gdpr

A recording of your voice may seem innocuous, but it can actually reveal your identity, as well as additional data about you, such as how you are feeling. But it can also uncover diseases from which you may suffer. People may not have grasped this yet, but companies that process data are increasingly aware that they need to handle voice as personally identifiable information. This is particularly true in Europe in the context of GDPR: While many companies are hoping to build AI on top of voice data, in many cases,…

Today, November 23 was filled with interesting developments in the artificial intelligence ecosystem. In the first incident, a report suggests that OpenAI researchers sent the board directors a letter warning of a powerful AI discovery, that they said could even threaten humanity. This happened just a day before Sam Altman was fired. In other news, the International Automobile Federation or FIA has planned to use the 2023 Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix to train AI in hopes of improving the monitoring of track limits and…

Meta just launched its first ad-free option for Facebook and Instagram. The update is in response to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, passed in 2018. Subscriptions for the ad-free experience are only available to users located in the EU as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.In these locations, anyone 18 and older on Facebook or Instagram now gets to decide whether they want to use the social media platforms for free or pay €10 every month for ad-free access. Meta provides the…

It’s been a little over five years since the GDPR came into effect and fines keep amassing — especially for social media platforms. New research by Dutch VPN company Surfshark has found that, since 2018, five of the most popular social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Whatsapp, and X/Twitter) have been fined over €2.9bn for violating the EU’s data protection law. Facebook alone accounts for nearly 60% of the total amount, with €1.7bn in penalties. Adding to Zuckerberg’s woes, Meta’s…

Ubisoft confirmed that it won't be deleting ‘inactive' accounts, leading to the permanent deletion of digitally purchased games. Over the weekend, a screenshot circulated on Twitter — now, X — showing an email, which suggested that Ubisoft had temporarily suspended a user's UPlay account for being inactive for long periods and would be closing it permanently within the next 30 days unless the user cancelled it. Included in the email was a link to cancel the closure, which normally sounds like a red flag, but the official…

Assassain’s Creed maker Ubisoft has decided a new way to tackle “inactive users”. The game making studio has confirmed that it is temporarily suspending some accounts that it deems to be "inactive". The company said that this action will prevent affected players from accessing their game libraries. Ubisoft has also sent an email to the players to inform them about the suspension, In the mail, the company has noted that these accounts will be deleted in 30 days if users don’t take action. Affected users will also get a…

The world's most valuable and dominant internet companies are based in the US, but the nation’s unproductive lawmakers and business-friendly courts have effectively outsourced the regulation of tech giants to the EU. That has given tremendous power to Didier Reynders, the European commissioner for justice, who is in charge of crafting and enforcing laws that apply across the 27-nation bloc. After nearly four years on the job, he’s tired of hearing big talk from the US with little action.Ahead of his latest round of…

The digital bonds that bind Asia are in many ways tighter than ever. The region’s appetite for data is growing at an even faster pace than the rest of the world’s. Asia saw international bandwidth usage grow by 39% in 2022, compared to the global average of 36%, according to TeleGeography, a research firm. The combination of expanding user bases and growing economies makes Asia “one of the hottest markets in the world" for new internet infrastructure, says Ohta Takahisa of the submarine network…

The Union Cabinet has given its approval to the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill today, multiple reports have confirmed. The aim of the bill is to protect the data of citizens and hold accountable business entities handling the same.Notably, personal data protection in India has been neglected for too long. My personal data was leaked in Domino's Pizza breach as well as Big Basket Breach back in 2020, but in the absence of a personal data protection bill, these organizations could not be held to account for…

A Swedish regulator has fined SEK 58 million ($5.4 million) after that the company had violated the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (). The issue concerns how Spotify handles users' personal data and its customers' access to the information. Advocacy group Noyb, which is led by privacy campaigner Max Schrems, filed a complaint against Spotify and other major tech companies . In the complaint, Noyb asserted that, among other issues, Spotify didn't provide all personal data to users upon request and…