U.S. Federal Trade Commissioner Christine Wilson will resign from her post March 31, Reuters reports. Wilson is the only Republican commissioner serving on the five-seat bench. Director of the Bureau of Competition Holly Vedova also announced her retirement. Wilson criticized the leadership of FTC Chair Lina Khan in a resignation letter to U.S. President Joe Biden.
Plaintiffs alleging Google continued to collect users' browsing data while using “incognito” mode in a 2020 federal lawsuit had their appeal for class-action status denied in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Reuters reports. The plaintiffs are seeking USD5 billion in damages and, had they been granted class-action status, they could have pursued "large-scale claims against Google as a group" instead of filing individual lawsuits. Court filings stated the class could have been composed of “tens of millions” of users.
Privacy rights group NOYB filed several complaints against websites and data brokers it believes improperly addressed access requests using cookies for authentication. "The companies had shown obstructive approaches when authenticating users; ranging from denying the right to access, to requiring additional information, unnecessary to authenticate the user," the organization said.
Generative AI systems, like ChatGPT, Google's Bard and Microsoft's Bing chatbot, skyrocketed to popularity in recent weeks. Their ability to interact with users in conversational, detailed ways gives off a "magical" quality, Hintze Law Associate Jevan Hutson said, but the reality is massive amounts of data are behind that magic.
OpenAI plans to alter its practices and policies on the use of customer data in artificial intelligence model training for speech-to-text technologies ChatGPT and Whisper, TechCrunch reports.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed order against online counseling service BetterHelp over alleged improper data sharing for advertising purposes. The agency ordered a USD7.8 million payout to affected customers while banning the service from conducting further data sharing that leads to nonconsensual use for third-party advertising campaigns. BetterHelp allegedly sent mental health data to various platforms, including Facebook and Snapchat.
ABC News reports on the potential for certain small and medium-sized businesses to be regulated under Australia's Privacy Act reform. Proposed amendments laid out by Australia Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus eliminate the SME exemption for businesses making AUD3 million or less annually, requiring them to take on compliance measures and costs.