The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office announced a reduction of its fine against the U.K. Cabinet Office over a January 2020 breach. The original 500,000 GBP fine was dropped to 50,000 GBP after an appeal by the Cabinet Office led to a mutual settlement. The original fine pertained to insufficient security measures that led to names and unredacted addresses of more than 1,000 people being accessed. U.K.
USA Today reports on the privacy implications of Twitter's potential transformation under Elon Musk. With Musk's reported plans to monetize products and services, Twitter will potentially take on more consumer data, both in volume and types of data, which raises questions regarding the platform's privacy practices in a time it is already facing scrutiny following whistleblower claims in August over alleged insufficient data security.
The Guardian reports TikTok updated its European privacy notice and divulged details of company-wide user data access. The update, which applies to countries in the European Economic Area, the U.K. and Switzerland, explains TikTok employees in other countries have access to data to maintain a "consistent, enjoyable and safe" user experience.
During the Canadian Marketing Association’s annual privacy conference, Canadian Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne said proposed Bill C-27 will “set a new standard" in children’s privacy, IT World Canada reports.
In a memo to the National Labor Relations Board, General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo urged the board to protect employees in the U.S. from electronic surveillance and automated management practices.
A U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington judge ruled Amazon must provide extensive records in response to a potential class-action lawsuit over allegations its Alexa-enabled devices illegally recorded users’ conversations, Bloomberg reports. Amazon estimated its response to plaintiffs’ discovery requests would involve 4.4 million documents. Judge Robert Lasnik said that includes documents on functionality of Alexa-enabled devices, the company’s intent in marketing Alexa devices and complaints received.
Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced a bill to create a state artificial intelligence registry. According to the legislation’s text, the Department of State would establish a registry of businesses operating AI systems within the state. The registry would feature information such as the business’ name, IP address, type of code the businesses is using AI for and the software’s intent. Per the bill, the Department of State would be prohibited from selling data contained in the registry for commercial purposes.
Nearly half of all U.S. state, local and federal government employees were targeted in cellular-based credential theft attacks in 2021, InfoSecurity Magazine reports, citing figures from security vendor Lookout. Per Lookout’s 2022 Government Threat Report, mobile-based credential phishing attempts of government employees increased 30% from 2020 to 2021. Attacks against federal government employees alone increased 47% in the same time span.