Zoom Trains AI on You and Microsoft Targets Vulnerable Addicts? (Issue 22, 2023)
Also, India's controversial Privacy Bill is now law and OpenAI's head of Trust & Safety has resigned
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In this edition:
Zoom Using Your Data to Train AI - And You Can't Opt Out
Vulnerable Groups Targeted by Microsoft Ads
Controversial Data Privacy Bill Reintroduced to Indian Parliament
UK Gov Using "Hyper-Targeted" Ads
OpenAI’s Head of Trust and Safety Resigns
Right to Record Police Upheld by Federal Judge
U.S. Bills to Protect Children Involve More Surveillance
Tile and Amazon Accused of Multiple Privacy Law Violations
Zoom Using Your Data to Train AI - And You Can't Opt Out
Earlier this month sharp-eyed privacy advocates noticed a clause added to Zoom’s terms and conditions allowing them to “use customer data to train AI models 'with no opt out'”.
Immediately sparking outrage on social media, Zoom responded by highlighting the ways that they obtain consent for using customer data including administrators being able to provide “consent” for an entire group or call’s data to be used in AI training.
Following up on Zoom’s response, the technology newspaper TechCrunch asked Zoom to clarify how consent is obtained from European users as they have stricter data protections under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Zoom pointed TechCrunch to a blog created by their chief product officer Smita Hashim that explained how users have two choices when it comes to Zoom using their data to train AI - either give consent or leave the call.
Unfortunately for Zoom, a similar approach used by Meta where they gave users a choice to consent to data tracking or simply not use their service resulted in massive fines levied against them by EU regulators. This was based on the logic that consent under EU data protection law means users must be offered a choice to deny this kind of tracking without having to forgo access to the core service.
Vulnerable Groups Targeted by Microsoft Ads
Privacy researcher Wolfie Christl has uncovered multiple concerning advertising categories on Microsoft’s ad technology platform Xandr. A privacy researcher at Cracked Labs, Christl found that Xandr offered the ability to target groups of Australians categorized as “Heavy TAB gamblers” or those who have “gambled in the last seven days”.
It should be noted that advertising gambling products is legal in Australia but is coming under increasing scrutiny. A recent parliamentary inquiry resulted in a call for the advertising of online gambling services to be banned in the next three years across a range of platforms including both social and broadcast media.
Dr. Simone McCarthy, who studies the impact of gambling in Australia, has stated that: “If they gambled in the last seven days, whether it’s a coincidence or they’re a weekly gambler, that puts their risk of being harmed by gambling ads up quite significantly.”
Responding to an inquiry from Guardian Australia, a Microsoft spokesperson said that the data privacy practices for Xandr were regularly evaluated “to ensure compliance with applicable data protection laws”.
Controversial Data Privacy Bill Passes Indian Parliament
A proposed bill focused on personal data privacy was recently brought back before the Indian Parliament by the nations IT minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw. The bill was subsequently passed by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and given assent by India’s President in August of this year. Following the President’s assent, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP) became law.
Initially proposed in 2019, the bill originally had stringent requirements for cross-border data flows which prompted concerns from major technology companies like Facebook (now Meta) and Google, eventually leading to the Indian Parliament tabling the bill for a re-write.
In an exclusive comment supplied to Talk Liberation - Your Worldwide Internet Report technology lawyer and Software Freedom Law Center, India founder Mishi Choudhary said the new law:
“…does nothing to check Government power and uses the pretext of privacy to dilute the provisions of Right To Information Act. An analysis of the Act reveals that government can do absolutely anything with anyone's data for pretty much any reason at any time. It's a ‘protect personal data from everybody but us’ act.” - Mishi Choudhary, Founder, Software Freedom Law Center, India
UK Gov Using "Hyper-Targeted" Ads
Agencies within the UK government, including police forces and the Home Office, have been revealed to be using demographic and racial keywords to specifically target various sub-groups on Facebook and Instagram.
In one example, after a murder in Manchester, local residents known through user profiling to be interested in “hip hop” and “rapping” saw Facebook ads appealing for witnesses to the crime. Separately, the Home Office targeted people interested in “Syrian cuisine”, “football in Iraq” and “Afghanistan national cricket team” with hundreds of ads intended to discourage asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria from seeking refuge in the UK.
Responding to this controversial revelation, representatives from Meta (Facebook and Instagram) have stated that they have modified specific targeting options as part of ongoing measures to prevent abusive ad campaigns.
The UK government also commented that these “campaigns are always designed to effectively reach key audiences and ensure value for money for the taxpayer. The advertising channels are selected based on their ability to engage with audiences at a national, regional and local level.”
