Privacy Transformation - Issue 235
Curated privacy, security & tech news, insights & resources with a focus on Irish and EU developments.
PRIVACY
Irish Data-protection commissioner Helen Dixon to leave role
Helen Dixon has confirmed that she will leave her role as the State’s data-protection commissioner in early 2024 after a decade in the job. Ms Dixon, who was in the final year of her second term at the helm of the most influential data regulator in the European Union, was due to vacate the position next year after the Government reappointed her to the position in 2019.
🔗 RELATED:
- Outgoing Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon set to move to ComReg
- Profile: Helen Dixon, the world’s most powerful privacy regulator
EU countries mull options on AI law while foundation model stalemate looms large
The Spanish presidency of the EU Council asked for feedback on a series of less controversial points after the negotiations on the AI Act with the European Parliament hit a wall on foundation models.
Google Ireland, Meta Ireland and TikTok win EU case
The EU Court of Justice has ruled that Google, Meta and TikTok, which all have their European headquarters in Ireland, cannot have additional obligations imposed on them by other member states.
SECURITY & TECH
Meta, YouTube face criminal spying complaints in Ireland
Facebook-owner Meta and Google's YouTube now face criminal complaints in Ireland for alleged unlawful surveillance of EU citizens via tracking scripts.
Microsoft briefly restricted employee access to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, citing security concerns
Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI. But for a brief time on Thursday, employees of the software company weren’t allowed to use the start-up's most famous product, ChatGPT “due to security and data concerns".
French police accused of using facial recognition software illegally
French national police have been illegally using the Israeli facial recognition software Briefcam since 2015, the French investigative media has Disclose reported.
✍🏻 Why Facebook is asking you to pay... and why I won’t
Will you pay €21 a month — over €250 a year — for your Facebook and Instagram accounts to be ad-free? Meta, the parent company, has started charging Irish and Europeans for ad-free versions. The idea is that it’s an alternative to all that tracking and data-slurping it usually does, which we give out about so often.
Google Chrome coders really, truly, absolutely ready to cull third-party cookies from 2024
Google has begun the formalities of phasing out third-party cookies from Chrome during the first quarter of 2024, signalling the beginning of the end for legacy online advertising.
GUIDANCE & OPINIONS
UK ICO: Consultation on the draft transparency in health and social care guidance
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is producing guidance on transparency in the health and social care sector. The draft of this guidance is now published for public consultation. The draft transparency in health and social care guidance has been developed to help health and social care organsiations understand our expectations about transparency.
EDPB provides clarity on tracking techniques covered by the ePrivacy Directive
The EDPB adopted Guidelines on the technical scope of Art. 5 (3) of the ePrivacy Directive. The Guidelines aim to clarify which technical operations, in particular new and emerging tracking techniques, are covered by the Directive, and to provide greater legal certainty to data controllers and individuals. [Read Guidelines]
RESOURCES
📗 Paper: Multi-step Jailbreaking Privacy Attacks on ChatGPT
In this paper, we study the privacy threats from OpenAI's ChatGPT and the New Bing enhanced by ChatGPT and show that application-integrated LLMs may cause new privacy threats. To this end, we conduct extensive experiments to support our claims and discuss LLMs' privacy implications.
📕 Report: OECD: What technologies are at the core of AI?
This report outlines a new methodology and provides a first exploratory analysis of technologies and applications that are at the core of recent advances in AI.
CONTRIBUTE
Have an interesting article, book, video, podcast or other resource that you would like to share with your fellow privacy practitioners? Please do drop me a note!