Last week saw Berry Picks as a no-show. Partly because I was busy moving countries. Happy to report that we are back on track with the latest from up North. Not so happy to report we’re on the 22nd on the 21st. Keep missing, almost like an EU-US privacy shield.
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
The French Supervisory Authority (“CNIL”) published an action plan to ensure the privacy of individuals in the deployment of AI systems, including generative AI like ChatGPT. The plan focuses on understanding AI systems’ functioning and their impact on individuals, promoting privacy-friendly AI development, supporting innovative players in the AI ecosystem, and auditing and controlling AI systems to protect people. The plan also addresses the challenges posed by generative AI, providing insights into its technical aspects, legal implications, ethical concerns, and potential uses. The CNIL seeks to foster dialogue with AI researchers and companies and conduct audits to ensure compliance with privacy regulations. The plan also addresses specific issues related to video surveillance and fraud detection using AI. Seems the CNIL has its eye on AI systems.
👾 Blockchain & Crypto-Assets
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) launched the e-HKD Pilot Programme involving 16 selected firms, including the Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Mastercard Asia/Pasific among others, to explore potential use cases for a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) called e-HKD. The pilots will focus on various payment-related categories, and the insights gained will refine the HKMA’s approach to implementing e-HKD. Though no decision has been made yet on introducing e-HKD. The HKMA will share key learnings with the public at a future event.
🎩 Competition
In a recent turn of events, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) issued an an Interim Order regarding the anticipated acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc. by Microsoft Corporation. The Interim Order comes after the CMA determined that the acquisition would result in a substantial lessening of competition in the supply of cloud gaming services in the UK. As a result, the CMA ordered restrictions on Microsoft and Activision from acquiring interests in each other or their subsidiaries without prior written consent. We’re keeping a lookout for the CMA’s final decision for now.
US’s Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) filed a lawsuit against XCast Labs, Inc., a Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) provider, for allegedly assisting and facilitating illegal robocalls. XCast Labs is accused of continuing to allow hundreds of millions of illegal robocalls through its network, even after receiving multiple warnings. The FTC sent letters to VoIP providers, including XCast Labs, in 2020 warning them against participating in illegal telemarketing or robocalling. Despite these warnings, the FTC alleges that XCast Labs transmitted illegal robocalls to consumers. The lawsuit aims to stop XCast Labs from further facilitating illegal robocalls.
🔏 Data Protection & Privacy
The ECHR issued its decision in Jehova’s Witnesses v Finland. The source Finnish decision had prohibited Jehovah’s Witnesses from taking notes about individuals they encountered during door-to-door preaching without their consent. The ECHR upheld the Finnish court’s decision. The ECHR found that the requirement was prescribed by law, pursued a legitimate aim of protecting the rights and freedoms of data subjects, and was necessary in a democratic society. The court agreed with the domestic courts’ balancing of interests and found no strong reasons to set aside their decision.
The French Supervisory Authority (“CNIL”) imposed a €5.2 million overdue penalty payment on CLEARVIEW AI. CLEARVIEW AI is a company that collects photographs from a wide range of websites and sells access to its database of images of people through a search engine in which an individual can be searched using a photograph. The service is offered to law enforcement authorities and includes the use of facial recognition technology. The CNIL had previously imposed a €20 million fine and ordered the company to not collect and process data on individuals located in France without any legal basis, and to delete the data of these individuals.
An FTC proposed order will be barring the ovulation tracking app Premom from sharing health data for advertising. The app was found to be deceiving users by sharing their personal health information with third parties and violating the Health Breach Notification Rule. The FTC alleges that Premom disclosed users’ sensitive health data to China-based firms, as well as AppsFlyer and Google, without obtaining users’ consent or notifying them of these unauthorized disclosures. Pending court approval. And coming soon to your phone, maybe not all.
🐆 AI in the Wild
Robot AI is here! or It’s alive! or the robot that we all thought of when someone mentioned artificial intelligence in our early teens is now the AI we can think of in our mid-twenties. Sanctuary has unveiled Phoenix, a humanoid general-purpose robot powered by AI and designed for work. Standing at 5′ 7” and weighing 155 pounds, the robot has intricate hands that helps it work. It has been specifically designed as a general-purpose robot so that it can undertake “nearly any work task, the way you’d expect a person to, in the environment where the work is.” Robots are taking over our jobs is a go.
📄 Recommended Readings
Here’s a couple –in no particular order– of recent publications that piqued my interest this week. Remember to grab a cuppa and settle in for some riveting reading.
Copyright and Metaverse by Peter Mezei & Gunjan Chawla Arora
Taking AI Risks Seriously: A Proposal for the AI Act by Claudio Novelli, Federico Casolari, Antonino Rotolo, Mariarosaria Taddeo & Luciano Floridi
Disclaimer: 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.
So there you have it, folks – another week in the fascinating realm of IT Law. Remember to pop back next week for your latest dose of legal updates, served with a twist. Cheerio!
If you have any thoughts or suggestions on how to make this digest even more enjoyable, feel free to drop a line. Your feedback is always welcome!
Featured image generated using Midjourney.
