"The Manhattan court order requiring OpenAI to hand over 20 million anonymized ChatGPT conversations to the New York Times and other publishers as part of a copyright lawsuit is being viewed as a turning point in data privacy, and not in a good way.
I'm lucky to have a local hardware store down the street from me. After watching this video, I went down and bought the packing tape I needed with cash. The man was surprised to see me, and we had a nice conversation.
"It’s nearly the end of 2025, and half of the US and the UK now require you to upload your ID or scan your face to watch “sexual content.” A handful of states and Australia now have various requirements to verify your age before you can create a social media account.
📝 #DigitalOmnibus - First Feedback 💭 Are you a DPO, lawyer or other #privacy professional? We would like to know your first impressions of the proposed changes to the #GDPR. 🇪🇺
"Apple warns iPhone users to stop using Google Chrome. “Unlike Chrome,” it says, “Safari truly helps protect your privacy.” Apple’s warning now includes secretive fingerprinting. And Chrome’s not the only Google app you need to stop using.
📝 #DigitalOmnibus - First Feedback 💭 Are you a DPO, lawyer or other #privacy professional? We would like to know your first impressions of the proposed changes to the #GDPR. 🇪🇺
Wondering how to protect your privacy online? Read this article in 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 or 🇪🇸 to learn how to protect your privacy in your browser - with insights from our team of experts.
"n October 2025, Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI released a study that should have caused riots in the streets. Led by Dr. Jennifer King, the research team examined the privacy policies of six frontier AI companies—Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI—analyzing twenty-eight documents per company using California Consumer Privacy Act frameworks. Their finding was unambiguous: every single company employs users’ chat data by default to train their models.
"Pay or Okay user study. The law requires that users have a “genuine or free choice”. To find out if this right is respected, noyb has commissioned an academic study about user choices. Even though participants did not need to make any real payments during the study, the results are still clear:
I was surprised to learn that Microsoft 365 can recommend files to me from someone else in the organization, by default. This is part of their "Item Insight" feature [1]. The description of this service goes to great lengths to explain how it respects the document access rights and won't be leaking documents.
The @tag published "Web User Agents" as a Note Draft. It defines what counts as a web user agent (not only web #browsers) and clarifies their role and responsibilities in the modern web ecosystem.▶️ w3.org/TR/web-user-agents/
📢 StandICT.eu 2029 advances the engagement of ICT standardization experts in global SDOs. It will select these experts through six Open Calls, each lasting 60 days.
Ever heard of Murena Workspace? It’s your privacy-first online suite, including document, sheet and presentation management, a gallery, password manager, optional end-to-end encryption, and more.
Flash News: Radical centrists and right-wingers want the European Union to become just another plutocrat/kleptocrat regime like the USA where big tech companies can plunder your privacy and personal data while national states deploy oppressive mass surveillance regimes. To hell with civil liberties, social rights, and quality of life for all. I don't have any kind of tolerance for that type of demagogic speech!!
"There is no single technological "silver bullet" solution to the serious problem of online CSAM. But that doesn't mean we must choose between "chat control" or nothing. As experts in child protection have long highlighted, fighting online CSAM requires a broad spectrum of solutions that encompass an all-of-society approach. Taking a socio-technical lens to the problem can also help us understand where technology can play an assistive role, whilst recognizing technology’s limits to tackle complex societal issues.
"The Digital Omnibus would pause the enforcement of regulations for high-risk AI systems under Article 6(2), such as biometric identification and categorisation, judicial decision-making or scoring or ranking job applicants, for up to 15 months – to 2 December 2027. While this part of Article 6 was supposed to apply from August 2026, this delay of up to 15 months would significantly extend gaps in transparency and accountability.
"In May, the European Commission once again presented its proposal. Yet several states objected. That included Germany, but also Poland, Austria and the Netherlands. As a result, Denmark, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Council, immediately began drafting a new version, known as “Chat Control 2.0” and unveiled earlier this month, which removed the requirement for general monitoring of private chats; the searches would now remain formally voluntary for providers. All this happened under the auspices of Coreper, the Committee of Permanent Representatives — one of the most powerful, but least visible, institutions in the EU decision-making process. It is where most EU legislation is actually negotiated; if Coreper agrees on a legislative file, member states almost always rubber-stamp it.
Wow, if you search for signal messenger on DuckDuckGo using Chrome, the actual @signalapp web site is the *third* entry following ads for “Signal Private Messenger – Free Download” that leads to the site appmaus.com and “Get Signal Messenger | Install Signal App” that leads to the site filelocations.com.
"A quiet shift is happening in Brussels. The European Commission has launched what it calls the Digital Omnibus, a sweeping rewrite of the EU’s core digital protections.
RE: grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/A claim is being pushed that two newspapers are the reason we’re pulling operations out of France. That is entirely wrong! We would still be leaving regardless of whether the newspapers or the French media supported us. More info below:#GrapheneOS #privacy #security
Elon Musk's social media platform X erupted in uproar after the rollout of a feature revealing an account's location, exposing what users describe as global troll farms and influence operations on the platform. japantimes.co.jp/business/2025 #business #tech #elonmusk #socialmedia #apps #x #personalinformation #privacy
RE: mastodon.social/@Tutanota/1156"We and our 940 partners ..." ???Only an insane person reading such a statement would voluntarily select "Accept".#Privacy
📰 "If [the proposed changes get] approved by legislators, the changes will strip Europeans of data #privacy protections that have long been the toughest in the world but which #BigTech and the #US government say is onerous."
