AI is now in close competition with data protection, and I am here for it. AI model users will know the excitement and cough addiction cough. Legal implications just add that little bit of extra sparkle. Read all about it this week!
Aftershocks of the earthquake in Türkiye continue to be recorded. Here is more on the issue, and how you can help. Please consider helping and sharing with others.
🔏 Data Protection & Privacy
The European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) launched coordinated enforcement on role of data protection officers (“DPOs”), the second initiative under the Coordinated Enforcement Framework. The initiative will evaluate whether DPOs have the position in their organisations required by Articles 37 to 39 of the GDPR and the resources needed to carry out their tasks.
The Austrian Federal Administrative Court (“BVwG”) reportedly decided that a mobile provider can refuse to answer an access request because the location of a cell phone does not necessarily have to be the location of the owner. Data subjects would need to prove that they are the sole user of a cell phone in order to obtain a copy of their data. So, your cell phone data is, of course, your data but first you have to prove that it’s your data, if it’s in fact your data. The decision will be appealed by noyb. Stay tuned!
📡 Telecoms
The Court of Justice of the EU (“CJEU”) ruled that telecommunications operators may be obliged to provide, upon request from a judicial authority, communication interception operations in return for a fixed rate. The Court held that EU law does not require full reimbursement of the costs actually incurred, that Member States have discretion. Provided that relevant legislation is non-discriminatory, proportionate and transparent. Basic concepts coming through, but the last part is a given?
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
Advocate General Pikamäe of the CJEU issued his opinion on the first case before the CJEU on automated decision-making. Though the importance of this opinion requires a post in and of itself, a little snippet is here for now. The AG is of the opinion that the automated establishment of a probability value concerning the ability of the person concerned to service a loan constitutes a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, under the GDPR. Fingers crossed for a CJEU judgement on Article 22, soon.
The US Copyright Office on AI and copyright: some AI-assisted works may be copyrighted. Though this protection is not granted to AI-generated images from text prompts. To put simply, images generated from models such as Midjourney or Stable Diffusion cannot be copyrighted in the US. Others, including works with AI-generated elements, will be subject to case-by-case inquiry.
ChatGPT-4 arrived with great pomp and ceremony, and we’re all to state the least dancing with excitement. Already, DoNotPay has announced that they are working on using GPT-4 to generate “one click lawsuits” to sue robocallers for $1,500. Sounds quite satisfying to be honest.
🛒 E-Commerce & Digital Consumer
The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) opened an inquiry into the business practices of data brokers. The inquiry will include scrutiny on business models and practices of the data broker market, including details about the types of data the brokers collect and sell and the sources they rely upon. We have quite a bit of waiting time until results, but I feel like it’ll be worth the wait.
📄 Recommended Readings
Here is a concise list –in no particular order– of recent publications that caught my eye this week.
A Scanner Darkly: Copyright Infringement in Artificial Intelligence Inputs and Outputs by Andrés Guadamuz
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.
