News
Google has agreed to acquire cloud security platform Wiz for $32 billion in the largest acquisition of 2025 so far, integrating it into Google Cloud as part of a strategy to become the dominant security player in cloud computing. Following the acquisition, Wiz will continue to support multiple cloud platforms including competitors AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud, while gaining access to Google’s AI expertise and resources.
Virginia is poised to become the second U.S. state to regulate high-risk AI applications with a bill requiring companies to implement safeguards against algorithmic discrimination in critical areas like employment, lending, healthcare, and housing. This state-level action comes amid the federal government’s recent withdrawal from stringent AI regulation under the Trump administration, signaling an emerging regulatory patchwork similar to what has developed in data privacy laws across states.
President Trump has fired the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, in a controversial move challenging the agency’s traditional independence, with both commissioners planning to challenge their dismissals in court. This action follows a similar attempt to remove a National Labor Relations Board member and aligns with the administration’s recent executive order asserting greater White House control over independent regulatory agencies.
Apple has removed its Advanced Data Protection encryption feature for 35 million UK iPhone users rather than comply with government demands for a security backdoor, and has appealed the order to the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal. Privacy experts warn this precedent could embolden other nations, including the U.S., to make similar demands, creating what Johns Hopkins professor Javad Abed calls a “policy earthquake” for global data security.
Marko Elez, a staffer for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) who was previously fired and then rehired after being linked to controversial social media content, violated Treasury Department policies by emailing a spreadsheet with personal financial information to GSA officials without proper encryption or approval. The incident, revealed in a court filing by a Treasury security officer amid a lawsuit from 19 state attorneys general seeking to block DOGE’s access to sensitive taxpayer information, has reinforced concerns about what the states called the “rushed and chaotic nature” of the DOGE team’s access to government systems.
Hungary’s parliament has passed a law banning Pride events and allowing authorities to use facial recognition to identify attendees, the latest in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ongoing restrictions on LGBTQ rights. The legislation amends Hungary’s assembly law to prohibit events that violate the country’s controversial “child protection” legislation, which bans the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors, with opposition lawmakers igniting colorful smoke bombs in parliament during the 136-27 vote.
Facial recognition company Clearview AI attempted to purchase 690 million arrest records and 390 million mugshots containing sensitive personal data including social security numbers, addresses, and email addresses from an intelligence firm in 2019, according to newly obtained documents. The deal ultimately fell apart and went to arbitration, with the arbiter ruling in Clearview’s favor in 2024, even as the company continues to face legal challenges worldwide over its collection of billions of facial images from social media without consent.
The EDPB provided recommendations to member states for implementing the PNR (passenger name record) Directive, focusing on limitations to passenger data processing, including restricting data collection for terrorist offenses and serious crimes with an objective link to air travel, limiting intra-EU flight surveillance, requiring independent prior review of data access, and enforcing limited data retention periods.
Democrats are pushing for an update the 1974 Privacy Act in response to the actions taken by Elon Musk’s DOGE. Proposed updates to the Act, which pertains only to government use of personal electronic records, include narrowing the “need to know” exception and strengthening data minimization provisions and the private right of action for individuals whose data is affected.
(Compiled by Student Fellow Lior Polani)