As gadgets and services get smarter, they need more data, and face the hard problem of keeping it safe. Data privacy has become a huge problem for Google, Facebook, Amazon, and any company using artificial intelligence to power its services — and a major sticking point for lawmakers looking to regulate. Here’s all the news on data privacy and how it’s changing tech.
Who could have seen that coming? UK regulator Ofcom’s annual Online Nation report shows that major porn sites took a traffic hit following the introduction of mandatory age checks, while VPN use shot up — but has been steadily declining since, which may ease fears that a VPN ban is next on the agenda.
An exposed dataset from the license plate surveillance company Flock, which is known to work with the US Border Patrol and ICE via local police, showed that some of the AI annotators paid to classify American license plates are located in the Philippines.
After 404 Media contacted Flock for comment, the dataset disappeared.
This Associated Press report explains that after getting authorization for a domestic license plate reader in 2017, the readers “have become a major — and in some places permanent — fixture of the border region.”
Readers are operated by the DEA, local law enforcement paid via federal grants, and at least three companies: Rekor, Vigilant Solutions, and Flock Safety.
OpenTable is sharing your dining habits, both good and bad.
Ring’s ‘chief inventor’ on AI, lost dogs, and why cameras aren’t dystopian.
European officials are reportedly planning to touch the “third rail” of EU policy later this month: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). A draft proposal obtained by Politico would create carve outs for AI companies to train on specified categories of personal data, as Europe seeks to remain competitive globally.
The late vice president was a fierce champion of the Patriot Act and a powerful proponent of mass surveillance. In his obituary for Cheney, Spencer Ackerman recounts the many achievements of George W. Bush’s VP, including a legal justification for NSA bulk collection, which “established a warrantless digital dragnet of phone and internet metadata generated by the communications of practically every American.”
Bulk collection of telephone call metadata ended in 2015, but Cheney’s work ushered in an era of government surveillance, an unforgettable legacy that continues to define the present.
Under a proposed rule by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could demand biometric information including DNA from immigrants and associated US citizens, and even children under age 14. That would be a significant expansion of the information the agency currently collects.
The app that suffered multiple data breaches earlier this year and a replica for men called TeaOnHer were removed for “failing to meet the company’s terms of use around content moderation and user privacy,” according to 404 Media.
Apple also cited “an excessive number of complaints,” including reports of posts including minors’ data.
Porn is increasingly age-gated. Social media is next.
JPMorgan has told staff they’ll have to ditch ID badges in favor of eye or fingerprint scans to access the bank’s new HQ in New York, according to emails seen by the Financial Times. The biometric scheme was supposed to be voluntary, but shifted to required as employees moved in.
The change comes after the murder of UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk and the fatal shootings at an NYC office building this summer.
The privacy-focused browser surpassed the milestone on September 30th, and says it’s attracted an average of 2.5 million new users each month over the last two years. “Across the globe, users are choosing privacy and control over their online experience, instead of Big Tech’s tracking and abuse,” said Brave CEO Brendan Eich.
If you live in Europe then you know the routine: open a new website, click through a cookie consent banner designed to maximize data gathering, let out a frustrated sigh and get on with life. That might be changing:
A note sent to industry and civil society attending a focus group on Sept. 15, seen by POLITICO, showed the Commission is pondering how to tweak the rules to include more exceptions or make sure users can set their preferences on cookies once (for example, in their browser settings) instead of every time they visit a website.
We aren’t your friends, and you’ll never be alone again.
The $9.99 / month subscription will also let you use Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 and Meta’s Llama Maverick through the privacy-focused Duck.ai interface, which doesn’t store your chats or use them for AI training. In addition to these perks, DuckDuckGo’s subscription comes with a VPN and an information removal tool.
404 Media has been on top of the privacy nightmare of Tea, an app that sought to make dating safer for women by sharing “red flags” but has instead been a leaky source of its users’ personal data. A new investigation by 404’s Emanuel Maiberg goes behind the scenes how the app tried to hijack the Are We Dating the Same Guy? Facebook group to goose its community numbers.
404 Media reports how ICE officials added a random person to a “Mass Text” chat, where they discussed plans to find an individual “seemingly marked for deportation.” The messages exposed sensitive information about ICE’s target, including their criminal record, Social Security Number, and driver’s license number.
The platform announced earlier this month that it will begin to use AI to detect users under 18 and automatically apply restrictions to their account. If it incorrectly identifies someone as underage, YouTube will ask for the user’s government ID, credit card, or a selfie to verify their age.
