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I think it’s a blank check for abuse.
— Katitza Rodríguez of the Electronic Frontier Foundation on the UN cybercrime treaty
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Welcome to Snippets 🚗 General Motors was hit with a lawsuit in Texas alleging the vehicle manufacturer collected and sold drivers' data without consent.
This suit puts an exclamation point on a sentence that began earlier this year, with the revelation that several car manufacturers were tracking drivers' behavior and selling that data to insurance companies.
In other news, the UN's cybercrime treaty raises privacy concerns, X is facing a series of complaints in the EU, Axios writer Sam Sabin experiments with deepfake technology at DEF CON, and more.
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General Motors sued in Texas for driver consent violations
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Cole Wilson for The New York Times
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The state of Texas is suing General Motors (GM)—alleging the automaker collected and sold driving data from 16 million drivers without consent.
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- The lawsuit accuses GM of violating Texas’ privacy laws by selling detailed driving records to insurance companies for profit.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims GM used deceptive practices to enroll customers in its data collection program, burying disclosures in lengthy documents.
- If successful, the suit would stop the auto-maker’s deceptive data collection practices, mandate the destruction of collected data, and compel GM to provide restitution to affected customers.
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How next-gen consent management transforms businesses ⚡
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As the regulatory patchwork expands and customer trust is increasingly influenced by a company’s privacy practices, businesses are beginning to realize the true value of next-gen consent management solutions.
Read our latest guide to explore how industry-leaders like GoFundMe, HelpScout, and True Search have leveraged Transcend Consent Management to enable innovation with trusted, compliant data.
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UN’s cybercrime treaty raises privacy concerns
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AP Photo/John Minchillo, File
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As the United Nations moves ahead with its first global cybercrime treaty, which secured the support of nearly 200 countries, privacy groups are worried the agreement will give world governments a free pass on citizen surveillance.
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- After five years of negotiations, the treaty – which provides a common framework for nations to jointly tackle cyber crimes – passed to the General Assembly for a vote.
- Proponents, including the Biden administration, said the deal ensures cooperation in the global crackdown on illegal online activities, while also considering human rights.
- Opponents, including Big Tech and business groups, called out the deal's vague language—arguing it could open the door to undue surveillance and possible repression.
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X faces complaints for training Grok AI on user data
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Marc Piasecki / Getty Images
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Elon Musk’s decision to train the Grok AI on EU user data has drawn criticism from Austrian privacy rights nonprofit noyb, which lodged complaints with nine data regulators across the bloc.
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- The complaints allege that X’s training method directly violated GDPR by not offering users a clear yes/no option before processing their personal data.
- Users did eventually receive an opt-out choice in July (more than two months after the AI’s training had begun), but were given no way to undo data processing that had already occurred.
- Though the Irish DPC sought an injunction to stop X from implementing its plan, noyb chairman Max Schrems described the regulator’s efforts as “inefficient and partial.”
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- A Harvard Law privacy expert’s concerns about kids on social.
- Why the APRA could hurt small businesses.
- A new end-to-end encrypted messenger for absolute privacy.
- Google Authenticator gets an upgrade.
- Donald Trump claims Kamala Harris used AI to fake a rally crowd.
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How technology both enables and combats deepfakes
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Aïda Amer/Axios
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While evolving technology has enabled the creation of realistic deepfakes, it has also made it easier to detect digitally manipulated content.
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- At the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, participants used open-source tool DeepFaceLive to create their own deepfakes, before analyzing them with a detection tool known as SemaFor.
- SemaFor runs a dual check: first parsing the video frames to detect anomalies in the metadata, then scanning the face for signs of manipulation and assigning a score.
- As scammers use deepfakes more and more, Will Corvey of SemaFor is bullish on the idea that the ability to detect deepfakes is keeping pace, though he does acknowledge it's a challenge.
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Firefox faces a complex conundrum
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Rubaitul Azad/Unsplash
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Users are upset that Mozilla’s “privacy-preserving ad measurement” toggle, which allows advertisers to measure campaign success without collecting user data, was switched on by default without disclosure.
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- With Firefox falling behind in a competitive market, Mozilla’s interim CEO Laura Chambers is putting more resources into expanding the privacy-focused browser.
- Firefox isn’t as militant about curbing ad tech as competitors like Brave and DuckDuckGo—instead offering privacy-friendly alternatives and acquiring privacy-protective tools like Anonym.
- Looking to cut dependence on third parties like Google, Firefox has had to navigate the delicate balance between updating their financial model and serving a dedicated user base.
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Explore Transcend full-stack consent management
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When it comes to shielding the company from risk, privacy teams are often forced to say “No” to other business units when they ask for approval on projects that won’t meet regulatory standards.
One way privacy teams can flip this paradigm – shifting from being seen as a cost center to driving clear business value – is to deploy comprehensive consent management to increase the amount of compliant data the business can use.
Find out how Transcend can help in our latest guide.
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Snippets is delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning by Transcend. We're the platform that helps companies put privacy on autopilot by making it easy to encode privacy across an entire tech stack. Learn more.
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