Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy? To quote Queen, on this week’s AI news. Yes, it’s happened. A judicial decision. Before this introduction gets too dramatic, welcome to week 9 of Berry Picks!
🔏 Data Protection & Privacy
Following action by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the European Commission will start regularly checking the progress of all “large-scale” GDPR cases across the EU. The commitment follows the European Ombudsman’s decision in late 2022. (previously on the blog)
The Italian DPO issued a decision requiring the “Replika” app (an AI-powered chatbot, generating a “virtual friend”) to cease processing of data of Italian users. The processing of data was found to pose risks to minors and emotionally fragile people, and did not have appropriate safeguards in place when used by minors.
Digital health platform GoodRx to pay $1.5 million penalty or failing to report its unauthorized disclosure of consumers’ health data to Facebook, Google, and other companies, as alleged by the Federal Trade Commission. The proposed order also prohibits GoodRx from engaging in deceptive practices and requires the company to comply with relevant legislation.
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
ChatGPT was used directly by a judge in Columbia and cited in the decision. The use of AI so early on in litigation should be surprising us, I’m all for (and still very excited about) ChatGPT but who here has found it to be error free? News articles here and here.
📑 Policy
UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has published guidance on the Digital Identity Programme. The guidance includes all published to date and is primarily aimed at providers, certifying bodies, schemes, and employers, businesses or other bodies who want to use digital identity services.
🛒 E-Commerce & Digital Consumer
148 out of 399 screened retail websites were found to be containing dark patterns. The screenings carried out by the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network found:
- 42 websites used fake countdown timers
- 54 websites directed consumers towards certain choices through visual design or choice of language
- 70 websites were found to be hiding important information or making it less visible for consumers.
The European Commission has published a new guidance on the Digital Services Act. The guidance provides clarification on practical questions regarding obligations of online platforms or search engines to publish information on the number of users.
👾 Blockchain & Crypto-Assets
The UK Treasury has published a consultation paper on future financial services regulatory regime for crypto-assets. The new regulatory regime aims to “create the conditions for crypto-asset service providers to operate and grow in the UK, whilst managing potential consumer and stability risks.”
The Australian government has released a consultation paper on Token Mapping. The paper refers to token mapping as “a key first step to planned and future crypto ecosystem initiatives”, and that token mapping based strategies can:
- ensure consistency in regulating activities
- facilitate existing policy goals
- allow responsible actors to innovate with appropriate regulatory oversight.
📄 Recommended Readings
Here is a concise list –in no particular order– of recent publications that caught my eye this week.
The Meta Oversight Board’s Human Rights Future by Laurence R. Helfer & Molly K. Land
Study on the impact of recent developments in digital advertising on privacy, publishers and advertisers – final report of the European Commission written by Catherine Armitage, Nick Botton, Louis Dejeu-Castang, Laureline Lemoine (AWO Belgium)
I am in no way affiliated with the authors or publishers in sharing these, and do not necessarily agree with the views contained within. I try to include mostly open access publications due to, well you know, accessibility of knowledge and science.
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