News
The European Parliament adopted the final version of the Data Act on November 9, 2023. The Data Act aims to create a new single market for data sharing and grants entities in the public sector access to data held by private companies in certain circumstances of high public interest. The Data Act will reinforce data availability, sharing measures, and portability among EU member states.
In response to the Biden administration’s executive order on AI governance, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) launched a Roadmap for Artificial Intelligence to pursue five lines of effort, in partnership with its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security. CISA’s roadmap underscored the importance of building risk mitigation into AI/ML systems as a design feature and maintaining a transparent approach via information sharing.
Clearview’s facial recognition technology has become the Ukrainian government’s “secret weapon” against Russia in its ongoing war. As Ukrainian authorities have come to rely heavily upon this private U.S. tech company for its wartime efforts, their partnership has raised critical questions over the deployment of controversial or invasive technology in an armed conflict as well as the extension of digital privacy rights.
Meta and YouTube face criminal complaints in Ireland “for alleged unlawful surveillance of EU citizens via tracking scripts.” Alexander Hanff, a privacy consultant and advocate, challenged that both Meta’s and YouTube’s tracking code and ad-blocking violated Ireland’ computer abuse law.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) raised concerns over a new vehicle tracking system in Uganda, which allows the government to track the real-time location of all vehicles in the country. HRW has criticized Uganda’s Intelligent Transport Monitoring System (ITMS) as a surveillance mechanism infringing on the rights to privacy, expression, and association.
Meta, Google, TikTok, and other social media giants are facing a deluge of lawsuits based on the theory of addiction, especially as to children. Judge Yvonne Rogers in Oakland, CA, dismissed some claims while permitting others to proceed. Judge Rogers further rejected the companies’ arguments that they are immune from personal injury claims under the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act – federal laws invoked by social media platforms to block suits concerning contents created and posted by their users.
Events
Columbia Law hosted its Accountability and Liability in Generative AI: Challenges and Perspectives symposium on November 17, 2023, featuring a wide range of viewpoints on how civil liability and institutional accountability can address the harms from generative AI.
(Compiled by Student Fellow Stephanie Shim)