Tag: privacy

Utah Lawmakers Pass Bill That Puts App Stores in Charge of Age Verification

image c/o pcmag.com
image c/o pcmag.com

Utah has become the first US state to pass legislation requiring app stores to verify users' ages and seek parental consent before allowing minors to download apps. "Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child’s age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way. The app store is the best place for it," Meta, X, and Snapchat said in a joint statement. "We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit."

https://www.pcmag.com/news/utah-lawmakers-pass-bill-that-puts-app-stores-in-charge-of-age-verification

Meta fed its AI on almost everything you’ve posted publicly since 2007

image via theverge.com
image via theverge.com

Meta has acknowledged that all text and photos that adult Facebook and Instagram users have publicly published since 2007 have been fed into its artificial intelligence models.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/12/24242789/meta-training-ai-models-facebook-instagram-photo-post-data

New York moves to limit kids’ access to ‘addictive feeds’

image via techcrunch.com
image via techcrunch.com

Implementing this bill would require social media companies to verify users’ ages. It would also prohibit platforms from sending notifications related to these feeds between the ages of midnight and 6am without parental consent. Companies that violate the law could face penalties of up to $5,000 per violation.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/09/new-york-moves-to-limit-kids-access-to-addictive-feeds/

Vending machine error reveals secret face image database of college students

image via arstechnica.com
image via arstechnica.com

Canada-based University of Waterloo is racing to remove M&M-branded smart vending machines from campus after outraged students discovered the machines were covertly collecting facial-recognition data without their consent. The scandal started when a student using the alias SquidKid47 posted an image on Reddit showing a campus vending machine error message, "Invenda.Vending.FacialRecognitionApp.exe," displayed after the machine failed to launch a facial recognition application that nobody expected to be part of the process of using a vending machine.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/vending-machine-error-reveals-secret-face-image-database-of-college-students/

Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome

image via arstechnica.com
image via arstechnica.com

Don't let Chrome's big redesign distract you from the fact that Chrome's invasive new ad platform, ridiculously branded the "Privacy Sandbox," is also getting a widespread rollout in Chrome today. If you haven't been following this, this feature will track the web pages you visit and generate a list of advertising topics that it will share with web pages whenever they ask, and it's built directly into the Chrome browser.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/

Google flips the switch on interest-based ads with ‘Privacy Sandbox’ rollout | TechCrunch

image via techcrunch.com
image via techcrunch.com

Google is now rolling out Privacy Sandbox — its tech to replace third-party cookies — to all Chrome users. The company is touting this as a more privacy-forward feature, which tracks topics of interest based on your browsing habits. Advertisers can then use this data to show you relevant ads. The company has been showing a new popup about Privacy Sandbox to users over the last few days. Users have complained about the pop-up not providing enough information about the cookie replacement tech and how the company will generate topics of interest based on browsing data if you click on “Got it.” Investor Paul Graham even labeled this pop-up as “spyware.”

https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/08/google-flips-the-switch-on-interest-based-ads-with-privacy-sandbox-rollout/