Privacy Digest 22/26
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Your Phone Knows You’re at the Doctor, and Data Brokers Are Profiting From It
A visit to a hospital, cancer clinic, or addiction treatment center can reveal more than patients expect. Smartphone location data can be combined with other information to infer medical conditions and build advertising profiles, often outside laws protecting healthcare records. One cancer survivor reported receiving promotions for unproven treatments around oncology appointments. Regulators have restricted some data brokers, but individual settlements leave much of the industry untouched. Even hiding precise visits may not help when surrounding travel patterns expose the destination. Limiting app location access can reduce exposure, but meaningful protection requires stronger limits on the collection and sale of sensitive location data.
washingtonpost.com
Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion for Deceiving Users on Privacy
A New Mexico judge has imposed one of the largest penalties ever against a technology company, following a jury finding that Facebook misled users about how their personal data was handled. The case dates back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when information from millions of Facebook users was obtained without their knowledge for political profiling. Jurors found 43 million violations of consumer protection laws, concluding that Meta repeatedly made deceptive statements about privacy. The company plans to appeal. The ruling could encourage further legal action against technology companies that misrepresent how they collect and use personal information.
nytimes.com
Chrome’s AI-Powered Autofill Can Now Dig Through Your Gmail to Fill Out Forms
Google is expanding its browser's autofill feature to pull useful details directly from Gmail, including flight confirmation numbers, order information, addresses, and membership IDs. The AI-powered feature aims to save users the effort of hunting through emails while completing online forms. Google says enhanced autofill is optional, can be enabled in browser settings, and protects sensitive information with encryption. Initially rolling out in the United States, it also deepens the connection between personal correspondence and everyday browsing. The convenience comes with a familiar privacy trade-off: deciding how much access to personal information users want to grant a tool designed to make life easier.
techcrunch.com
AI Training Platform Outlier Illegally Surveils European Platform Workers
The people helping train artificial intelligence may be closely monitored themselves. Privacy group noyb has filed five complaints against Scale AI, alleging that its Outlier platform tracks freelancers' keystrokes and mouse movements, requires repeated facial verification, and fails to answer requests for personal data. Researchers say recorded activity could reconstruct entire work sessions. The platform has involved more than 900,000 freelancers and provides training data to major technology companies. Scale AI disputes the allegations and says its practices are disclosed to workers, who consent to them. The dispute puts workplace surveillance and meaningful consent at the center of the AI industry's labor model.
noyb.eu
Discord Is Making Its Public Communities More Searchable, and People Have Concerns
Conversations shared within public Discord communities could soon become visible to a much wider audience. From November 16, eligible servers will receive web pages with discussion summaries, and selected public messages may appear in search engine results from mid-December. Administrators can choose participating channels, while individuals can opt out; usernames and avatars will not accompany published messages. Private chats and teenagers are excluded, and the feature is off by default in several regions. Yet some members worry about their words traveling beyond their intended communities or potentially feeding AI training, showing how public participation does not always mean expecting universal discoverability.
techcrunch.com
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