Privacy

Study reveals how the tech behemoth is using the motions sensors on phones to expand quake warnings to more countries.

Technology giant Google harnessed motion sensors on more than two billion mobile phones between 2021 and 2024 to detect earthquakes, and then sent automated warnings to millions of people in 98 countries. In an analysis of the data, released in Science today, Google’s scientists say that the technology captured more than 11,000 quakes and performed on par with standard seismometers. Earthquake researchers who were not involved with the experiment are impressed by the system’s performance, but argue that public officials would need access to more information about the proprietary technology before relying on it.

Meta has refused to sign the European Union’s code of practice for its AI Act, weeks before the bloc’s rules for providers of general-purpose AI models take effect.

“Europe is heading down the wrong path on AI,” wrote Meta’s chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan in a post on LinkedIn. “We have carefully reviewed the European Commission’s Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and Meta won’t be signing it. This Code introduces a number of legal uncertainties for model developers, as well as measures which go far beyond the scope of the AI Act.”

Tech companies from across the world, including those at the forefront of the AI race like Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and Mistral AI have been fighting the rules, even urging the European Commission to delay its roll out. But the Commission has held firm, saying it will not change its timeline.

https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/chromeos-android-are-merging-this-week-in-privacy-10-jul-18-2025/29214/2

Meta has urged the Australian government not to make privacy law changes that would prevent the company using personal information taken from Facebook and Instagram posts to train its AI, arguing the AI needs to learn “how individuals discuss Australian concepts”.

In a submission to the Productivity Commission’s review on harnessing data and digital technology, published this week, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp argued for a “global policy alignment” in the Albanese government’s pursuit of privacy reform in the AI age.

Meta said generative AI models “require large and diverse datasets” and cannot rely on synthetic data – data generated by AI alone. The company said available databases, such as Australian legislation, were limited in what they could offer AI compared to datasets containing personal information.

“Human beings’ discussions of culture, art, and emerging trends are not borne out in such legislative texts, and the discourse that takes place on Meta products both represents vital learning on both how individuals discuss Australian concepts, realities, and figures, as well as, in particular, how users of our products engage,” Meta said.

Australians will soon be subjected to mandatory age checks across the internet landscape, in what has been described as a huge and unprecedented change.

Search engines are next in line for the same controversial age-assurance technology behind the teen social media ban, and other parts of the internet are likely to follow suit.

At the end of June, Australia quietly introduced rules forcing companies such as Google and Microsoft to check the ages of logged-in users, in an effort to limit children's access to harmful content such as pornography.

But experts have warned the move could compromise Australians' privacy online and may not do much to protect young people.

The Internal Revenue Service is building a computer program that would give deportation officers unprecedented access to confidential tax data.

ProPublica has obtained a blueprint of the system, which would create an “on demand” process allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain the home addresses of people it’s seeking to deport.

Last month, in a previously undisclosed dispute, the acting general counsel at the IRS, Andrew De Mello, refused to turn over the addresses of 7.3 million taxpayers sought by ICE. In an email obtained by ProPublica, De Mello said he had identified multiple legal “deficiencies” in the agency’s request.

Reddit users in the United Kingdom will now be blocked from accessing “certain mature content” unless they complete the platform’s new age verification process. Reddit announced on Monday that UK users will need to upload a selfie or a photo of their government ID in order to view content that’s restricted for under-18s by the UK Online Safety Act (OSA), including abusive, violent, and sexually explicit materials.

The age verification process is performed by Persona, a third-party provider that won’t have access to users’ Reddit data or retain photos for longer than seven days. Reddit says it also won’t have access to uploaded photos, and that it will only store birthdates and verification statuses so that users don’t need to re-verify their account. I managed to complete the process myself this morning using a selfie in under a minute, though the photo tool had some difficulty detecting when my face was correctly framed.

On June 13, 2025, the EU Commission sent a letter to Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, warning that the Piracy Shield may not be compliant with Digital Services Act (DSA) rules. The system, lawmakers said, may even undermine citizens' fundamental rights to freedom of expression and information as ruled by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Italy's Piracy Shield allows authorities to not only require ISPs, but also VPN and DNS providers, to block suspected pirated content within 30 minutes. A feature praised by rightholders in the country, which also led to significant overblocking incidents and sparked strong criticism across the industry.

The Trump administration has relied on a shadowy website accused of doxxing pro-Palestine academics to target them for deportation, a government official revealed during court testimony.

Peter Hatch, a senior official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testified in federal court Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security used information gleaned from opaque websites, including Canary Mission.

The lawsuit, brought by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, is challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to deport pro-Palestinian student activists.

The suit was filed in March after immigration authorities arrested Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, the first target of Trump's effort to deport non-citizen students with pro-Palestinian views.

