tools. It’s learning to /live with them/ in a healthy way that doesn’t allow them to enslave us. And, as I will explore in the second part of this series, it’s also knowing /when/ and /how/ to use them in a way that doesn’t diminish our efforts. Because, just as the light bulb extended the day, AI is extending the /workday/. The question is whether we’ll allow it to extend the /night/, too. ---------------------------------- -- Damiano Verzulli e-mail:damiano@verzulli.it --- possible?ok:while(!possible){open_mindedness++} --- "...I realized that free software would not generate the kind of income that was needed. Maybe in USA or Europe, you may be able to get a well paying job as a free software developer, but not here [in Africa]..." -- Guido Sohne - 1973-2008 http://ole.kenic.or.ke/pipermail/skunkworks/2008-April/005989.html

Dec. 16, 2025

Re: [nexa] diritto di autore: novità normativa su tutela delle fotografie semplici

by deborah de angelis

Ciao a tutti, abbiamo provato a contrastare la proposta, ma evidentemente senza buon esito, seppure molte associazioni, università, lincei e istituti culturali hanno sostenuto la nostra azione: https://creativecommons.it/chapterIT/index.php/1883/ Cari saluti Deborah DDA Studio Legale ------------------------------------------------ Avv. Deborah De Angelis 00195 Roma (RM), Piazza Giuseppe Mazzini, 27 Tel. +39 06 37410182 www.ddastudiolegale.it info(a)ddastudiolegale.it skype: deb.dda Il presente messaggio, corredato dei relativi allegati contiene informazioni da considerarsi strettamente riservate, ed è destinato esclusivamente al destinatario sopra indicato. Chiunque ricevesse questo messaggio per errore o comunque lo leggesse senza esserne legittimato è avvertito che trattenerlo, copiarlo, divulgarlo, distribuirlo a persone diverse dal destinatario è severamente proibito e, nel caso, è pregato di rinviarlo immediatamente al mittente distruggendo l'originale. This message, together with its annexes, contains information to be deemed strictly confidential and is destined only to the addressee(s) identified above. If anyone received this message by mistake or reads it without entitlement is forewarned that keeping, copying, disseminating or distributing this message to persons other than the addressee(s) is strictly forbidden and is asked to transmit it immediately to the sender and to erase the original message received. Il giorno lun 15 dic 2025 alle ore 12:01 antonio <antonio(a)piumarossa.it> ha scritto: > > > https://www.altalex.com/documents/2025/12/09/fotografie-semplici-tutela-est… > > Art. 47 > Modifica alla legge 22 aprile 1941, n. 633, in materia di diritto > esclusivo sulle fotografie > 1. All'articolo 92 della legge 22 aprile 1941, n. 633, le parole: > «vent'anni» sono sostituite dalle seguenti: «settant'anni» > > > https://www.roars.it/un-colpo-di-mano-sui-diritti-fotografici-un-emendament… > Il rischio è diventato realtà, dal 18 dicembre via a 80000 immagini su > wikipedia [1] e a centinaia di migliaia di immagini, finora privi di > diritti d'autore, presenti nei vari siti storici, pubblici o privati. Si > potranno pubblicare tra ... cinquant'anni. > > A. > > [1] > https://www.wikimedia.it/news/wikimedia-italia-contro-lestensione-del-dirit… > "La cultura non si protegge nascondendola. Si tutela rendendola viva, > accessibile, condivisa." > Evidentemente questo governo non la pensa così. >

Dec. 15, 2025

Re: [nexa] diritto di autore: novità normativa su tutela delle fotografie semplici

by antonio

> https://www.altalex.com/documents/2025/12/09/fotografie-semplici-tutela-est… Art. 47 Modifica alla legge 22 aprile 1941, n. 633, in materia di diritto esclusivo sulle fotografie 1. All'articolo 92 della legge 22 aprile 1941, n. 633, le parole: «vent'anni» sono sostituite dalle seguenti: «settant'anni» https://www.roars.it/un-colpo-di-mano-sui-diritti-fotografici-un-emendament… Il rischio è diventato realtà, dal 18 dicembre via a 80000 immagini su wikipedia [1] e a centinaia di migliaia di immagini, finora privi di diritti d'autore, presenti nei vari siti storici, pubblici o privati. Si potranno pubblicare tra ... cinquant'anni. A. [1] https://www.wikimedia.it/news/wikimedia-italia-contro-lestensione-del-dirit… "La cultura non si protegge nascondendola. Si tutela rendendola viva, accessibile, condivisa." Evidentemente questo governo non la pensa così.

