Category: Uncategorized

News

Thirteen states and the District of Columbia sued TikTok on October 8th, accusing the company of violating their consumer protection laws by creating an intentionally addictive app that harmed children and teenagers. They said that the company had designed features to prompt heavy, compulsive use of TikTok and that many children were using the app late at night when they would otherwise have been asleep. TikTok said that it strongly disagreed with the claims in the lawsuits and that it provided “robust” safeguards for young users. The action is similar to a set of lawsuits that states brought against Meta in the last year.

In a similar manner, the Korea Communications Commission prepared to launch an investigation into possible violations of Korea’s personal data protection law by TikTok. The company is accused of not giving users the option to opt out from receiving various promotional materials and not allowing new users to review the full terms and conditions when they sign on.

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday set out the changes it would like to see at Google after a federal district court judge ruled in August that the company was guilty of antitrust abuses in the search and search-advertising markets. The department’s suggested fixes would deprive Google of some of the data that it normally draws on when delivering AI-powered search results. The first suggestion involved allowing websites to opt out from having data compiled by Google’s web crawlers used in any of its AI products. The DOJ also proposed prohibiting Google from “using contracts or other practices to undermine rivals’ access to web content.”

Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency sent orders to service providers to unblock X, formerly Twitter, ending a five-week ban of the social media company. This follows the Brazilian Supreme Court allowing X to resume activities in the country after determining that it “met all the necessary requirements to return.” The company was banned due to failing to designate a new legal representative in the country.

An independent candidate running for Virginia’s 8th congressional district has challenged the Democratic incumbent to a debate, and prepared an AI chatbot to stand in for the incumbent in case he refuses. Bentley Hensel said he was frustrated by Don Beyer’s refusal to appear for additional debates, and has trained an AI called DonBot on Beyer’s official websites, press releases, and data from the Federal Election Commission. Hensel also plans to create an AI version of the Republican candidate, Jerry Torres as well, should he refuse to debate. Beyer’s spokeswoman did not address whether his campaign would try to prevent the debate from happening beyond saying he had no plans to participate.

John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton received the Nobel Prize in Physics on October 8th for work in the late 1970s and early 1980s on machine learning that uses artificial neural networks, providing the building blocks for developments in artificial intelligence. In a call during the Nobel announcement, Dr. Hinton expressed worries over machine learning and said it would have an extraordinary influence on society, extolling its improvements to productivity while considering potential bad consequences. In a news conference on the same day, Dr. Hopfield compared advances in A.I. with the splitting of the atom.

Lowry Pressly, a professor of political science at Stanford, has released a new book entitled “The Right to Oblivion: Privacy and the Good Life,” in which he posits an “ideology of information.” According to Pressly, this is a fundamental “idea that information has a natural existence in human affairs, and that there are no aspects of human life which cannot be translated somehow into data.” This ideology, in Pressly’s view, informs the purpose of privacy, which is to prevent the creation of information. The book’s title is reflective of the dichotomy between privacy and information; to the author, “Oblivion” refers to an opaque realm which disappears once information is created. Pressly maintains that Oblivion provides a restorative refuge for the mind, and is essential for human dignity.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Jerome David)

News

California has passed a bill mandating car manufacturer and vehicle connected services providers to develop software allowing drivers of vehicles to be notified and given the option to disable any person outside the vehicle trying to access their vehicle location. The legislation comes on the heels of news reports about abusers using connected cars to stalk their victims, highlighting victim’s inability to obtain efficient redressal.

The much debated Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act has been passed by the California State Assembly. The Act seeks to guard against proliferation of deepfakes and similar other AI misuses. It requires developers to implement precautions before they train a sophisticated AI model such as implementing the capability to enact a full shutdown promptly, implementing and preserving a written safety and security protocol, etc.

Neural data, i.e., data relating to the activity of the brain, is now classified as sensitive personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). On September 30, 2024, the CCPA was amended to extend the protective umbrella of ‘sensitive personal information’, to information that is generated by measuring the activity of a consumer’s central or peripheral nervous system, and that is not inferred from non-neural information. The amendment is effective immediately.