OpenAI’s Head of Trust and Safety Resigns
The popularity of ChatGPT’s AI-powered language model has led to a rapid ascent for the company behind it, OpenAI. However, the explosive growth has been somewhat tarnished by concerns from lawmakers, regulators and even the public regarding the impacts to society and overall safety risks OpenAI’s language models and related services pose.
Now Dave Willner, who has led Trust & Safety at OpenAI since February of 2022 recently announced his departure "to spend more time with family”. This transition also follows public statements by CEO Sam Altman that ahead of the upcoming US election cycle, the ability of AI to manipulate voters with targeted disinformation is one of his “areas of greatest concern”.
Right to Record Police Upheld by Federal Judge
A law passed in the state of Arizona in 2022 called H.B. 2319 prohibited the recording of police under certain circumstances. Subsequently the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona and a coalition of 10 media organizations filed a lawsuit alleging the law violated First Amendment rights of citizens to free speech.
In response to the lawsuit a preliminary injunction against the law was issued a few weeks before it would have taken effect, granting a temporary pause while the suit moved through the legal system.
Following the injunction it was announced that the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and legislature had chosen not to defend the lawsuit and subsequently a settlement was reached between the ACLU/Media group coalition and Arizona Attorney General Mayes.
ACLU of Arizona staff attorney K.M. Bell stated:
“This settlement will ensure every Arizonan's fundamental rights are protected and people are not criminalized exercising their First Amendment rights. Recording police officers is an important tool for holding law enforcement accountable to the public they are sworn to serve. We hope this settlement will deter the Arizona state legislature from continuing to pass flagrantly unconstitutional laws against the advice of their own attorneys.” - K.M. Bell, staff attorney, ACLU of Arizona
A Federal judge has upheld the injunction and stated that, pursuant to the settlement, the injunction will be permanent and prevent Arizona government officials from enforcing the law.
U.S. Bills to Protect Children Involve More Surveillance
A pair of bills, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and COPPA 2.0, are close to becoming federal law in the United States. Designed to address an ongoing mental health crisis amongst youth that some lawmakers are blaming social media for, the Senate Commerce Committee recently moved the bills closer to becoming law by unanimously voting to send both to the floor of the Senate.
If passed into law, KOSA would establish a new legal standard allowing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorney generals to police companies that fail to prevent kids from seeing harmful content on their platforms.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0 (COPPA 2.0) if passed, would raise the age of protected children from 13 to 16 years of age and also prevent platforms from targeting ads towards kids.
Multiple criticisms of the bills include issues with the requirement to “age-gate” platforms, a notoriously difficult challenge as a user’s age must be properly determined. Additionally, Carl Szabo, NetChoice vice president and general counsel, stated that:
“Rather than violating free speech rights and handing parenting over to bureaucrats, we should empower law enforcement with the resources necessary to do its job to arrest and convict bad actors committing online crimes against children.” - Carl Szabo, NetChoice vice president and general counsel
While the bills must still pass a vote on the floor of the Senate it seems that both pieces of legislation are being fast-tracked and could be signed into law in the near future.
Tile and Amazon Accused of Multiple Privacy Law Violations
A new lawsuit against Tile and Amazon’s location-tracking network Sidewalk alleges negligence, defective design and multiple privacy law violations. The plaintiff, themselves a victim of stalking enabled by a Tile Slim hidden in their car console by a former partner, is suing based on the enhanced tracking capabilities that are now possible via Sidewalk’s network and the fact that Tile’s anti-stalking feature “Scan & Secure” can be turned off by the purchaser if they provide a government ID.
Amazon’s Sidewalk network pools bandwidth from customers of other services to create a “Nationwide location-tracking program”. Using Bluetooth networks supported by some models of Echo, Ring Floodlight Cams, and Ring Spotlight Cams, the ability of potential stalkers to find a Tile device attached to their victim has increased dramatically due to Sidewalk’s extensive coverage.
The Register cites the lawsuit as saying "As of March 31, 2023, Amazon claims that the Sidewalk network reaches of 90 percent of the United States population."
The lawsuit also alleges that Tile has not taken enough action to prevent invasions of privacy and to support the victims of stalking.
That concludes this edition of Your Worldwide INTERNET REPORT!
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This issue of Your Worldwide INTERNET REPORT was written by Matt Millen of WillenRimer; Edited by Suzie Dawson and Sean O’Brien; Graphics by K4t4rt; with production support by Beth Bracken.
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