Dec. 15, 2025

diritto di autore: novità normativa su tutela delle fotografie semplici

by Mauro Alovisio

segnalo novità di interesse https://www.altalex.com/documents/2025/12/09/fotografie-semplici-tutela-est… Cordiali saluti Mauro

Dec. 15, 2025

Re: [nexa] Servizi cloud "made in USA" e compliance EU: l'analisi tedesca

by Roberto Resoli

Il 12 dicembre 2025 21:59:39 CET, Roberto Resoli <roberto(a)resolutions.it> ha scritto: >Il 11 dicembre 2025 20:48:11 CET, Damiano Verzulli <damiano(a)verzulli.it> ha scritto: >>Il documento (in tedesco) da cui è scaturito il tutto è questo: >>https://fragdenstaat.de/anfrage/gutachten-zu-zugriffsmoeglichkeiten-von-us-… >> >> https://www.googlecloudpresscorner.com/2025-11-24-NATO-and-Google-Cloud-Sig… >>[9] https://www.googlecloudpresscorner.com/2025-09-11-Google-Cloud-Awarded-Land… > >Grazie Damiano, il documento é molto interessante, anche se dopo FISA 702 e EO 12333 sono tutto sommato cose note. > >Ne ho tradotto (per ora automaticamente con DeepL) una parte: https://www.resolutions.it/nextcloud/s/sNrp9TtELnB6NDX Ora sostituito da una cartella con l'originale e alcuni commenti raccolti in rete: https://www.resolutions.it/nextcloud/s/zfFmHT9nAFtMSZ9 rob

Dec. 13, 2025

Re: [nexa] Servizi cloud "made in USA" e compliance EU: l'analisi tedesca

by Roberto Resoli

Il 11 dicembre 2025 20:48:11 CET, Damiano Verzulli <damiano(a)verzulli.it> ha scritto: >Il documento (in tedesco) da cui è scaturito il tutto è questo: >https://fragdenstaat.de/anfrage/gutachten-zu-zugriffsmoeglichkeiten-von-us-… > > https://www.googlecloudpresscorner.com/2025-11-24-NATO-and-Google-Cloud-Sig… >[9] https://www.googlecloudpresscorner.com/2025-09-11-Google-Cloud-Awarded-Land… Grazie Damiano, il documento é molto interessante, anche se dopo FISA 702 e EO 12333 sono tutto sommato cose note. Ne ho tradotto (per ora automaticamente con DeepL) una parte: https://www.resolutions.it/nextcloud/s/sNrp9TtELnB6NDX rob

Dec. 12, 2025

Does the ‘Military-Digital Complex’ Control Everything?

by Dario Guarascio

Segnalo: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/12/does-the-military-digital-complex-control-… Buona giornata, dario -- *Dario Guarascio* Dipartimento di Economia e Diritto, Sapienza Università di Roma <http://www.uniroma1.it/strutture/dipartimenti> Via del Castro Laurenziano n° 9, 00161 Roma Edificio A (6° piano) -ala B, stanza n° 606 E-mail: dario.guarascio(a)uniroma1.it <nome.cognome(a)uniroma1.it> *Sito web* italiano - https://sites.google.com/a/uniroma1.it/darioguarascio/ inglese - https://sites.google.com/a/uniroma1.it/darioguarascio-eng/ -- *Fai crescere le giovani ricercatrici e i giovani ricercatori*** *con il 5 per mille alla Sapienza* Scrivi il codice fiscale dell'Università *80209930587 **Cinque per mille <https://www.uniroma1.it/it/node/23149>*

