Bill Goodwin

Large language models must have lawful basis for processing personal data – ‘benefiting humanity’ is not enough, says Information Commissioner’s Office.

Businesses are being inundated with trivial AI-generated data protection, say lawyers.

An investigative journalist has filed a high court claim against the Police Service of Northern Ireland after police unlawfully obtained communications data in a covert attempt to identify a confidential journalistic source. A high court judge has granted the journalist, identified as YZL, anonymity to protect the identity of their sources and because of the threat environment in which the journalist works. The journalist, who reports on serious crime and paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland is seeking compensation for misuse of private information, harassment and breaches of the Data Protection Act. Police in Northern Ireland made applications for communications data belonging to  YZL to identify the journalist’s confidential sources in 2014, according to legal documents filed in the high court which were first reported by the Irish News.

European Union urged to deploy real-time European cyber alert platform to share information with member states on cross-border cyber attacks.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says technology platforms will have to prove they are safe before children can access them.

The European Court of Human Rights laid down the principle that journalists have a right to protect their confidential sources under the European Convention on Human Rights.

US lawmakers are urging a UK court to lift the secrecy around UK government moves to require Apple to create a “back door” into its end-to-end encrypted data storage, ahead of a court hearing next week. In a letter to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, US Democratic senator, Ron Wyden, and Republican Warren Davidson, warned that the UK’s unprecedented secrecy is needlessly straining the relations between the two countries. The letter comes ahead of a case management hearing by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal that will consider a new complaint by Apple against the Home Office over a secret order to give the UK access to end-to-end encrypted messages, photographs and data stored on Apple’s iCloud service. The letter reveals that Apple has sought permission from the UK government to discuss the order with the executive and legislative branches of the US government. Apple has been given permission to brief the US Attorney General, the Vice President, and their staff, but has been explicitly prohibited f

Phone and tablet users will be required to verify their ages with credit card or official ID under government plans to prevent under-18s viewing nude images.  The government is to introduce legislation that will force tech companies and app developers to verify the ages of their users, as part of new measures to protect the safety of children online. The plans, announced today by digital minister Lisa Nandy, aim to make it “impossible” for anyone under the age of 18 to take, view or send nude images. She described the proposals as a world-first that would give the UK the strongest online-safety laws in the world. “For too long, technology companies have failed to protect children from some of the worst harms. And to be frank, I am not prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt that progress will continue at the pace that we need it to,” she added.

A human rights activist is bringing a legal case against Europe’s data protection watchdog for failing to protect her rights after her personal data was “unlawfully” stored and processed by the European policing agency, Europol. Natalie Gruber, an Austrian campaigner who was targeted by Greek law enforcement after documenting Greece’s treatment of migrants, claims that Europol stored and collected her personal data with no valid legal basis. She is bringing a case against the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) at the Court of Justice of the European Union, for failing to exercise the minimum due diligence to investigate her claim against Europol. The activist says that she was forced to shut down an organisation she co-founded to support migrants and to abandon her humanitarian work after being subjected to a campaign of “lawfare” by Greek law enforcement.

An amendment to the UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, currently passing through the House of Lords, proposes giving the government “last resort” powers to shut down large AI systems in an emergency. The amendment proposed by Lib Dem peer, Lord Tim Clement-Jones, will give the government powers to shut down data centres or AI systems if they pose a threat to national security, public safety or critical infrastructure. The proposal, which is co-sponsored by Conservative peer, Baroness Dido Harding, crossbencher, Baroness Beeban Kidron, and Labour’s, Lord Philip Hunt, is backed by ControlAI, a non-profit organisation. An attempt by Labour and Co-operative MP for Leeds and Headingley Alex Sobel to introduce a similar amendment in the Commons in May, also backed by ControlAI, was unsuccessful. However, concerns have grown in recent months, following a series of incidents in which frontier AI models have broken free of controlled environments to conduct hacking operations.