News/Privacy
YouTube’s AI age verification sparks 50K-signature privacy backlash
YouTube faces mounting backlash from tens of thousands of users protesting its new AI-powered age verification system, with a Change.org petition rapidly approaching 50,000 signatures. The system analyzes viewing habits to identify users under 18, then requires government ID, credit card, or selfie verification to lift content restrictions—a move critics argue threatens privacy and digital freedom. What you should know: YouTube's AI estimates user ages by analyzing viewing patterns, search behavior, and account longevity, automatically restricting accounts it deems underage. Users flagged as under 18 face disabled personalized ads, mandatory digital wellbeing tools, and limits on repetitive content viewing. To...
read Aug 12, 2025Post at your peril: UK’s HMRC uses AI to monitor social media for tax fraud investigations
HMRC has confirmed it uses artificial intelligence to monitor social media posts as part of criminal investigations into suspected tax cheats, marking a significant expansion of automated surveillance in tax enforcement. The technology enables the tax authority to streamline investigations while raising important questions about privacy, accuracy, and the role of AI in government oversight. What you should know: HMRC, the UK's tax authority, emphasizes that AI monitoring is limited to criminal investigations and includes human oversight to prevent automated decision-making. The technology is only used as part of criminal investigations, not on everyday taxpayers, according to an HMRC spokesperson....
read Aug 11, 2025AI as force nudifier suggests parents should rethink sharing kids’ photos online
Parents are increasingly avoiding posting photos of their children on social media due to AI-powered "nudifier" apps that can generate fake nude images from any photograph. The shift comes as these deepfake tools have become widely accessible and cheap, with some offering free trials and costing as little as 8 cents per fake image. The big picture: AI nudifier apps have transformed the landscape of online child safety, making it possible for anyone to create convincing fake nude images with minimal technical skill or cost. These apps generate roughly $36 million annually in revenue and are being widely used in...
read Aug 11, 2025Legal scholar proposes “right to delete” dead relatives’ digital data
Legal scholar Victoria Haneman is proposing that families of deceased individuals should have the right to delete their loved ones' digital data to prevent AI-powered "digital resurrection." Her argument, published in the Boston College Law Review, addresses a growing concern as AI technology increasingly enables the recreation of dead people's voices, personalities, and likenesses without family consent. Why this matters: Current privacy and publicity laws offer inadequate protection against unauthorized AI recreation of deceased individuals, leaving families vulnerable to potentially distressing digital resurrections of their loved ones. The legal gaps: Existing laws fail to address AI-based recreation of the deceased...
read Aug 11, 2025Claude gets 4 new personalization features to remember your work style
Anthropic has rolled out a comprehensive personalization upgrade for Claude, its AI assistant, marking a significant shift from generic chatbot interactions toward truly adaptive AI partnerships. The company, which competes directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT in the enterprise AI market, introduced four major features designed to make Claude remember your preferences, maintain project continuity, and adapt its communication style to match your specific needs. This upgrade addresses one of the most persistent frustrations with AI assistants: the need to repeatedly provide context and preferences in every conversation. Instead of treating each interaction as a blank slate, Claude now builds understanding over...
read Aug 8, 2025Tesla driver filming at NSA facility with Grok AI sparks security review
A Tesla driver filmed himself using Elon Musk's "unhinged" Grok AI assistant while driving to work at a highly classified NSA facility, inadvertently capturing restricted government property in the process. US Cyber Command is now reviewing the incident after the video, which Musk amplified to over 16 million views on X, showed the driver entering and parking at the NSA's Friendship Annex in Maryland—a sensitive cyber espionage facility where recording is prohibited under federal law. What you should know: The video shows a Tesla driver entering NSA's Friendship Annex, a classified facility in Linthicum, Maryland, while testing Grok's controversial "unhinged...
read Aug 8, 2025“Psst” nonprofit connects tech whistleblowers to strengthen AI safety reporting
A new nonprofit called Psst is creating a platform to connect tech whistleblowers with similar concerns, aiming to strengthen their collective voice when reporting AI safety issues and other tech industry problems. The initiative addresses growing concerns about the rapid, largely unregulated development of AI systems, where traditional oversight mechanisms have proven inadequate and individual employees face significant barriers to speaking out. How it works: Psst stores encrypted information from tech workers who feel uneasy about their company's practices, then connects individuals with similar complaints to help them present stronger cases as a group. The platform currently relies on Psst...
read Aug 6, 2025States create AI rules as federal regulation stalls. Here are their 4 priorities.
