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Tag: Privacy

  • Lawmakers vote on Paris Olympic law with surveillance fears

    Lawmakers vote on Paris Olympic law with surveillance fears

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    PARIS — A proposed French law for the 2024 Paris Olympics that critics contend will open the door for privacy-busting video surveillance technology in France and elsewhere in Europe faces an important hurdle on Tuesday with lawmakers set to vote on it.

    The bill would legalize the temporary use of so-called intelligent surveillance systems to safeguard the Paris Games, which run next year from July 26-Aug. 11, and the Paralympics that follow. The systems combine cameras with artificial intelligence software to flag potential security concerns, such as abandoned packages or crowd surges. Human operators would decide whether action is needed.

    French authorities insist the surveillance wouldn’t involve facial recognition. Supporters of the bill argue that the technology could help avert disasters like the deadly crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people during Halloween festivities in South Korea in October.

    “It’s not about recognizing ‘Mr. X’ in a crowd,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told National Assembly lawmakers last week when they were debating the measures. “It’s about recognizing situations.”

    The Senate overwhelmingly approved the draft in January, by 245 votes to 28. If the National Assembly follows suit Tuesday afternoon, the bill is slated for further fine-tuning by assembly members and senators before its final adoption, expected in April.

    Digital rights watchdog groups argue that France will violate international human rights law by becoming the first of the European Union’s 27 countries to legalize AI-powered surveillance, even if just temporarily. The bill says the technology can be used on an experimental basis to the end of 2024 to safeguard sporting and cultural events in France that are particularly at risk of being targeted by terror attacks.

    The technology’s use “risks permanently transforming France into a dystopian surveillance state” and “will lead to an all-out assault on the rights to privacy, protest, and freedom of assembly and expression,” said Mher Hakobyan, an Amnesty International adviser on AI regulation.

    “It has also been well-documented that hostile surveillance technologies are disproportionately used to target marginalized groups, including migrants and Black and brown people,” Hakobyan added.

    Even though the draft law says the cameras won’t use facial recognition, they are still liable to scrutinize physical traits including people’s postures, walks and gestures, critics contend. Opponents also are concerned that the technology risks zeroing-in on people who spend a lot of time in public spaces, such as the homeless. The bill also clears the way for the technology’s use with cameras mounted on drones.

    During last week’s National Assembly discussions on the bill, opposition lawmaker Sandra Regol argued that it would turn Olympic visitors into “guinea pigs” for AI-powered surveillance.

    ___

    More AP coverage of the Paris Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • Twitter: Parts of its source code leaked online

    Twitter: Parts of its source code leaked online

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    Some parts of Twitter’s source code _ the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs _ were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing on Sunday that was first reported by The New York Times

    ByANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Business Writer

    NEW YORK — Some parts of Twitter‘s source code — the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs — were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing on Sunday that was first reported by The New York Times.

    According to the legal document, filed with the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, Twitter had asked GitHub, an internet hosting service for software development, to take down the code where it was posted. The platform complied and said the content had been disabled, according to the filing. Twitter also asked the court to identify the alleged infringer or infringers who posted Twitter’s source code on systems operated by GitHub without Twitter’s authorization.

    Twitter, based in San Francisco, noted in the filing that the postings infringe copyrights held by Twitter.

    The leak creates more challenges for billionaire Elon Musk, who bought Twitter last October for $44 billion and took the company private. Since then, it has been engulfed in chaos, with massive layoffs and advertisers fleeing.

    Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission is probing Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter and trying to obtain his internal communications as part of ongoing oversight into the social media company’s privacy and cybersecurity practices, according to documents described in a congressional report.

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  • Gap grows between TikTok users, lawmakers on potential ban

    Gap grows between TikTok users, lawmakers on potential ban

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    NEW YORK — On the one side are dozens of lawmakers on Capitol Hill issuing dire warnings about security breaches and possible Chinese surveillance.

    On the other are some 150 million TikTok users in the U.S. who just want to be able to keep making and watching short, fun videos offering makeup tutorials and cooking lessons, among other things.

    The disconnect illustrates the uphill battle that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle face in trying to convince the public that China could use TikTok as a weapon against the American people. But many users on the platform are more concerned about the possibility of the government taking away their favorite app.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said during a nearly six-hour congressional hearing Thursday that the platform has never turned over user data to the Chinese government, and wouldn’t do so if asked.

    Nevertheless, lawmakers, the FBI and officials at other agencies continue to raise alarms that Chinese law compels Chinese companies like TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to fork over data to the government for whatever purposes it deems to involve national security. There’s also concern Beijing might try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation through the platform.

