Welcome to the CAVEAT Weekly Newsletter, where we break down some of the major developments and happenings occurring worldwide when discussing cybersecurity, privacy, digital surveillance, and technology policy.
At 2,000 words, this briefing is about a 9-minute read.
At a glance.
- European policymakers are changing AI and privacy rules.
- Meta defeated an antitrust case.
Europe is reassessing the big tech approach.
The news.
On Monday, reports emerged that European Union (EU) lawmakers are actively reassessing their approach to regulating big tech companies. With this shift, the EU is looking to pivot away from its consistent, aggressive regulatory approach and instead scale back and simplify its existing laws. The goal with this realignment is to reduce overregulation to facilitate greater economic growth within the regional bloc.
With this rethinking, the EU aims to rewrite key portions of its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), alongside delaying laws that would restrict use cases for artificial intelligence (AI). This adjustment was later officially revealed on Wednesday as part of a “digital package of simplification.”
These changes look to encourage greater AI development within Europe and change the GDPR to make it easier for companies to use data, including personal information, to develop AI models. Additionally, the EU wants to redefine what it considers to be “personal data” to relax its privacy protection requirements and make selling personal data easier.
This change will take months to successfully implement as both the European Parliament alongside a large majority of member states must approve the changes.
The knowledge.
These proposed changes follow months of clear signals that the EU wants to shift its approach to regulating AI and big tech. This approach has been rooted in attracting many of these large tech companies to increase their investments in the region and boost European competitiveness. Before this latest effort, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, revealed a new strategy in April 2025, which outlined the EU’s clear goals to become a global leader in AI.
Through the AI Continent Action Plan, the EU outlined a clear goal to make the region a leader in AI by enhancing capabilities by promoting initiatives in five core areas. These areas involve:
- Building large-scale AI computing infrastructure.
- Increasing access to high-quality data.
- Promoting AI’s adoption in strategic sectors.
- Strengthen AI skills and talents.
- Simplify the implementation of the AI Act
While these areas are relatively broad, the EU has already begun to take action through new policies and increased funding.
In October, the EU unveiled its “Apply AI Strategy,” which aims to speed up the development and adoption of AI in both key industries and the public sector. The three core goals of this strategy involve:
- Accelerating time-to-market for AI systems.
- Strengthening the EU workforce to be “AI-ready.”
- Creating a frontier AI initiative to bring together the region’s leading AI actors.
Alongside this effort, the EU also announced its “AI in Science Strategy,” which places extra focus on having the EU lead AI research and development. With this strategy, the bloc aimed to:
- Implement measures to attract global scientific talent for AI research.
- Invest 600 million euros from Horizon Europe to enhance the region’s computational power, particularly for scientific purposes.
- Double Horizon Europe’s annual investments into AI to bring the total to over three billion euros.
- Support scientists to better identify data gaps in AI and fill these gaps through curated datasets.
These initiatives represent how aggressively the EU is looking to pivot from its previous regulatory policy to one that now looks to scale capabilities and investments dramatically.
The impact.
As the EU continues to announce and execute on its new AI policies, it is clear that the bloc’s previous approach is undergoing a significant change. Whereas previously, the region focused on prioritizing privacy and curbing big tech’s influence, now the priority is to attract greater investment. To do so, the EU aims to scale back core aspects of existing regulations and reevaluate ones that were set to be implemented in the futur
This change will have significant impacts within the EU, both on its citizens and on companies that operate in the region. For businesses, these changes will likely mean new regulatory processes for how data will need to be handled and alongside new business opportunities to support these initiatives. For EU citizens, people should take time to understand how these changes will affect how their data is handled and their broader privacy rights.
Meta defeats social media antitrust case.
The news.
On Tuesday, Meta won a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit alleging that the company maintained a monopoly in the social media landscape. The ruling represents a significant victory for big tech companies, which have been facing immense antitrust pressure from the Trump administration. For context, the FTC aimed to force Meta to separate from both Instagram and WhatsApp, spinning them both into separate companies.
In United States (US) District Judge James Boasberg’s opinion, they wrote that the FTC has not demonstrated sufficient evidence that Meta maintained a monopoly. Judge Boasberg wrote:
“The landscape that existed only five years ago, when the [FTC] brought this antitrust suit, has changed markedly. While it once might have made sense to partition apps into separate markets of social networking and social media, that wall has since broken down.”
With this victory, Meta stated that it welcomed the decision and stated:
“The Court’s decision today recognizes that Meta faces fierce competition. Our products are beneficial for people and businesses and exemplify American innovation and economic growth.”
The FTC did not comment on this development.
The knowledge.
In the FTC’s 2020 lawsuit, the agency alleged that the company held a social media monopoly due to its acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. At the core of this lawsuit was the allegation that Meta overpurchased both Instagram and WhatsApp as part of a “buy or bury” strategy aimed at eliminating potential competitors and protecting its alleged social networking monopoly. To support these claims, the agency pointed to statements about the deals, such as a 2008 email from Mark Zuckerberg stating that “it is better to buy than compete.”
