privacy

Elon Musk Issues Ultimatum: Ban on Apple Devices for Companies in Response to Apple’s ChatGPT Integration

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Elon Musk is threatening to ban iPhones from all his companies over the newly announced OpenAI integrations Apple announced at WWDC 2024 on Monday. This allows users to get an answer from ChatGPT without having to open the ChatGPT iOS app. Apple also announced another integration that would allow users have access to ChatGPT system-wide within Writing Tools via a “compose” feature. That’s great news for OpenAI, which will soon have a massive influx of requests from Apple users. Apple users may not understand the nuances of the privacy issues here, of course — which is what Musk is counting on by making these complaints.

Introducing Apple’s Revolutionary AI Solution: The Next Generation of Intelligence

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Apple Tuesday unveiled Apple Intelligence, its long awaited, ecosystem-wide push into generative AI. As earlier rumors suggested, the new feature is called Apple Intelligent (A.I., get it?). The company promised the feature will be built with safety at its core, along with highly personalized experiences. it’s personal intelligence. and it’s the next big step for Apple.”

Privacy Violations Uncovered: 23andMe Under Scrutiny by UK and Canada Watchdogs

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Privacy watchdogs in the U.K. and Canada have launched a joint investigation into the data breach at 23andMe last year. In its data breach notices, the company said it didn’t detect the hackers’ activities for around five months, from April until September 2023. 23andMe said it only became aware of the account breaches in October 2023, when hackers advertised the stolen data on the unofficial 23andMe subreddit and a well-known hacking forum. Hackers broke into around 14,000 accounts of 23andMe customers by reusing their passwords from previous breaches, a technique known as password spraying. That’s how the hackers were able to scrape information on 6.9 million users by only hacking 14,000 accounts.

“Cape Rakes in $61M from A16Z and Beyond for Privacy-Focused Mobile Service”

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That’s privacy by design.”The funding is notable in part because Cape appeal to users is not yet proven. The latest round is being co-led by A* and Andreessen Horowitz, with XYZ Ventures, ex/ante, Costanoa Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures also participating. Those jobs may exposed him to users (government departments) who treated the security of personal information and privacy around data usage as essential. (Cape today also announced a partnership with USCellular — which itself provides a MNVO covering 12 cellular networks, and Doyle said that it’s talking with other telcos, too). Although payments for this might be anonymous, a user’s data is still routed through the network infrastructure of the underlying carrier, making a users movements and usage observable.

EDPB Demands Real Privacy Choice from Adtech Giants Such as Meta for EU Users

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The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has published new guidance which has major implications for adtech giants like Meta and other large platforms. The guidance, which was confirmed incoming Wednesday as we reported earlier, will steer how privacy regulators interpret the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in a critical area. The full opinion of the EDPB on so-called “consent or pay” runs to 42-pages. However a market leader imposing that kind of binary choice looks unviable, per the EDPB, an expert body made up of representatives of data protection authorities from around the EU. “Online platforms should give users a real choice when employing ‘consent or pay’ models,” Talu wrote.

European Privacy Group Takes Stance on Meta’s Controversial ‘Consent or Pay’ Strategy

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Yet a binary choice (aka “consent or pay”) is exactly what Meta is currently forcing on users in the region. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has been meeting this week to discuss adopting an opinion on so-called “consent or pay”, following a request made back in February by a trio of concerned data protection authorities. A spokeswoman for the EDPB confirmed to TechCrunch that it adopted an opinion on “consent or pay” on Wednesday morning, saying it will be published later today. However the choice Meta gives EU users is a binary one: Either consent to its use of personal data for targeted advertisng or pay a monthly fee to access ad-free versions of its social networks. But on the core issue of whether Meta’s mechanism complies with the EU’s long-standing data protection framework the Board’s opinion is key.

“Integrating AI-Focused Data Management and Differential Privacy: The Power of PVML”

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PVML is offering an interesting solution by combining a ChatGPT-like tool for analyzing data with the safety guarantees of differential privacy. It’s much easier, faster and more efficient — and our secret sauce, differential privacy, enables this integration very easily.”Differential privacy is far from a new concept. The team argues that today’s data access solutions are ineffective and create a lot of overhead. The promise of using differential privacy means that PVML’s users don’t have to make changes to the original data. “That’s a taste of things to come, and organizations who adopt AI today will be a step ahead tomorrow.

EU Privacy Protection: Groups Urge Meta to Abandon ‘Consent or Payment’ Strategy

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Additionally, in a notable step last month, the European Union opened a formal investigation into whether Meta’s tactic breaches obligations that apply to Facebook and Instagram under the competition-focused Digital Markets Act (DMA). The Board’s opinion on “consent or pay” is expected to provide guidance on how the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) should be applied in this area. It’s worth noting the Board’s opinion will look at “consent or pay” generally, rather than specifically investigating Meta’s deployment. Nor is Meta the only service provider pushing “consent or pay” on users. “However, the current ‘Consent or Pay’ model sets in stone a coercive dynamic, leaving users without an actual choice.

“New from DuckDuckGo: Subscription includes VPN and identity theft protection bundle”

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Privacy-focused consumer tech company DuckDuckGo launched a new Privacy Pro subscription on Thursday that bundles a VPN service, personal information removal, and identity theft restoration. This is the company’s first move towards a subscription service built into the DuckDuckGo browser. With personal information removal service, DuckDuckGo scans dozens of data broker sites to find details like your name and address. (At that time, Removaly’s founder, Kyle Krzeski, posted on X that a privacy company acquired the startup without naming it.) The third feature of DuckDuckGo’s privacy pro plan is identity theft restoration, where an advisor would help you recover your identity-related loss around the clock.

“EDPS Alerts: Europe’s Privacy Principles Threatened by Rapid AI Advancements”

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The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has warned key planks of the bloc’s data protection and privacy regime are under attack from industry lobbyists and could face a critical reception from lawmakers in the next parliamentary mandate. Any shift of approach by incoming lawmakers could have implications for the bloc’s high standard of protection for people’s data. But he particularly highlighted industry lobbying, especially complaints from businesses targeting the GDPR principle of purpose limitation. Wiewiórowski did not explicitly blame generative AI for driving the “strong attacks” on the GDPR’s purpose limitation principle. So any AI-driven weakening of EU data protection laws in the near term is likely to have long term consequences for citizens’ human rights.