EDPO (European Data Protection Office)

“As online child protection rises to the forefront of the European Commission's agenda, the EU faces a significant challenge: how to accurately verify users' ages while safeguarding privacy. This month has seen France issue new guidelines on online age verification and ban various porn sites, and in recent days the European Commissioner designate responsible has labelled protecting minors 'a top priority', but with age verification racing up the agenda, the European Commission is planning to address the issue with a wallet scheduled to come online in 2026. The 27 EU member states are currently free to set their own rules for age verification and there are no EU standards.” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #ChildrenOnline #AgeVerification    Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/eBc_uAeR

“Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner (PCPD) for Personal Data has joined data protection authorities from the UK, Australia and other countries to sign a global statement calling on social media platforms to guard against the mass scraping of personal data. […] Fifteen other international privacy or data protections authorities issued the guidance to social media companies including Meta and Alphabet, according to a PCPD statement on Tuesday. The statement comes amid concerns about user data being extracted – or 'scraped' – for purposes such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) system training.  In the press release, the PCPD warned that data can be unlawfully obtained and shared on ‘the dark web without the knowledge and consent of the data subject, leading to exploitation of personal data for targeted cyberattacks, identity fraud, and unwanted direct marketing or spam messages.’” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #PCPD #DataScraping   Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/eZKhFifm

“The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is cracking down on workplace surveillance after employees from various industries reported companies deploying monitoring technology. The CFPB claimed organizations are using third-party technology to measure employee performance while sometimes collecting personal and biometric information without consent. Recent guidance released by the CFPB indicated workers are being monitored by companies through artificial intelligence-driven technologies, including "black box" algorithmic devices. The devices can be used to score employees based on overall "effectiveness," by collecting employees' personal information. The CFPB justified jurisdiction over the matter, noting the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies to organizational use of this technology as it places protections to prevent employees from being unfairly profiled.” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #AIMonitoring #CFPB   Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/ecypS2hk

“Ministers are facing a major backlash over plans that would allow artificial intelligence companies to scrape content from publishers and artists, amid claims that the government risks “giving in” to the tech giants. The BBC is among the organisations opposing a plan that would allow tech companies to train artificial intelligence models using online content by default, unless publishers and other content creators specifically 'opt out'. In what is becoming one of the first major AI policy rows, a series of meetings and roundtables is being planned to calm the concerns. Some in Whitehall fear publishers have not had a strong enough voice in the debate so far, but any announcement is now on hold until after this week’s budget. The government is desperate to attract investment from tech firms as it searches for economic growth, and ministers have already announced total investment in UK datacentres of more than £25bn since the election.” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #UKGovernment #AIContentScrape    Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/g5UQHJXv

“The Data Protection Commission has […] announced a fine of €310 million for LinkedIn, following a complaint initially made to the French Data Protection Authority. Under the terms of the GDPR the complaint was processed in Ireland, where the social network has its European base. The inquiry examined LinkedIn’s processing of personal data for the purposes of behavioural analysis and targeted advertising of users who have created LinkedIn profiles. The decision, which was made by the Commissioners for Data Protection, Dr Des Hogan and Dale Sunderland, and notified to LinkedIn on 22 October 2024, concerns the lawfulness, fairness and transparency of this processing. The fine is accompanied by a reprimand and an order for LinkedIn to bring its processing into compliance.” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #LinkedInPrivacy #GDPRLinkedIn   Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/eQXCQxxz

“When it comes to privacy nightmares, Pinterest is unlikely to be the first social app that springs to mind. But the visual discovery engine’s use of tracking ads is the target of the latest complaint from European privacy rights non-profit noyb, which accuses it of breaching the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by failing to obtain consent from users to being tracked and profiled for advertising. The GDPR allows for penalties of up to 4% of global annual turnover for confirmed breaches so such complaints can lead to substantial sanctions for tech giants.” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #PinterestGDPR #NoybComplaints   Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/dTYJrPzi

“Eight vacation parks have scanned their visitor's faces so that the guests can gain access to pools and playgrounds. According to The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP), this was a violation of privacy rules. Seven of the eight parks have adapted their way of working and are now abiding by the rules, the eighth park has not done so yet. They have been given until the beginning of December to stop, or they risk a fine or a penalty. The privacy regulator did not report which vacation parks the accusations are alluding to. The parks did not only use face scanning recognition on adults but also on children. Guest were not told by the parks that they did not need to scan their faces to go inside. ‘Once such a facial scan has been made of you, you lose control. You can then be identified and tracked everywhere. Your face is unique, and you cannot simply exchange it for another copy,’ said vice-chair Monique Verdier of the AP.” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #FacialRecognition    Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/eReDxZKS

"The Lords committee has written to the Technology Secretary after concluding a seven-month inquiry, where it said experts warned that losing data adequacy status would not only increase friction for businesses and other organisations, but also produce significant extra costs and higher prices for consumers.   Lord Ricketts, chairman of the European Affairs Committee, said: 'The UK faces a potential cliff-edge in June 2025 unless agreement is reached with the EU on the continued free flow of data. [...] 'We recommend that reaching timely agreement on data adequacy should be integral to the reset, and the Government’s top data protection priority.'   The committee said witnesses during its inquiry suggested that failing to secure continued adequacy status could impose additional compliance costs on UK businesses of around £1 billion." #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #DataAdequacy #UKBusinessCompliance Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/eNgPXH2c

“Meta is expanding tests of facial recognition as an anti-scam measure to combat celebrity scam ads and more broadly, the Facebook owner announced Monday. Monika Bickert, Meta’s VP of content policy, wrote in a blog post that some of the tests aim to bolster its existing anti-scam measures, such as the automated scans (using machine learning classifiers) run as part of its ad review system, to make it harder for fraudsters to fly under its radar and dupe Facebook and Instagram users to click on bogus ads.” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #Meta #FaceRecognition Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/d5XBy9XH

“Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency / human identity network / UBI project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is now known as World. Along with the name change, World introduced an updated version of its eyeball-scanning Orb device which is designed to solve a problem that does not currently exist: authenticating that someone is human ’in the age of AI.’ […] ‘To provide access to every human, we need more Orbs. Lots more Orbs. Probably on the order of a thousand times more Orbs than we have today,’ Heley said. ‘Not only more Orbs but more Orbs in more places.’ In addition to ramping up production of the Orb, World will even let people purchase or rent their very own eyeball-scanning sphere so they can 'start verifying unique humans' in their communities. […] While World’s ID services are available in the US, its cryptocurrency token isn’t, as our own Alex Heath noted when he was scanned last summer. World says it has verified nearly 7 million ‘unique humans’ so far, despite privacy concerns about building a privately operated global database based on biometrics.” #Privacy #GDPR #dataprotection #Worldcoin #WorldOrb   Subscribe to EDPO's newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/dwK8sde   *This article was not written by EDPO. The opinions and views of the author(s) do not necessarily represent those of EDPO. https://lnkd.in/euZHNhuT