The FTC’s lawsuit is reflective of a larger effort from the Trump administration to crack down on big tech companies through antitrust lawsuits. Currently, the Trump administration is pursuing antitrust lawsuits against the following:
- Apple. A 2024 Department of Justice (DOJ) case alleges that Apple maintains an illegal monopoly over smartphones by imposing contractual restrictions on developers.
- Amazon. A 2023 FTC case that alleges that Amazon maintained illegal monopoly power over online retail stores, allowing it to inflate prices and penalize sellers.
- Google. A 2023 DOJ case that alleges that Google maintains an illegal monopoly over the advertising technology business.
Outside of these active cases, Google also recently lost another antitrust case, whose remediation phase of the trial concluded in September 2025, regarding its search engine monopoly. While the DOJ was unable to get the breakup it was pursuing, the Judge did rule that Google was required to do the following:
- Not enter into and dissolve its exclusive contracts used to distribute its services.
- Publish its search index and user-interaction data to the company's rivals.
- Offer search and search text ads services to rivals to improve competition.
The impact.
Together, these lawsuits reflect a substantial shift by the Trump administration when handling antitrust enforcement, which now emphasizes aggressive breakups to challenge platform dominance. While the Meta ruling is a setback to this overall strategy, several major cases are still unresolved, which could set new precedents for how the US approaches big tech companies.
For now, businesses that rely on services from these companies should track these cases closely. Understanding the proposed remediation solutions alongside the ones that are likely to be imposed will help businesses better prepare for potential service disruptions or changes and any emerging opportunities.
Highlighting key conversations.
In this week’s Caveat Podcast, our team met to discuss the recent Ignite conference, which was held at the end of October. Throughout this conversation, our team dives deeper into some of the panels hosted at the conference, covering a variety of topics ranging from the impacts of AI to quantum computing.
Like what you read, and curious about the conversation? Head over to the Caveat Podcast for the full scoop and additional compelling insights. Our Caveat Podcast is a weekly show where we discuss topics related to surveillance, digital privacy, cybersecurity law, and policy. Got a question you'd like us to answer on our show? You can send your audio file to caveat@thecyberwire.com. Hope to hear from you.
Other noteworthy stories.
India strengthens privacy laws with new rules.
What: India has put new laws into place to minimize the collection of personal data.
Why: On Friday, India implemented new privacy rules designed to minimize the collection of personal data and give its citizens more control over their data. Under these new rules, companies, like Meta and OpenAI, will only be allowed to collect data that is needed for specific purposes. Additionally, companies will also be required to give Indian users a clear explanation when collecting data and allowing people to opt out of this collection.
Dhruv Garg from the Indian Governance and Policy Project commented that “this marks the most significant operational step in India’s new privacy regime since the DPDP Act 2023 came into force.”
Alongside these new rules, India is reportedly drafting a series of new regulations in the digital space, which will include additional compliance requirements for AI companies.
EU probing Amazon and Microsoft cloud services.
What: European Commission launching three new investigations into cloud computing services.
Why: On Tuesday, the European Commission announced it was investigating both Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Two of these probes aim to see if these companies should be designated as “gatekeepers” for their cloud services, and the third probe seeks to assess if the DMA can address these anticompetitive practices in the cloud sector.
With these probes, EU antitrust chief Terea Ribera stated:
“We will also look at whether the DMA’s existing rules need to be updated so Europe can keep pace with fast-evolving practices in the cloud sector.”
A Microsoft spokesperson stated that the company was ready to contribute to the EU’s enquiry. However, an Amazon spokesperson said that “designating cloud providers as gatekeepers isn’t worth the risks of stifling innovation or raising costs.”
UK announces new security measures to counter Chinese agents.
What: The United Kingdom (UK) has announced new measures to counter foreign interference efforts.
Why: On Tuesday, MI5, the UK’s domestic intelligence agency, announced new measures to better protect democratic institutions from Chinese agents. Security Minister Dan Jarvis emphasized that these measures aimed to deter efforts that would interfere with the nation’s sovereign affairs and undermine its institutions. The new measures include the following:
- Holding events with university chiefs to discuss risks created by foreign interference
- Security briefings to help parties and political candidates recognize and report suspicious activity.
- Investing 170 million pounds to renew encryption technologies.
- Investing 130 million points to expand counter terrorism policing efforts and support protecting the intellectual properties (IP) of critical businesses.
- Removing surveillance equipment created by firms overseen by China’s National Intelligence Law from all sensitive government sites.
- Strengthening the economic security advisory service to better counter espionage and IP theft.
Google advertising antitrust trial delayed.
What: Google’s ad tech antitrust lawsuit has been delayed to November 21, 2025.
Why: Last week, Google’s antitrust lawsuit was delayed from November 12th to November 21st. This next phase will hear the closing arguments regarding the potential breakup of Google’s advertising business.
For context, US District Court Judge Leonie Grinkema ruled in April 2025 that Google held two monopolies in the ad tech business and is now considering remediation solutions. While Google is looking to avoid a breakup, the Department of Justice, along with several states, has requested that Google be forced to sell its ad exchange company, AdX.