Natasha Lomas, Author at TechCrunch

EU member states remain divided on controversial CSAM-scanning plan — but for how long?

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 16:28:53 +0000

Opponents also contend the EU plan will fail at its claimed aim of protecting children, suggesting law enforcement will instead be swamped by millions of false positives.

Kenya closes its probe of Worldcoin, opening the door to a relaunch of its orbs after a year-long suspension

Annie Njanja, Natasha Lomas — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 11:00:55 +0000

Worldcoin — the crypto “proof of personhood” startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman — has been given the green light to resume iris-scanning and other operations in Kenya after a year-long government probe over privacy concerns was dropped. Kenya was one of Worldcoin’s launch countries for its iris-scanning scheme — which the startup was building […]

Stop playing games with online security, Signal president warns EU lawmakers

Natasha Lomas — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 12:56:23 +0000

A controversial European Union legislative proposal to scan the private messages of citizens in a bid to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a risk to the future of web security, Meredith Whittaker warned in a public blog post Monday. She’s the president of the not-for-profit foundation behind the end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging app […]

Worldcoin faces pivotal EU privacy decision within weeks

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 16:24:32 +0000

The next few weeks could be pivotal for Worldcoin, the controversial eyeball-scanning crypto venture co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, whose operations remain almost entirely shuttered in the European Union following a series of privacy complaints — including in France, Germany, Portugal and Spain. The only EU market where Worldcoin is still scanning eyeballs according to […]

Microsoft hit with EU privacy complaints over schools’ use of 365 Education suite

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 09:16:46 +0000

Microsoft’s education-focused flavor of its cloud productivity suite, Microsoft 365 Education, is facing investigation in the European Union. Privacy rights nonprofit noyb has just lodged two complaints with Austria’s data protection authority. The complaints examine the use of Microsoft’s cloud software by schools. The first one focuses on transparency and legal basis issues. noyb says […]

Binit is bringing AI to trash

Natasha Lomas — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 08:00:52 +0000

Early attempts at making dedicated hardware to house artificial intelligence smarts have been criticized as, well, a bit rubbish. But here’s an AI gadget-in-the-making that’s all about rubbish, literally: Finnish startup Binit is applying large language models’ (LLMs) image processing capabilities to tracking household trash. AI for sorting the stuff we throw away to boost […]

Spain bans Meta from launching election features on Facebook, Instagram over privacy fears

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 31 May 2024 10:52:42 +0000

Meta has been banned from launching features on Facebook and Instagram that would have collected data on voters in Spain using the social networks ahead of next month’s European Elections. The local data protection authority, the AEPD, has used emergency powers to protect local users’ privacy. Meta confirmed to TechCrunch it has complied with the […]

With the EU AI Act incoming this summer, the bloc lays out its plan for AI governance

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 29 May 2024 12:12:41 +0000

The European Union has taken the wraps off the structure of the new AI Office, the ecosystem-building and oversight body that’s being established under the bloc’s AI Act. The risk-based regulatory framework for artificial intelligence is expected to enter into force before the end of July — following the regulation’s final approval by EU lawmakers […]

EU’s ChatGPT taskforce offers first look at detangling the AI chatbot’s privacy compliance

Natasha Lomas — Mon, 27 May 2024 16:01:03 +0000

A data protection taskforce that’s spent over a year considering how the European Union’s data protection rulebook applies to OpenAI’s viral chatbot, ChatGPT, reported preliminary conclusions Friday. The top-line takeaway is that the working group of privacy enforcers remains undecided on crux legal issues, such as the lawfulness and fairness of OpenAI’s processing. The issue […]

‘Pro-competition’ rules for Big Tech make it through UK’s pre-election wash-up

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 23 May 2024 15:32:07 +0000

The U.K. will shortly get its own rulebook for Big Tech, after peers in the House of Lords agreed Thursday afternoon to pass the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer bill (DMCC) — removing the last obstacle to the bill becoming law in the limited parliamentary time remaining for the government. The pro-competition reform, which has […]