In a development that preserves childrens’ privacy as to sexual orientation, California governor has signed a bill prohibiting schools from outing transgender and gay students to their parents. The law overrides existing school board policies throughout the State which require staff to inform parents if their child starts using a name or pronoun that doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Nirali Sanghavi)

News

Californians can now add their driver’s licenses and state IDs to their digital wallets on both
Apple and Android devices. Other states – including Louisiana and Colorado – have rolled out
their own digital IDs that can be used during traffic stops and other police interactions. Showing
these IDs may waive privacy protections in interactions with law enforcement.

LinkedIn revealed that it had been training its AI model on user data. Under its new privacy
policy, LinkedIn now informs users that “we may use your personal data… [to] develop and train
artificial intelligence (AI) models, develop, provide, and personalize our Services, and gain
insights with the help of AI, automated systems, and inferences, so that our Services can be more
relevant and useful to you and others.” Users can opt-out of future data collection, but not
remove their information from past training datasets.

Meta will not voluntarily join the EU’s AI Pact, a temporary measure before the AI Act comes
into force in 2026.

Telegram has tweaked its policies to be able to share more data with government authorities, in a
reversal of longstanding policy

The US Commission on Civil Rights issued a report on the civil rights implications of the federal
use of Facial Recognition Technology. The report identified that there are no laws that expressly
regulate the use of FRT or other AI by the federal government, and no constitutional provisions
governing its use.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Anthony Perrins)

News

A study found that drivers are more likely to be distracted while using partial automation tech.

OpenAI’s safety committee announced it will oversee security practices as an independent body.

Instagram announced new privacy and parental controls for Instagram accounts of users under 18. It will port certain Instagram accounts to private by default “Teen Accounts”.

A Politico piece describes how Andrew Kingman, outside counsel for the State Privacy and Security Coalition, has played a key role in shaping business-friendly data privacy laws across numerous states by lobbying against stricter regulations and promoting industry-favorable provisions.

Exploding devices modified by Israel somewhere along the supply chain during manufacture or transit raise questions about the security of hardware.

Events 

Kate Crawford’s and Vladan Joler’s MoMA exhibit Anatomy of an AI System “analyzes the vast networks that underpin the “birth, life, and death” of a single Amazon Echo smart speaker, painstakingly compiling and condensing this huge volume of information into a detailed high-resolution diagram.” 

The Privacy Research Group will be hosting the event “Surveillance, Geofence Warrants, and the Fourth Amendment: Recent Developments” in Furman Hall Room 120 from 1:30 to 2:30 pm on Tuesday, September 24th (in-person only). You can RSVP here. It’ll include a lecture by Albert Fox Cahn, a Q&A, and snacks & coffee. 

On October 1, 2024, the AI(M) for the Future will feature six sessions, with options for both in-person and online attendance. Register here.

The Engelberg Center has several events at NYU in the next week: a book launch event for the book Feminist Cyberlaw next Monday and a conference on the Hatch-Waxman Act next Thursday and Friday.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Rebecca Kahn)

News

The California Privacy Protection Agency issues a bulletin advising businesses to implement strong data minimization principles, including when processing consumer requests under the CCPA itself. [April 2]

Google settles a class action lawsuit alleging it illegally stored data about users’ “incognito” browsing by agreeing to destroy billions of records and alter its tracking policies moving forward. [April 1]

OpenAI announces — but does not release — a new “Voice Engine” model which can recreate a person’s voice based on only 15 seconds of audio. [March 29]

OMB announces new guidance for federal agencies using AI, requiring agencies that cannot implement certain mandatory evaluation and monitoring safeguards by December 2024 to cease using AI systems until they can comply.

The European Court of Justice rejects a request from Amazon to temporarily suspend the application of the Digital Services Act while the company litigates whether or not it is a “very large online platform” subject to the Act’s heightened requirements. [March 27]

The Department of Justice and 16 states sue Apple for restricting competition by, among other things, artificially constraining messaging features between iPhones and Android devices and preventing third party developers from competing with Apple’s tap-to-pay digital wallet feature. [March 21]

(Compiled by Student Fellow Micah Musser)

News

Florida signed into law a social media ban for minors 13 and under, with 14-15 needing parental consent

Portugal’s data regulator has ordered Worldcoin to stop collecting biometric data for 90 days, given concerns about unauthorized data collection from minors, as well as Worldcoin’s lack of consent or data deletion mechanism.

The NTIA finishes up its public comment period on open-source AI models on 3/29.

