data privacy

A jury has found Facebook liable for deceiving users in the long-running Cambridge Analytica case, according to CBS News. The ruling stems from the scandal in which data from millions of users' profiles was harvested without proper consent and used for political targeting. The decision marks a significant legal setback for Meta and could shape future privacy litigation.

Human contractors review Microsoft Copilot users' prompts and uploaded images, according to internal documents obtained by 404 Media. The workers, who say they are horrified by the material, also report being bombarded with requests to generate sexual AI images. The report raises fresh privacy concerns about what users type into AI assistants and how their data is handled behind the scenes.

Meta's newly released AI agent, Muse, shared a user's home address without permission, resulting in a buyer turning up at the user's house. The agent launched only last week and has already been downloaded 3 million times, raising concerns about privacy safeguards in Meta's AI products.

Meta's new Muse AI agent is accused of ignoring users' permission settings, reportedly collecting the contents of Apple Messages, past and present, and uploading them to Meta's cloud even when users explicitly opt out. Critics call the behavior flagrant but unsurprising, citing Meta's record on privacy, and the report is renewing concerns about AI assistants accessing private data without consent.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says OpenAI breached Medicare, a claim reported by the Sydney Morning Herald. The disclosure raises immediate questions about how the US artificial intelligence company accessed the government health system, what patient data may have been exposed, and what response Australian authorities are preparing. Few details beyond the breach claim were available.

Breaches of academic research databases have exposed clinical trial data, including genetic and medical history information, affecting thousands of trial participants. Privacy advocates are urging those affected to exercise their rights under HIPAA, which allows patients to request their medical records and a list of everyone those records were shared with, and to request corrections of any errors.

404 Media reports that cities are being forced to funnel license plate reader data into HIDTA, a massive federal surveillance program. The report raises concerns about local autonomy and mass tracking of drivers' movements without meaningful public consent, feeding privacy and civil liberties debates.

Municipalities across the United States are being required to share license plate reader data with a vast federal surveillance database. Reporting by 404 Media traces how the government built the system through an anti-drug trafficking program, effectively compelling local agencies to contribute. The story has drawn attention to the scale of domestic location tracking and the limited consent residents have over how their movements are recorded and shared.

License plate camera company Flock Safety has notified Connecticut police departments of a security breach, but records indicate the company was aware of the problem months before alerting local agencies. The WFSB I-Team report raises questions about how quickly Flock disclosed the incident and whether police data was exposed in the delay. The story is fueling scrutiny of the company's data security and transparency with law enforcement clients.

Health Access Network has suffered a data breach that exposed sensitive information, including Social Security numbers and other personal data. The scope of the breach and the number of people affected have not been detailed in initial reports. The incident adds to a growing list of healthcare-sector cyberattacks that put patients' most sensitive personal and financial information at risk.

An Arizona court system suffered a data breach that exposed records related to children in foster care, according to local reporting. The incident has raised concerns about the security of sensitive personal information held by state courts and the potential risks to vulnerable children whose files were compromised. Details about the number of affected records and how the breach occurred remain limited.

A man who stole a Flock Safety automated license plate camera discovered the device contained roughly 1.6 million images of vehicles, spotlighting how much location data the surveillance cameras collect. The case has raised fresh concerns among privacy advocates about the security of license plate reader data and what happens when the devices fall into the wrong hands.

The Trump administration is being criticised for trusting large corporations to regulate themselves through a 'morally binding' agreement rather than enforceable rules. The criticism comes as a jury found Facebook liable for $43 million over privacy violations, a case critics cite as evidence that companies cannot be left to police their own conduct on user data.

The EU's proposed Digital Omnibus is drawing sharp criticism ahead of its launch, with detractors saying it rolls back four key protections: data privacy, personal privacy, GDPR user rights, and data breach safeguards. Critics quip that no technical inspection agency would let such a 'bus' on the road, arguing the package would weaken hard-won European digital rights before it even takes effect.

More than 44,000 people in the UK have filed legal objections to the NHS data platform run by Palantir, asking that their medical records not be handled by the US tech company's system. The scale of the filings highlights growing public unease over private firms' access to sensitive health data, and critics have also raised concerns over Palantir's work with defence and immigration authorities.

Communities are removing Flock safety cameras following a data breach linked to the surveillance company, according to WFSB. The breach has raised concerns about how data collected by the automatic license plate readers is stored and protected, prompting some towns to reconsider or halt their use of the cameras.

A major medical records company has used an artificial intelligence tool that exposed flaws threatening patient privacy, according to a New York Times report. The findings raise fresh concerns about how sensitive health data is protected as A.I. systems are increasingly deployed across the healthcare industry, with the company's response to the vulnerabilities not yet detailed.