Dec. 12, 2025

Servizi cloud "made in USA" e compliance EU: l'analisi tedesca

by Damiano Verzulli

Il documento (in tedesco) da cui è scaturito il tutto è questo: https://fragdenstaat.de/anfrage/gutachten-zu-zugriffsmoeglichkeiten-von-us-… Un'articolo descrittivo (in inglese) è questo: => "Academics advise German gov: almost no way to stop US accessing cloud data" A newly-released expert opinion suggests Germany was worried just before Donald Trump took office, and with good reason. source: https://www.thestack.technology/academics-advise-german-gov-almost-no-way-t… ========================================================================= A month before Donald Trump took office, Germany's Ministry of the Interior asked experts at the University of Cologne to determine if German data on the cloud could be kept out of the reach of US intelligence agencies and law enforcement. A document released this week under a freedom of information request [1] shows, it received a fairly straightforward response back in March: not really, no. Even data stored on servers physically located on German soil and operated by a German company may be exposed to the jurisdiction of US courts, if that company so much as has a website that can be accessed in the USA. (However, this only applies to cases of specific personal jurisdiction which limits prosecution.) In the following months, Microsoft, Google, and AWS all sought to set up structures they said would satisfy the data sovereignty requirements of EU countries. With no changes in the multi-layered American legal framework to access data, though, the formal advice solicited by the German government suggests these efforts could be in vain. Extraterritorial reach According to the FOI request [2], Researcher Moritz Schneider launched a request for the expert opinion in October, after it was referred to in an academic journal, and on Tuesday the interior ministry released a lightly-redacted version the legal opinion. The document shows that, in late 2024, the German government wanted to specifically know if US intelligence agencies could legally get at cloud data – and if hyperscalers could legally preclude themselves from accessing such data, either through encryption or by way of German subsidiaries. The Cologne university's faculty of law (via experts whose identities were redacted) thought not. Between a Reagan-era executive order allowing covert operations and more modern rules requiring access to evidence, they said, a US company would likely have no legal way to resist a US government attempt to access any information it could access, or over which it has control by way a subsidiary. Being party to the encryption of data for which it does not hold the keys could technically work, the experts said, and could also see the hyperscaler face legal sanction for what amounts to evading responsibility. US extraterritorial reach could extend to not only German subsidiaries of US companies, but to German-native companies with only the barest connection to the USA, said the legal scholars. However, the researchers said these possibilities were dependent on the specific case. A German company that offers services to US customers could face access demands, they said – simply by operating a website from which Americans are not specifically excluded. Hyperscaler promises In June, Microsoft announced an update to its EU sovereign-data offering [3] to ensure that European-resident employees must authorise access to data by non-European engineers, with servers under the control of a subsidiary with only European directors. Neither of those measures would make any accessible data proof against US demands, according to the German opinion; as long as Microsoft has control over the staff, servers, or subsidiary, all would be within the reach of the US justice system. Microsoft also said data on Azure could be encrypted via external key management, with the keys hosted on hardware security modules (HSMs) that could be anywhere, including on the customer premises. In such a case, the German analysis suggests, Microsoft would still be liable to hand over any metadata it can access, while facing tough questions and possible sanction for enabling the encryption. In July, the General Counsel of Microsoft France told French courts [4] that the company could not guarantee they would not had over European data to US authorities if a legitimate request was made. However, the lawyer added that situation had never occurred. Also in June, AWS promised a "built, operated, controlled, and secured in Europe" cloud option [5] that is "subject to local laws." German-resident subsidiaries would keep both data and metadata in the EU, Amazon said, with a fully EU-citizen management and oversight board, and the ability to operate indefinitely in isolation if it should be disconnected from the rest of the AWS cloud. As with Microsoft, Amazon's operational control over those subsidiaries and their employees would still give the US theoretical access to data, according to the German opinion. In November, Google held a Digital Sovereignty Summit in Munich [6]. It has been selling "disconnected cloud services" [7] on the continent, providing air-gapped solutions for NATO [8] and the UK Ministry of Defence [9]. Those systems allow for the use of its advanced tools in an environment entirely under the control of the client, Google said – by dint of being on-premises and entirely disconnected from the internet. [1] https://fragdenstaat.de/anfrage/gutachten-zu-zugriffsmoeglichkeiten-von-us-… [2] https://fragdenstaat.de/anfrage/gutachten-zu-zugriffsmoeglichkeiten-von-us-… [3] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/06/16/announcing-comprehensive-sovere… [4] https://www.senat.fr/compte-rendu-commissions/20250609/ce_commande_publique… [5] https://www.aboutamazon.eu/news/aws/built-operated-controlled-and-secured-i… [6] https://cloud.google.com/events/digital-sovereignty-summit-munich?hl=en&ref… [7] https://www.googlecloudpresscorner.com/2023-03-15-Proximus-and-Google-Cloud… [8] https://www.googlecloudpresscorner.com/2025-11-24-NATO-and-Google-Cloud-Sig… [9] https://www.googlecloudpresscorner.com/2025-09-11-Google-Cloud-Awarded-Land… ========================================================================= Bye, DV -- Damiano Verzulli e-mail: damiano(a)verzulli.it --- possible?ok:while(!possible){open_mindedness++} --- "...I realized that free software would not generate the kind of income that was needed. Maybe in USA or Europe, you may be able to get a well paying job as a free software developer, but not here [in Africa]..." -- Guido Sohne - 1973-2008 http://ole.kenic.or.ke/pipermail/skunkworks/2008-April/005989.html

Dec. 11, 2025

MEMENTO | 17° Convegno Annuale del Centro Nexa | "Contro la casa di vetro. Opacità, schedatura e potere nell’età digitale" | Lunedì 15 dicembre 2025

by Nexa - Media

Gentilissime, gentilissimi, Vi ricordiamo che lunedì 15 dicembre, dalle ore 9.30 (accoglienza dalle 9.00) alle ore 18.00, presso la Sala Luigi Ciminiera del DAUIN – Politecnico di Torino (5° piano), Corso Castelfidardo 34/D<https://maps.app.goo.gl/PmXAxuEuZ2B7Yact7>, si terrà il 17° Convegno Annuale del Centro Nexa su Internet e Società, dal titolo: "Contro la casa di vetro. Opacità, schedatura e potere nell’età digitale". L'evento verrà registrato, e il video sarà pubblicato sul nostro canale YouTube<https://www.youtube.com/@NexaCenter> e sito web<https://nexa.polito.it/conv2025> nei giorni successivi al convegno. Vi invitiamo a consultare la seguente pagina https://nexa.polito.it/conv2025 per scoprire tutti gli interventi in programma e gli ospiti invitati. L'iscrizione al convegno è libera e gratuita: iscriviti QUI<https://mobilizon.it/events/497677b1-d8a8-4001-89cd-d8bbd0f5667c>. Speriamo di vedervi numerosi! Vi ringraziamo per l'attenzione e vi auguriamo una buona giornata, Un saluto cordiale, -- Valeria Bergantino Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino - DAUIN Via Pier Carlo Boggio, 65/A - 10138 Torino web: https://nexa.polito.it/ mail: valeria.bergantino(a)polito.it<mailto:valeria.bergantino@polito.it> tel: 3473443585

Dec. 11, 2025