Meet the Finnish biotech startup bringing a long-lost mycoprotein to your plate

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 23 May 2024 05:45:00 +0000

The best known mycoprotein is probably Quorn, a meat substitute that’s fast approaching its 40th birthday. But Finnish biotech startup Enifer is cooking up something even older: Its proprietary single-cell fungus-based protein, branded Pekilo, was originally developed in the 1960s and ’70s — by, of all things, the local paper industry. The focus back then […]

UK data protection watchdog ends privacy probe of Snap’s GenAI chatbot, but warns industry

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 21 May 2024 15:25:54 +0000

The U.K.’s data protection watchdog has closed an almost year-long investigation of Snap’s AI chatbot, My AI — saying it’s satisfied the social media firm has addressed concerns about risks to children’s privacy. At the same time, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a general warning to industry to be proactive about assessing risks to […]

EU Council gives final nod to risk-based rulebook for AI

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 21 May 2024 10:49:51 +0000

It's a wrap: European Union lawmakers have given the final approval to set up the bloc's flagship, risk-based regulations for artificial intelligence.

Jolla debuts privacy-focused AI hardware

Natasha Lomas — Mon, 20 May 2024 15:30:00 +0000

Jolla has taken the official wraps off the first version of its personal server-based AI assistant in the making. The reborn startup is building a privacy-focused AI device — aka the Jolla Mind2, which TechCrunch exclusively revealed at MWC back in February. At a livestreamed launch event Monday, it also kicked off preorders, with the […]

EU warns Microsoft it could be fined billions over missing GenAI risk info

Natasha Lomas — Fri, 17 May 2024 11:58:19 +0000

The EU's warning comes after Microsoft failed to respond to a legally binding request for information that focused on its generative AI tools.

EU ‘closely’ monitoring X in wake of Fico shooting as DSA disinfo probe rumbles on

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 16 May 2024 12:08:28 +0000

European Union enforcers of the bloc’s online governance regime, the Digital Services Act (DSA), said Thursday they’re closely monitoring disinformation campaigns on the Elon Musk-owned social network X (formerly Twitter) following the Wednesday shooting of Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico. The bloc has been formally investigating X since last December over disinformation in civic discourse and […]

EU opens child safety probes of Facebook and Instagram, citing addictive design concerns

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 16 May 2024 10:35:31 +0000

Facebook and Instagram are under formal investigation in the European Union over child protection concerns, the Commission announced Thursday. The proceedings follow a raft of requests for information to parent entity Meta since the bloc’s online governance regime, the Digital Services Act (DSA), started applying last August. The development could be significant as the formal […]

Temu accused of breaching EU’s DSA in bundle of consumer complaints

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 16 May 2024 04:30:00 +0000

Consumer protection groups around the European Union have filed coordinated complaints against Temu, accusing the Chinese-owned, ultra low-cost e-commerce platform of a raft of breaches related to the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Temu launched in the region only about a year ago but recently reported blasting past 75 million monthly users. Penalties for confirmed […]

Google’s call-scanning AI could dial up censorship by default, privacy experts warn

Natasha Lomas — Wed, 15 May 2024 17:25:10 +0000

A feature Google demoed at its I/O confab yesterday, using its generative AI technology to scan voice calls in real time for conversational patterns associated with financial scams, has sent a collective shiver down the spines of privacy and security experts who are warning the feature represents the thin end of the wedge. They warn […]

Apple touts stopping $1.8B in App Store fraud last year in latest pitch to developers

Natasha Lomas — Tue, 14 May 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Apple released new data about anti-fraud measures related to its operation of the iOS App Store on Tuesday morning, trumpeting a claim that it stopped over $7 billion in “potentially fraudulent transactions” across the four years between 2020 and 2023. More than $1.8 billion of that total was stopped in 2023, per Apple, which is […]