The FTC opened a new investigation into TikTok into alleged unfair and deceptive business practices as well as violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

A man in Montana pleaded guilty earlier this month to wildlife trafficking charges as part of an effort to create cloned giant sheep hybrids.

In its investigation of the 2020 SolarWinds cyberattack, the SEC is asking technology and telecom companies for internal communications as to how they handled the hack, prompting business pushback.

Events

Professor Strandburg is speaking on a panel as part of the Journal of Law & Business’s spring symposium, Artificial Intelligence and Antitrust: Global Regulatory Changes, from 6-8pm on 4/3.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Stephanie Chen)

News

The House of Representatives will be performing a Full Committee markup of H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act on March 7, 2024. This is a response to privacy concerns in national security with sensitive data, including health data, about Americans traveling abroad being collected and sold, particularly to foreign adversaries. President Biden issued an Executive Order last week discussing steps being taken to protect Americans’ sensitive data from exploitation by foreign adversaries, including genetic and biometric information.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, responsible for promoting innovation and new technologies in the US, is struggling with funding. The agency is unable to do foundational work because it is so underfunded. President Biden’s AI Executive Order rests heavily on the NIST to oversee AI models and the data privacy and security of such models. The Washington Post article describes the NIST building as absolute decay, with black mold forcing an evacuation, leaks, and struggling technology.

A bill introduced in Florida banning all minors under the age of 16, with or without parental consent, from addictive social media platforms was vetoed by Governor Ron DeSantis. Governor DeSantis previously seemed on board with the bill, having concerns about privacy for minors. Governor DeSantis is now believed to support a bill that would ban access for younger minors but allow access, with parental consent, for minors 14 and older.

Google and Reddit came to an agreement allowing Google to use Reddit posts to train its AI in addition to other services. Reddit is then allowed to use Google’s AI model for its own site improvement. The $60 million deal set a precedent for tech companies to obtain data for AI models in the future. As part of the deal, Google must comply with Reddit’s privacy policy and fully delete data once a user has deleted a post, not allowing Google to keep shadow data.

Germany is amending its Federal Data Protection Act. The amendment draft institutionalizes the German Data Protection Conference and aims to improve data protection law enforcement. The German press release states that there will additionally be legal certainty for consumer protective scoring, which has been developed with the Federal Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Paulina Andrews)

News
On February 20, 2024, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford filed a motion to prevent Meta from providing end-to-end encryption on Messenger for users residing in the state who are under the age of eighteen. Since December 2023, Meta has made end-to-end encryption the default for all messages on Messenger. The AG has sought rapid hearing on the matter, citing the “extreme urgency” affecting the safety and well-being of minors in Nevada. Meta responded by noting the value of encryption in protecting communications and personal information.

The Supreme Court heard a pair of cases (Moody v. NetChoice, LLC and NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton) on February 26, 2024. The Court appeared skeptical of laws in Florida and Texas that regulate how large social media companies exercise their editorial discretions over content moderation. The Court’s decision would have an enormous impact on the scope of the First Amendment and the nature of speech in the internet era.

UnitedHealth, the nation’s largest insurer, was hit by a cyberattack on its unit—Change Healthcare, a division of Optum. The attack was discovered on February 21, 2024, and appeared to be a ransomware attack launched by a foreign nation-state actor. This latest attack foregrounded the vulnerability of healthcare data and private medical records, especially those of patients. The cyberattack disrupted UnitedHealth’s services with prescription drug orders and even affected the U.S. military overseas.

Canada has introduced a new bill—the Online Harms Act—that requires social media platforms to remove posts exposing children to online abuse. The Canadian Parliament needs to vote on the bill, but the proposed Act aims to create a “digital safety commission” to regulate social media companies and offer more effective means to protect children online.

President Biden issued an Executive Order on February 28, 2024, to protect the sensitive personal data of Americans. The Executive Order authorizes the Attorney General to “prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data to countries of concern” and provides relevant safeguards. The “countries of concern” specified in the Order included China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. Such restrictions mark the first-ever broad prohibition on the sale of digital data by the U.S. to individual countries.

Wendy’s has announced its plan to spend $20 million on more enhanced features, including dynamic pricing and digital menu boards that allow for a more flexible menu in stores. The company has further clarified that it will not use surge pricing, similar to that used by Uber, after its CEO Kirk Tanner’s comments to investors sparked commotion around the possibility of adopting this practice, which raises prices when the demand is highest.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Stephanie Shim)

News 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced changes to the current research data request and access policies in the name of data security that will limit individual researchers’ access to data.