    “I want to say this to all the teenagers out there, and TikTok influencers who think we’re just old and out of touch and don’t know what we’re talking about, trying to take your favorite app,” said Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw during the hearing. “You may not care that your data is being accessed now, but you will be one day.”

    Many TikTok users reacted to the hearing by posting videos critical of lawmakers who grilled Chew and frequently cut him off from speaking. Some called a potential TikTok ban, as some lawmakers and the Biden administration has reportedly threatened, the “biggest scam” of the year. And others blamed the surge of scrutiny on the platform on another tech rival, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

    But few expressed fear of possible Chinese surveillance or security breaches that lawmakers continue to amplify as they look to rein in TikTok.

    Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., whose district is in the heart of Silicon Valley, said he is mindful of the value that platforms like TikTok provide to young people as an outlet for creative expression and building community. “But there’s absolutely no reason that an American technology company can’t do that,” said Khanna, the top Democrat on the cyber subcommittee on House Armed Service. “America has the most innovative technology companies in the world.”

    He added that Congress should move forward with a proposal that would force platform’s sale to an American company for continued access for its millions of users while “ensuring that the platform isn’t subject to Chinese propaganda or compromises people’s privacy.”

    According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of Americans aged 13 to 17 use TikTok, and 16% of all teens say they use it almost constantly. It’s because of TikTok’s large user base that Lindsay Gorman, a former tech adviser for the Biden administration who now works as a senior fellow for emerging technologies at the German Marshall Fund, says the Biden administration will likely pursue every option short of a ban first. That would include the option for the app’s Chinese owners to divest, which the Biden administration is reportedly demanding from TikTok if it wants to avoid a nationwide ban.

    TikTok itself has been trying to leverage its popularity. On Wednesday, it sent dozens of influencers to Congress to lobby against a ban. It has also ramped up a broader public relations campaign, plastering ads all over Washington that tout its promises of securing users’ data and privacy and creating a safe platform for its young users.

    Some popular TikTokers who speak out against a ban are concerned — and angered — about how it might impact their personal lives. Many earn income from their videos and have inked brand partnerships to market products to their audiences — another stream of revenue that could be wiped away if the platform disappears. They would also lose the social capital that comes from having a large following on the trend-setting app.

    Demetrius Fields, a standup comedian who amassed 2.8 million followers on TikTok from posting comedy sketches, said he spent a long time building his career and followership on the platform. He has one active deal with the fast fashion retailer Fashion Nova, which allows him to earn an income along with the videos he posts on TikTok.

    If the app is taken away, he said building an audience on another platform would be challenging for him due to the competition to grab user attention.

    “The financial implications for me would be pretty terrible,” Fields said. “I would probably have to go back to working a desk job.”

    Sarah Pikhit, an 18-year-old student at Penn State University, said she used to use TikTok a lot, but started cutting back when she realized how much time she spent scrolling through videos on the app. She still uses it, but mostly to post her own content, which she says she can do on other platforms. She said she wouldn’t care if TikTok gets banned — but her friends would.

    “They like the excessive scrolling,” Pikhit said.

    —-

    Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • Gap grows between TikTok users, lawmakers on potential ban

    Gap grows between TikTok users, lawmakers on potential ban

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    NEW YORK — On the one side are dozens of lawmakers on Capitol Hill issuing dire warnings about security breaches and possible Chinese surveillance.

    On the other are some 150 million TikTok users in the U.S. who just want to be able to keep making and watching short, fun videos offering makeup tutorials and cooking lessons, among other things.

    The disconnect illustrates the uphill battle that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle face in trying to convince the public that China could use TikTok as a weapon against the American people. But many users on the platform are more concerned about the possibility of the government taking away their favorite app.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said during a nearly six-hour congressional hearing Thursday that the platform has never turned over user data to the Chinese government, and wouldn’t do so if asked.

    Nevertheless, lawmakers, the FBI and officials at other agencies continue to raise alarms that Chinese law compels Chinese companies like TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to fork over data to the government for whatever purposes it deems to involve national security. There’s also concern Beijing might try to push pro-China narratives or misinformation through the platform.

    “I want to say this to all the teenagers out there, and TikTok influencers who think we’re just old and out of touch and don’t know what we’re talking about, trying to take your favorite app,” said Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw during the hearing. “You may not care that your data is being accessed now, but you will be one day.”

    Many TikTok users reacted to the hearing by posting videos critical of lawmakers who grilled Chew and frequently cut him off from speaking. Some called a potential TikTok ban, as some lawmakers and the Biden administration has reportedly threatened, the “biggest scam” of the year. And others blamed the surge of scrutiny on the platform on another tech rival, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

    But few expressed fear of possible Chinese surveillance or security breaches that lawmakers continue to amplify as they look to rein in TikTok.

    Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., whose district is in the heart of Silicon Valley, said he is mindful of the value that platforms like TikTok provide to young people as an outlet for creative expression and building community. “But there’s absolutely no reason that an American technology company can’t do that,” said Khanna, the top Democrat on the cyber subcommittee on House Armed Service. “America has the most innovative technology companies in the world.”

    He added that Congress should move forward with a proposal that would force platform’s sale to an American company for continued access for its millions of users while “ensuring that the platform isn’t subject to Chinese propaganda or compromises people’s privacy.”

    According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of Americans aged 13 to 17 use TikTok, and 16% of all teens say they use it almost constantly. It’s because of TikTok’s large user base that Lindsay Gorman, a former tech adviser for the Biden administration who now works as a senior fellow for emerging technologies at the German Marshall Fund, says the Biden administration will likely pursue every option short of a ban first. That would include the option for the app’s Chinese owners to divest, which the Biden administration is reportedly demanding from TikTok if it wants to avoid a nationwide ban.

    TikTok itself has been trying to leverage its popularity. On Wednesday, it sent dozens of influencers to Congress to lobby against a ban. It has also ramped up a broader public relations campaign, plastering ads all over Washington that tout its promises of securing users’ data and privacy and creating a safe platform for its young users.

    Some popular TikTokers who speak out against a ban are concerned — and angered — about how it might impact their personal lives. Many earn income from their videos and have inked brand partnerships to market products to their audiences — another stream of revenue that could be wiped away if the platform disappears. They would also lose the social capital that comes from having a large following on the trend-setting app.

    Demetrius Fields, a standup comedian who amassed 2.8 million followers on TikTok from posting comedy sketches, said he spent a long time building his career and followership on the platform. He has one active deal with the fast fashion retailer Fashion Nova, which allows him to earn an income along with the videos he posts on TikTok.

    If the app is taken away, he said building an audience on another platform would be challenging for him due to the competition to grab user attention.

    “The financial implications for me would be pretty terrible,” Fields said. “I would probably have to go back to working a desk job.”

    Sarah Pikhit, an 18-year-old student at Penn State University, said she used to use TikTok a lot, but started cutting back when she realized how much time she spent scrolling through videos on the app. She still uses it, but mostly to post her own content, which she says she can do on other platforms. She said she wouldn’t care if TikTok gets banned — but her friends would.

    “They like the excessive scrolling,” Pikhit said.

    —-

    Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.

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  • Kids in Utah will need parents’ OK to access social media

    Kids in Utah will need parents’ OK to access social media

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    SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Children and teens in Utah would lose access to social media apps such as TikTok if they don’t have parental consent and face other restrictions under a first-in-the-nation law designed to shield young people from the addictive platforms.

    Two laws signed by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox Thursday prohibit kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., require age verification for anyone who wants to use social media in the state and open the door to lawsuits on behalf of children claiming social media harmed them. Collectively, they seek to prevent children from being lured to apps by addictive features and from having ads promoted to them.

    The companies are expected to sue before the laws take effect in March 2024.

    The crusade against social media in Utah’s Republican-supermajority Legislature is the latest reflection of how politicians’ perceptions of technology companies has changed, including among typically pro-business Republicans.

    Tech giants like Facebook and Google have enjoyed unbridled growth for over a decade, but amid concerns over user privacy, hate speech, misinformation and harmful effects on teens’ mental health, lawmakers have made Big Tech attacks a rallying cry on the campaign trail and begun trying to rein them in once in office. Utah’s law was signed on the same day TikTok’s CEO testified before Congress about, among other things, the platform’s effects on teenagers’ mental health.

    But legislation has stalled on the federal level, pushing states to step in.

    Outside of Utah, lawmakers in red states including Arkansas, Texas, Ohio and Louisiana and blue states including New Jersey are advancing similar proposals. California, meanwhile, enacted a law last year requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally.

    The new Utah laws also require that parents be given access to their child’s accounts. They outline rules for people who want to sue over harms they claim the apps cause. If implemented, lawsuits against social media companies involving kids under 16 will shift the burden of proof and require social media companies show their products weren’t harmful — not the other way around.

    Social media companies could have to design new features to comply with parts of the laws that prohibit promoting ads to minors and showing them in search results. Tech companies like TikTok, Snapchat and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, make most of their money by targeting advertising to their users.

    The wave of legislation and its focus on age verification has garnered pushback from technology companies as well as digital privacy groups known for blasting their data collection practices.