While Congress remains largely silent on artificial intelligence regulation, state governments across America are stepping into the void with unprecedented legislative activity. All 50 states introduced AI-related legislation in 2025, creating a complex regulatory landscape that businesses must now navigate. This surge in state-level action follows Congress's recent defeat of a proposed moratorium on state AI regulation, effectively giving states the green light to continue crafting their own rules. The result is a patchwork of regulations that, while complicating compliance efforts for AI developers, addresses critical gaps in privacy protection, civil rights, and consumer safeguards that federal lawmakers have yet...
read Aug 6, 2025Illinois becomes first state to regulate AI mental health with $10K fines
Illinois has enacted the Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act, the first state law specifically regulating AI use in mental health services, signed into law on August 1, 2025. The legislation creates strict requirements for both AI companies whose systems provide mental health advice and therapists who integrate AI into their practices, establishing penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and signaling the start of broader regulatory action across other states and potentially at the federal level. What you should know: The law targets two primary groups with different restrictions and requirements. AI makers cannot allow their systems to...
read Aug 4, 2025Deluxe AI-partment in the sky: Apple boosts spending 61% as it builds private cloud empire
Apple is preparing to significantly increase its capital expenditures to build out AI infrastructure, with CFO Kevan Parekh confirming the company anticipates "substantial" growth in capex during its Q3 2025 earnings call. The tech giant is investing heavily in its own data centers powered by Apple Silicon chips as part of its Private Cloud Compute architecture, marking a strategic shift toward first-party AI infrastructure while maintaining some reliance on third-party platforms. What you should know: Apple's AI infrastructure spending surge reflects a major strategic pivot toward owning more of its compute stack. Capital expenditures jumped to $3.46 billion in Q3...
read Aug 4, 2025Gen-guesser: Google uses AI to estimate user ages from browsing data
Google is rolling out an AI-powered age-estimation system that will infer users' ages based on their search history and browsing data to apply content restrictions on Search and YouTube. The system, launching in the EU to comply with digital safety regulations, represents a significant shift from relying solely on user-provided age information to algorithmic inference, raising new questions about privacy, accuracy, and consent in content moderation. Why this matters: The move marks the first major deployment of AI age-estimation technology by a major platform, potentially setting a precedent for how tech companies balance regulatory compliance with user privacy across global...
read Aug 1, 2025Deepfake scammers target Guernsey chief minister in fake investment scheme
Fraudsters are using AI-generated deepfake content featuring Guernsey's chief minister to trick islanders into fake investment schemes. The scam includes fabricated videos and images of Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez appearing to endorse fraudulent investments, along with fake local newspaper articles designed to lend credibility to the deception. What you should know: Guernsey Police have issued warnings after discovering the sophisticated deepfake scam targeting local residents. The fraudulent content shows fake video and images of Chief Minister Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez seemingly recommending investment opportunities. Scammers also created fake local newspaper articles to make their scheme appear more legitimate and trustworthy....
read Jul 29, 2025Google’s Magic Cue AI assistant debuts with Pixel 10 this August
"Magic Cue Ball" was a missed opportunity but be that as it may... Google is developing Magic Cue, an AI assistant that will proactively analyze your screen activity and suggest relevant information and actions based on what you're doing. New code strings discovered in Android's latest Canary build confirm the feature's development, with Google expected to debut it alongside the Pixel 10 series at their August 20th Made by Google event. What you should know: Magic Cue represents Google's most ambitious contextual AI assistant yet, designed to work entirely on-device while accessing data from multiple Google services. The assistant will...
read Jul 29, 2025ByteDance’s Trae IDE sends 26MB of user data to China despite opt-out
A developer has discovered that ByteDance's Trae AI-powered IDE continues collecting extensive user data and sending it to Chinese servers, even when users disable telemetry settings. The findings raise significant privacy and security concerns about data sovereignty, particularly given ByteDance's persistent data collection despite user preferences and the lack of transparency about what information is being gathered. What you should know: Trae's telemetry toggle appears to be non-functional, with data collection continuing regardless of user settings. A GitHub report documented around 500 network calls in just seven minutes, transferring approximately 26MB of data to ByteDance servers on the byteoversea[.]com domain....
read Jul 28, 2025Microsoft launches Copilot Mode with voice control for Edge
Microsoft has launched Copilot Mode, an experimental AI-powered browsing feature for Edge that transforms how users interact with web content through voice commands, tab awareness, and task automation. The free feature positions Microsoft to compete directly with AI-enhanced browsers from Google and other tech giants while reimagining the traditional web browsing experience. What you should know: Copilot Mode replaces Edge's new-tab page with a simplified AI-powered interface that can access and analyze information across all open tabs.• Users can ask Copilot to compare restaurant options, find the soonest availability, most affordable choice, or closest location across multiple tabs without manual...
read Jul 28, 2025Artists upset at WeTransfer’s new terms letting it train AI on uploaded files
WeTransfer faced widespread artist outrage after updating its terms of service to grant itself sweeping rights to use all content transferred through its platform, including for AI training purposes. The controversy highlights growing concerns about how tech companies exploit user data, particularly as AI becomes more prevalent in content generation and manipulation. What happened: WeTransfer's July 14 terms update initially granted the Amsterdam-based company "a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable license to use your Content for the purposes of operating, developing, commercialising and improving the Service or new technologies or services, including to improve performance of machine learning models."...