The European Commission has opened investigations to assess whether TikTok has breached the Digital Services Act.

Reddit has signed a contract to allow a company to train its AI Models on the platform’s content, ahead of its IPO.

Signal is testing a beta version that hides user’s phone numbers and lets them pick a username instead.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that weakening end-to-end encryption presents a disproportionate risk of undermining human rights.

Events

Abrams Institute Conversations will host Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin to discuss the cases before the Supreme Court concerning the power of states to regulate content moderation on social media platforms. Monday, March 4 · 12 – 1:30pm EST

Papers

Researcher Access to Social Media Data: Lessons from Clinical Trial Data Sharing authored by Christopher Morten (Columbia Law School), Gabriel Nicholas (New York University School of Law) and Salome Viljoen (University of Michigan Law School; Harvard University). 

(Compiled by Student Fellow Marina Garrote)

News

Google agreed to a $350 million settlement over a lawsuit related to a security lapse that exposed Google Plus users’ data, amidst other legal challenges for privacy and competition law violations.

The FTC has issued proposed settlements to ban the sale of sensitive geolocation data by data brokers, marking a significant step in addressing privacy concerns and emphasizing the need for informed consumer consent.

Apple is reportedly considering acquiring the German AI startup Brighter AI to integrate its Precision Blur and Deep Natural Anonymisation technologies into the Vision Pro, aiming to enhance privacy by anonymizing faces and license plates in photos and videos.

The EU requires large tech platforms like TikTok, X, and Facebook to identify AI-generated content to safeguard the upcoming European election against disinformation.

Nightshade v1.0 ‘poisons’ AI models by embedding imperceptible pixel-level changes into images to prevent unauthorized use of artworks for AI training, with some critics labeling the tool as a form of ‘illegal’ hacking.

A new report criticizes state privacy laws as being significantly weakened by the tech industry’s influence, with most states enacting ineffective legislation that fails to protect consumer data adequately or offer meaningful enforcement.

After over two years of development, the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is nearing approval, with the latest text offering a final compromise on high-risk AI systems, General Purpose AI, and governance and enforcement mechanisms; however, critiques note that last-minute concessions may limit its protective potential, especially due to industry lobbying and the possibility of insufficient enforcement resources.

An investigation into Microsoft’s design practices across Windows 10 and 11, Edge, and Bing reveals the company’s use of harmful design techniques—such as coercive, manipulative, and deceptive patterns—to push users towards using Edge browser, leading to potential consumer, social, and market harms. The report concludes that Microsoft’s practices distort user choice and undermine trust in technology, advocating for the cessation of these practices and regulatory intervention if necessary.

A Nigerian man has been arrested and charged with various offenses, including child pornography and attempted extortion, following the suicide of a Canadian teen, who fell victim to an online sextortion scheme.

US police departments are attempting to use facial recognition on 3D models of suspects’ faces generated from DNA evidence, despite concerns from civil liberties groups and experts who argue that this practice is based on unproven science and could lead to wrongful identification, as shown in a controversial case by the East Bay Regional Park District Police Department.

Bumble has introduced an AI-powered feature called “Deception Detector” to its dating app, designed to identify and block fake profiles, scams, and spam, reducing member reports of such issues by 45% during initial testing and supporting a 95% success rate in blocking undesirable accounts. 

Events

The Workshop for Junior Scholars on March 11, 2024, at MIT Stata Center, organized by Aniket Kesari and Sarah Scheffler, aims to build a community and provide guidance for early-career individuals in Law and Computer Science. The half-day event includes panels on academic and non-academic careers, mentoring sessions, and discussions on conducting interdisciplinary research, followed by dinner. Registration is available online. It precedes another conference: ACM Symposium on Computer Science and Law (CSLAW 2024).

There is an open application for a two-year residential postdoctoral program at Harvard Law School aimed at developing scholars early in their careers who have a primary interest in private law, including common law subjects and statutory areas like intellectual property. Selected from recent graduates, academics, and practitioners, Fellows focus on their research, contribute to the Project on the Foundations of Private Law, mentor students, present and attend workshops, help with events, and engage in blogging.

(Compiled by Student Fellow Rebecca Kahn)