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Content type: Examples
Human raters have played a significant role in the rapid improvement in the machine learning models that fuel modern AI. The raters evaluate the algorithmic output of search engines and AI chatbots and provide "Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback" (RLHF) – the technical name for the deployment of such ratings to improve AI models. The efforts of these workers, who are mostly located in the global South but include thousands in the US, is downplayed by the technology companies to whom…
Content type: Examples
Delivery drivers in Jakarta use GPS-spoofing apps in order to improve their chances of selection by the Gojek delivery and transport app, an equivalent to Apple Pay, Postmates, Venmo, and Uber all in one. Gojek that operates in more than 200 cities in Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand. Other grey market apps enlarge details of orders that are too small to read, automate bidding, and apply filters to open orders. Some apps are distributed via Google Play; more are sold via driver…
Content type: Long Read
IntroductionData about our health reveals some of the most sensitive, intimate - and potentially embarrassing - information about who we are. Confidentiality is, and has always been, at the very heart of medical ethics. People need to be able to trust their doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers so that they are not afraid to tell them something important about their health for fear of shame, judgement or social exclusion.It’s no surprise then that data protection regimes around…
Content type: Video
Since we recorded this podcast there has been an update on the Microsoft Activision mergerLinksPI competition page (our "very influential work")More about Dr MantzariEcosystems and competition law in theory and practice - a research paper about ecosystemsPower Imbalances in Online Marketplaces: At the Crossroads of Competition Law and Regulation - one of Dr Deni's papers looking at peconomic dependence in online marketplacesGoogle Android European court case on abuse of dominance and more info…
Content type: Long Read
Introduction
The 28th of September marks International Safe Abortion Day. It remains a day necessary to mobilise and raise awareness of the continued struggles women and girls face when accessing reproductive healthcare, including access to safe abortion. Across the world, abortion continues to be criminalised, restricted and in some places under attack. All of which constitute severe obstacles for women and girls to fully exercise their human rights, particularly their right to privacy, which…
Content type: Examples
Four people in Kenya have filed a petition calling on the government to investigate conditions for contractors reviewing the content used to train large language models such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. They allege that these are exploitative and have left some former contractors traumatized. The petition relates to a contract between OpenAI and data annotation services company Sama. Content moderation is necessary because LLM algorithms must be trained to recognise prompts that would generate harmful…
Content type: Examples
Hong Kong authorities seeking to ensure the complete removal of the popular pro-democracy protest song "Glory to Hong Kong" from search results got an injunction against Google after the technology giant refused to remove it without a court order. The authorities say in the writ that they are seeking to stop anyone with seditious intent from publishing or distributing the song in any media. After a hearing, the court denied the authorities' request.
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics…
Content type: Advocacy
Background
In August 2022, Amazon announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire iRobot, a company that specialises in designing and building consumer robots. The transaction was formally notified to the European Commission on 1 June 2023, while the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has already launched an investigation into the transaction since April 2023.
We believe that this acquisition is likely to significantly impede effective competition in and…
Content type: Long Read
With the introduction of GPS tracking of people on immigration bail, the UK has recently put GPS ankle tags, and their potential privacy and security issues, under the spotlight. PI has exposed the intrusive nature and shortcomings of these devices through technical explainers and complaints to the UK data protection and forensic science regulators.
But, what better way to understand the risks associated with a device than to actually use one? In order to further consolidate our understanding…
Content type: Long Read
In 2022, Privacy International continued to produce real change by challenging governments and corporations that use data and technology to exploit us. And, we produced substantial impact that directly affects each of us.
Here are a handful of our biggest achievements in 2022.
WE CHALLENGED COMPANIES TO CHANGE THEIR BUSINESS MODELS AND PRACTICES
Regulators in UK, France, Greece, and Italy fined and restricted Clearview AI’s activity
Clearview AI built a massive database of our biometrics, by…
Content type: Examples
In a report, the UK's Digital Futures Commission warns that the explosion of use of education technology brings risks to children's privacy, especially that the data it collects, much of it personally identifiable, will be entered into the heavily commercial global data ecosystem, with uncertain consequences for the future. Although schools have returned to in-person learning, tools such as Google Classroom and Class Dojo have become permanently entrenched even though they have "opaque" privacy…
Content type: Examples
The French minister of national education and youth has advised schools not to use the free versions of Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspace because French public procurement contracts require payment. Paid versions may be allowed if they do not violate data protection rules, including a 2020 French ruling that cloud services that store data in the US are not compliant with GDPR.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/22/france_no_windows_google/
Writer: Thomas Claburn
Publication: The…
Content type: Examples
A security flaw in the mandatory "Diksha" app operated by the Education Ministry, which became an important tool for giving students access to coursework while at home during the pandemic, exposed the data of millions of Indian students and teachers for more than a year when a cloud server hosted on Microsoft Azure was left unprotected. In 2022, Human Rights Watch found that Diksha was able to track students location, and shared data with Google, which indexed more than 100 files from the…
Content type: Long Read
In August 2021, PI published the report An unhealthy diet of targeted ads where we uncovered how personal data was shared by diet companies through their online ads and online testing. Our findings were quite grim, with highly sensitive personal data shared with third parties without consent.
Following this initial report, we performed follow-up research with the same methodology and by September 2021 we reported a number of positive changes from two of these websites: BetterMe and VShred.…
Content type: Long Read
On 18th January, it was announced that end-to-end encrypted iCloud services, Advanced Data Protection, would be offered to Apple users globally.The offer of such level of security globally, while overdue, is a key step to ensuring trust and confidence in today’s world. There are too many threats to our data and our rights. Twelve years ago, we called on Apple to encrypt iCloud storage for users all around the world.Why this is importantWhile privacy and security is often portrayed as opposite…
Content type: Long Read
The UK’s security services have the power to collect, analyse, and store huge amounts of personal data. They can target specific individuals, hack their computers, and intercept their data or communications, but they can also obtain personal datasets in bulk, intercept overseas communications in bulk, and collect huge swathes of communications data from telecomms providers.[1]
The public rightly expects that the vast amounts of personal data which agencies like MI5 collect and store will be…