read Jul 28, 2025Microsoft’s Copilot Mode lets AI see all your browser tabs
Microsoft has launched Copilot Mode, an experimental feature for its Edge browser that gives the company's AI assistant comprehensive visibility across all open browser tabs. This opt-in functionality represents Microsoft's latest move in the intensifying competition to integrate artificial intelligence directly into web browsing experiences. Unlike traditional AI assistants that operate in isolation, Copilot Mode can observe and analyze activity across multiple browser tabs simultaneously, offering contextual suggestions and automated assistance based on your browsing patterns. The feature is currently available for Windows and Mac users in regions where Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant operates. How Copilot Mode transforms browsing When...
read Jul 28, 2025Stealth mode, indeed: Meta sued for torrenting 2,396 adult videos to train AI
Adult entertainment company Strike 3 Holdings has filed a lawsuit alleging that Meta pirated and distributed pornographic content for years to accelerate AI training data downloads through BitTorrent networks. The lawsuit claims Meta used a "tit-for-tat" strategy of seeding popular adult videos to gain faster access to massive datasets, potentially exposing minors to explicit content without age verification while hiding its piracy activities through stealth networks. What you should know: Strike 3 Holdings alleges Meta has been torrenting and seeding copyrighted adult videos since at least 2018 as part of its AI training data collection strategy.• The company claims to...
read Jul 28, 2025Spanish teen investigated for selling AI deepfake nudes of sixteen classmates
Spanish police are investigating a 17-year-old boy for allegedly using artificial intelligence to create and sell deepfake nude images of female classmates in Valencia. Sixteen young women from the same educational institute reported that AI-generated naked images of them were circulating on social media, highlighting a growing trend of non-consensual deepfake abuse targeting minors in Spain. What you should know: The investigation began after a teenage girl reported in December that AI-generated videos and fake photos showing her "completely naked" were posted on a social media account created under her name. Photos of various people, all of them minors, appeared...
read Jul 25, 2025Democrats propose ban on AI pricing after Delta expands dynamic fares
Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to ban companies from using AI to charge different prices based on personal data surveillance, directly responding to Delta's announcement that it will expand AI-powered pricing to 20% of its fares by year-end. The Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act would allow customers and workers to sue companies for unfairly using AI to increase prices or decrease wages based on personal information like financial status, desperation levels, or demographics. What you should know: The proposed law targets what lawmakers call "surveillance-based" pricing and wage setting that exploits personal data to maximize corporate profits....
read Jul 23, 2025Proton launches Lumo, a privacy-first AI chatbot with end-to-end encryption
Proton has launched Lumo, a privacy-focused AI chatbot that promises end-to-end encryption and zero data logging to compete with ChatGPT and Google Gemini. The service positions itself as the first major AI assistant that prioritizes user privacy by storing conversations locally on devices rather than on company servers, appealing to users concerned about data security in AI interactions. What you should know: Lumo operates under Proton's established privacy framework, ensuring conversations remain encrypted and inaccessible to the company or third parties. Chats are stored locally on user devices and don't sync across multiple devices, even for logged-in users. All queries...
read Jul 23, 2025Man creates deepfake Instagram account with ex-girlfriend’s photos, gains 1.4M followers
A woman in India had her identity stolen and used to create a viral deepfake Instagram account called "Babydoll Archi" that gained 1.4 million followers through AI-generated erotic content. The case highlights how artificial intelligence tools are making it easier for bad actors to exploit women's images for revenge, while demonstrating the challenges of preventing and prosecuting such digital crimes. What happened: Pratim Bora, a mechanical engineer and self-taught AI enthusiast, created the fake Instagram profile using private photos of his ex-girlfriend Sanchi, a homemaker from Dibrugarh, Assam. Bora initially used morphed real photos when he created the account in...
read Jul 22, 2025xAI recorded 200+ employee faces for “Project Skippy” to train Grok
Internal documents reveal that over 200 xAI employees were asked to have their faces recorded for "Project Skippy," designed to train Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok on facial expressions. The controversial request sparked privacy concerns among staff and raised questions about potential connections to xAI's recently announced AI companions, including anime-style personas that some employees fear could be based on their recorded likenesses. What happened: xAI launched Project Skippy earlier this year, requiring staff to participate in 15- to 30-minute recorded conversations with colleagues while answering unusual questions. Employees were asked provocative questions including how to "secretly manipulate people to...
read Jul 22, 2025Microsoft brings screen-scanning AI to millions of Windows 11 PCs
Microsoft is preparing to transform Windows 11 into a more AI-integrated operating system with a comprehensive update that brings advanced artificial intelligence capabilities to millions of PCs worldwide. The rollout, which begins this month and continues through the next several weeks, represents one of the most significant expansions of AI functionality in Windows history. At the center of this update is Copilot Vision, Microsoft's screen-scanning AI tool that can analyze everything displayed on your computer screen. Unlike traditional AI assistants that only respond to specific queries, Copilot Vision continuously monitors your desktop environment and can answer questions about any content...
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