Privacy professionals

Privacy professionals

We do not fear advances in technology - but we do have legitimate concerns about some of the products on the market now... AI continues to develop and we are hopeful that we will reach a point in the near future where these reports can be relied on. For now, our office has made the decision not to accept any police narratives that were produced with the assistance of AI.

For example, privileged information shared by foreign partners is currently not overseen by the IPC. It's common practice for national intelligence agencies, such as GCHQ, to receive reports from allies overseas, including from those in the Five Eyes alliance. These reports often contain the kind of privileged information that, in the UK, would require permission from a judicial commissioner, under the IPA, to acquire.

Rehmat Alam operates from the mountains of northern Pakistan, according to one of his online profiles. There, he flaunts his talent for harvesting LinkedIn data and advises YouTube viewers how to earn money off the internet. His company, ProAPIs, allegedly boasted in marketing materials that its software can handle hundreds of requests per second to scrape profiles, selling the underlying data for thousands of dollars a month.

Pasted on the wall next to the locked steel door that seals Laura Poitras's studio from visitors and intruders is a black poster depicting a PGP key that the filmmaker has used in the past to receive encrypted messages. It makes sense that this key-a sort of invitation to send her a secret message-is the only identifiable sign that Poitras edits her movies in this building;

Internet users have been buzzing ever since learning that the messages they choose to exchange with Meta's AI chatbot will be analyzed and used to personalize advertisements and recommendations across its apps and services. The topic and viral social media posts from tech influencers caused some users to enter a panic, worried that this is one example of AI being taken too far and potentially invading privacy.

Shoshana Zuboff (New England, U.S., 1951) joins the video call from her home in Maine, in the northeastern United States, on the border with Canada, where the cold is relentless at this time of year. She sips tea to warm her throat and apologizes for being late; her schedule is so packed these days that it was impossible to find an opportunity to do this interview in person.

As someone with a child in the US, this new Trump threat to scrutinise tourists' social media is concerning. Providing my user name would be OK the authorities would get sick of scrolling through chicken pics before they found anything critical of their Glorious Leader but what if I have to hand over my phone at the border, as has happened to some travellers already?

The identities of French spies are among the Republic's most closely-guarded secrets. Revealing them is even a criminal offense. Yet, with just a little technical know-how, one can track down the home addresses of certain agents, and thereby discover their identities, daily routines and even those of their loved ones, all of which represent risks to their safety and that of their families and their agencies.

Sometimes, a false sense of intimacy with AI can lead people to share information online that they never would otherwise. AI companies may haveemployees who work on improving the privacy aspects of their models, but it's not advisable to share credit card details, Social Security numbers, your home address, personal medical history, or other personally identifiable information with AI chatbots.

"This took all of 20 minutes," Exempt, a member of the group that carried out the ploy, told WIRED. He claims that his group has been successful in extracting similar information from virtually every major US tech company, including Apple and Amazon, as well as more fringe platforms like video-sharing site Rumble, which is popular with far-right influencers. Exempt shared the information Charter Communications sent to the group with WIRED, and explained that the victim was a "gamer" from New York.

Reddit has launched a challenge in Australia's highest court against the nation's landmark social media ban for children. The online forum is among 10 social media platforms which must bar Australians aged under 16 from having accounts, under a new law which began on Wednesday. The ban, which is being watched closely around the world, was justified by campaigners and the government as necessary to protect children from harmful content and algorithms.

Ncontracts found that leadership support is rising at the compliance level, with 82% of respondents saying they're satisfied with board and management backing, while 74% are satisfied with their institution's compliance culture. More than half (56%) reported stronger integration of compliance into policies, procedures and training since 2021. Nearly 40% of institutions operate with one or two compliance professionals, while 25% of firms with $1 billion to $10 billion in assets have similarly small teams.

The government surveils you every time you drive through San Jose, collecting a trove of highly revealing data that police search thousands of times per month without ever seeking a warrant. It's an unchecked police power, an end run around judicial oversight and a blatant privacy invasion. It's also a violation of the California Constitution. That's why we at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, with ACLU of Northern California, have sued the city, its police chief and its mayor.

Google claimed that the legislation would "hurt your ability to use online ads to reach customers."

the Indian government is reviewing a proposal by the telecom industry to require smartphone companies to keep satellite location tracking enabled at all times for better tracking. The report states the Indian government, for years, has been concerned about its agencies not getting precise locations when legal requests are made to telecom operators during investigations, and that's because the telecom firms are limited to using cellular tower data.

Health data represents one of the most valuable types of personal data available to companies, whether this be for the training of AI (it is worth noting that the AI health care market is estimated to reach a value of around $187bn by 2030, the development of digital health technology (such as wearables, estimated to be valued at around $76bn by 2030)

The measures contained in the Data (Use and Access) Act, which became law in June this year, have now taken effect, introducing a formal and legally backed set of standards and governance rules with which all certified providers of digital verification services (DVS) must conform. The move is intended to provide the public with confidence when using certified digital identity apps, through a framework that shows suppliers are considered trustworthy.

A recently enacted New York State law requires businesses that algorithmically set prices using customers' personal data to disclose that. According to the law, personal data includes any data that can be "linked or reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a specific consumer or device." The law doesn't require businesses to explicitly state what information about a person or device is being used or how each piece of information affects the final price a customer sees.

South Korean retail behemoth Coupang has admitted to a data breach that exposed the personal details of 33.7 million customers, turning the company's famed "Rocket Delivery" logistics empire into an express shipment for personal information. The e-commerce titan, often dubbed the "Amazon of Korea," is South Korea's largest retail platform, logistics operator, and warehousing network - a vertically integrated retail giant whose next-day delivery service, Rocket Delivery, has become shorthand domestically for cardboard boxes arriving before customers have fully remembered ordering anything at all.

A West London council is preparing to use drones to bolster its enforcement teams as local authorities across the country quietly build aerial surveillance fleets. A report by Hammersmith and Fulham council sets out plans to deploy drones to support its 70-strong law enforcement team, which issued more than 2,200 fines in 2024. The aircraft will be used to target anti-social behaviour and fly tipping.