The Trump administration’s “ideological deportation” policy is a violation of the First Amendment, the groups say.

On Thursday, a digital rights group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, published an expansive investigation into AI-generated police reports that the group alleged are, by design, nearly impossible to audit and could make it easier for cops to lie under oath.

Axon's Draft One debuted last summer at a police department in Colorado, instantly raising questions about the feared negative impacts of AI-written police reports on the criminal justice system. The tool relies on a ChatGPT variant to generate police reports based on body camera audio, which cops are then supposed to edit to correct any mistakes, assess the AI outputs for biases, or add key context.

On Sunday, Block CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey launched an open source chat app called Bitchat, promising to deliver “secure” and “private” messaging without a centralized infrastructure.

The app relies on Bluetooth and end-to-end encryption, unlike traditional messaging apps that rely on the internet. By being decentralized, Bitchat has potential for being a secure app in high-risk environments where the internet is monitored or inaccessible. According to Dorsey’s white paper detailing the app’s protocols and privacy mechanisms, Bitchat’s system design “prioritizes” security.

But the claims that the app is secure, however, are already facing scrutiny by security researchers, given that the app and its code have not been reviewed or tested for security issues at all — by Dorsey’s own admission.

Getting your identity stolen is bad enough. What if it was abused to buy and sell some of the worst content imaginable?

That’s what happened to a man in Ohio, whose name and personal details were used by people who were allegedly trading child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to a search warrant reviewed by Forbes.

In 2023, when the FBI began looking into a person uploading CSAM to Dropbox, they discovered they’interacting with an individual who’d been selling links to abuse material.

Data from the user’s CashApp showed it’d ostensibly been registered by a 31-year-old from Mississippi. When cops learned the man was also under investigation in Dallas, they decided to search his address.

Instagram users have told the BBC of the "extreme stress" of having their accounts banned after being wrongly accused by the platform of breaching its rules on child sexual exploitation.

The BBC has been in touch with three people who were told by parent company Meta that their accounts were being permanently disabled, only to have them reinstated shortly after their cases were highlighted to journalists.

Doctors who oppose the use of software developed by Palantir in the NHS have “chosen ideology over patient interest”, the UK boss of the tech giant has told MPs.

Louis Mosley appeared in front of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee on Tuesday as part of its innovation showcase.

While there, he also challenged claims that Palantir has a “reputational difficulty” and said it is “very proud” of the work it does in Israel.

Palantir was co-founded by billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, who was an early backer of US President Donald Trump, and has worked with the US government.

It was announced in November 2023 that a group led by Palantir had secured a £330 million contract to provide the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP).

The shared software system will aim to make it easier for health and care organisations to work together and provide better services to patients, but Palantir’s involvement sparked concerns about how patient data will be used.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/20989376

Where Soatok goes over why checklists are meaningless when trying to figure out if something is private or just for comparisons in general.

Gemini AI needs to be disabled on Android or it will override your privacy settings and gain full access to your texts, calls, and WhatsApp - even if you’ve turned off Gemini Apps Activity.

Google recently started notifying users via email that from July 7th, 2025, its AI model, Gemini, will assist apps on Android like WhatsApp, messages, and phone. Simply put, Gemini will get access to your apps even if you previously turned tracking for Gemini Apps Activity off. Soon the AI tool will be able to run tasks like send WhatsApp messages, set timers, and even make calls – regardless of whether you previously told Google’s Gemini not to track you. We take a look at how you can disable Gemini on Android from accessing your phone’s services, using your data for AI, and how to take back your privacy.

Analyzed by exodus, island the work profile app have 3 trackers detected

https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/reports/com.oasisfeng.island/latest

Should I be worried?

Apple on Monday filed an appeal against the EU’s decision to fine the company €500 million (about $580 million) for not complying with rules that mandate companies to let developers steer users outside the App Store for making purchases, according to multiple reports.

The European Commission issued the fine in April, saying that Apple failed to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules to allow developers to accept payments for their apps outside Apple’s ecosystem.

Apple revised its fee structure for app distribution in the EU in late June with a more complicated framework that includes an initial acquisition fee, a store services fee, along with a core technology commission to accommodate alternative payment methods. This move was likely to avoid further fines from the European Commission.

The European Commission and U.K. 's competition regulator have both received legal complaints this week from publishers over Alphabet's new Google AI Overview tool, saying the company is abusing its dominance and is directing traffic away from news websites.

It comes after Google started rolling out its AI Overview feature--where summaries are displayed over Google's blue-linked search results to other websites--last year, first in the U.S., before bringing the service to users in the U.K. in August 2024 and the EU earlier this year.