"Despite heavy criticism from civil society and large parts of the EU Parliament, the EU Commission has now published its proposal for the “Digital Omnibus”. Contrary to the Commission's official press release, these changes are not “maintaining the highest level of personal data protection”, but massively lower protections for Europeans. While having basically no real benefit for average European small and medium businesses, the proposed changes are a gift to US big tech as they open up many new loopholes for their law departments to exploit. Schrems: “This is the biggest attack on European’s digital rights in years. When the Commission states that it ‘maintains the highest standards’, it clearly is incorrect. It proposes to undermine these standards.”"
📰 "#Privacy activists are predictably outraged. Billboards urging Ursula von der Leyen to put Europeans over #American tech CEOs lined the street outside the #Commission HQ, the Berlaymont, throughout Wednesday morning."
I've noticed a lot of news sites are now blocking you unless you accept all their cookies and shite. Well I guess if it's important I can always run the article though archive.is. Yes The Guardian, I'll even include you in this although I'm still paying my member donations. #privacy #uk
"A new bill sponsored by Sen. Hawley (D-MO), Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Britt (R-AL), Sen. Warner (D-VA), and Sen. Murphy (D-CT) would require AI chatbots to verify all users’ ages, prohibit minors from using AI tools, and implement steep criminal penalties for chatbots that promote or solicit certain harms. That might sound reasonable at first, but behind those talking points lies a sprawling surveillance and censorship regime that would reshape how people of all ages use the internet.
"We 127 civil society organisations, trade unions and defenders of the public interest write to emphasise our serious alarm at the forthcoming EU Digital Omnibus proposals, part of a wide deregulation agenda.
🚨🇪🇺 The #EU Commission has secretly set in motion a potentially massive #GDPR reform. This could have significant impact on your fundamental right to #privacy.
"Ursula von der Leyen hasn’t even published her plans to overhaul the EU's digital laws yet and already the European Parliament is signaling: This shall not pass.
"Google was accused in a lawsuit of using its Gemini AI assistant to unlawfully track the private communications of users of its Gmail, instant messaging and videoconference programs.
"Just before a decisive meeting in Brussels, digital rights expert and former Member of the European Parliament Dr. Patrick Breyer is sounding the alarm. Using a “deceptive sleight of hand,” a mandatory and expanded Chat Control is being pushed through the back door, in a form even more intrusive than the originally rejected plan. The legislative package could be greenlit tomorrow in a closed-door EU working group session.
"The European Commission insists it only wants to trim back its tech regulations through its “digital omnibus” package, but draft documents show that, in fact, the EU is about to sacrifice the bloc’s famous GDPR for the sake of AI. Activists aren’t happy.
RE: mastodon.world/@SignalUpdateInPolls have been added to the latest Signal for Desktop beta! Coming to other platforms soon™Learn more here: community.signalusers.org/t/be#signal #signalupdates #Foss #privacy
📰 "The #EU Commission plans to present the 'Digital Omnibus'. Internal drafts indicate that relaxations in data protection are being considered. noyb sounded the alarm, warning of a frontal attack on #privacy." 🇪🇺 (from German)
"Allowing the government to access such unfiltered exchanges and treat them as legal confessions would have a massive chilling effect. If every private thought experiment can later be weaponized in court, users of A.I. will censor themselves, undermining some of the most valuable uses of these systems. It will destroy the candid relationship that makes A.I. useful for mental health and legal and financial problem-solving, turning a potentially powerful tool for self-discovery and self-representation into a potential legal liability.
"As gradually leaked the last days by various news outlets, the EU Commission has secretly set in motion a potentially massive reform of the GDPR. If internal drafts become reality, this would have significant impact on people's fundamental right to privacy and data protection. The reform would be part of the so-called "Digital Omnibus" which was supposed to only bring targeted adjustments to simplify compliance for businesses. Now, the Commission proposes changes to core elements like the definition of "personal data" and all data subject's rights under the GDPR. The leaked draft also suggests to give AI companies (like Google, Meta or OpenAI) a blank check to suck up European's personal data. In addition, the special protection of sensitive data like health data, political views or sexual orientation would be significantly reduced. Also, remote access to personal data on PCs or smart phones without consent of the user would be enabled. Many elements of the envisaged reform would overturn CJEU case law, violate European Conventions and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. If this extreme draft will become the official position of the European Commission, will only become clear on 19 November, when the "Digital Omnibus" will be officially presented. Schrems: "This would be a massive downgrading of European's privacy ten years after the GDPR was adopted.""
📰 "Privacy activists say proposed changes to Europe's landmark #privacy law, including making it easier for #BigTech to harvest Europeans' personal data for #AI training, would flout #EU case law and gut the legislation."
I hope next year some more projects move to #Tor .onion space. With all the censorship and aggressive attempts to unmask domain name and site owners it feels like he pressure to do so is building.
⚖️📚 The #EUCommission has secretly set in motion a potentially massive reform of the #GDPR. If internal drafts become reality, this would have significant impact on people's fundamental right to #privacy and data protection.
"Ahead of the new school year, a handful of tech companies issued grim warnings to American educators embracing artificial intelligence in the classroom: Chatbots, they said, could endanger students and lead to self-harm. Vigilance was paramount. “The risks of students using AI can literally be deadly,” one company cautioned. Another noted: “Student lives depend on it.”
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