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier this month demanded Cox veto the Utah legislation, saying time limits and age verification would infringe on teens’ rights to free speech and privacy. Moreover, verifying every users’ age would empower social media platforms with more data, like the government-issued identification required, they said.

    If the law is implemented, the digital privacy advocacy group said in a statement, “the majority of young Utahns will find themselves effectively locked out of much of the web.”

    Tech industry lobbyists decried the laws as unconstitutional, saying they infringe on people’s right to exercise the First Amendment online.

    “Utah will soon require online services to collect sensitive information about teens and families, not only to verify ages, but to verify parental relationships, like government-issued IDs and birth certificates, putting their private data at risk of breach,” said Nicole Saad Bembridge, an associate director at NetChoice, a tech lobby group.

    What’s not clear in Utah’s new law and those under consideration elsewhere is how states plan to enforce the new regulations. Companies are already prohibited from collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent under the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. To comply, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms — but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents’ consent.

    Cox said studies have shown that time spent on social media leads to “poor mental health outcomes” for children.

    “We remain very optimistic that we will be able to pass not just here in the state of Utah but across the country legislation that significantly changes the relationship of our children with these very destructive social media apps,” he said.

    The set of laws won support from parents groups and child advocates, who generally welcomed them, with some caveats. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on kids and technology, hailed the effort to rein in social media’s addictive features and set rules for litigation, with its CEO saying it “adds momentum for other states to hold social media companies accountable to ensure kids across the country are protected online.”

    However, Jim Steyer, the CEO and founder of Common Sense, said giving parents access to children’s social media posts would “deprive kids of the online privacy protections we advocate for.” Age verification and parental consent may hamper kids who want to create accounts on certain platforms, but does little to stop companies from harvesting their data once they’re on, Steyer said.

    The laws are the latest effort from Utah lawmakers focused on the fragility of children in the digital age. Two years ago, Cox signed legislation that called on tech companies to automatically block porn on cellphones and tablets sold in the state, after arguments about the dangers it posed to children found resonance among Utah lawmakers, the majority of whom are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Amid concerns about enforcement, lawmakers ultimately revised that legislation to prevent it from taking effect unless five other states passed similar laws.

    The regulations come as parents and lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about kids and teenagers’ social media use and how platforms like TikTok, Instagram and others are affecting young people’s mental health. The dangers of social media to children is also emerging as a focus for trial lawyers, with addiction lawsuits being filed thorughout the country.

    ___

    Ortutay reported from Oakland, California.

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  • Why does US see Chinese-owned TikTok as a security threat?

    Why does US see Chinese-owned TikTok as a security threat?

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    BEIJING — BEIJING (AP) — U.S. lawmakers have grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew about data security and harmful content, with some pushing to ban the popular short-video app nationwide.

    A Singaporean native, Chew told the lawmakers that TikTok prioritizes user safety and as he sought to avert a ban by downplaying the app’s ties to China.

    Both Republican and Democratic representatives aggressively questioned Chew on topics including TikTok’s content moderation practices, its data security plans, and past spying on journalists.

    Here’s a look at some of the concerns about TikTok and its ownership.

    WHY DOES WASHINGTON SAY TIKTOK IS A THREAT?

    TikTok, which has over 150 million American users, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd., which appoints its executives.

    ByteDance is based in Beijing but registered in the Cayman Islands, as is common for privately owned Chinese companies. Its headquarters is in Beijing’s northwestern Haidian district, home to key universities and a hub for tech startups.

    Founded by Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming in 2012, ByteDance is said to be valued at around $220 billion — nearly half of its 2021 valuation of $400 billion. Publicly traded Chinese tech companies and privately held ones like ByteDance have plunged in value since the ruling Communist Party tightened control over the industry with anti-monopoly and data security crackdowns.

    Western governments worry Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over TikTok data on American users, exposing sensitive information. China has denied asking its companies to hand over overseas data, and TikTok insists it has never done so and would not do so.

    ByteDance says 60% of its shares are owned by non-Chinese investors such as U.S investment firms Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Japan’s SoftBank Group. Employees own 20% and its founders the remaining 20%.

    Some details of the relationship between TikTok and ByteDance remain unclear to outsiders.

    WHAT CHINESE RULES WORRY WESTERN GOVERNMENTS?

    China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law states that “any organization” must assist or cooperate with state intelligence work while a separate 2014 Counter-Espionage Law says “relevant organizations … may not refuse” to collect evidence for an investigation.

    Since ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is a Chinese company, it would likely have to abide by these rules if Chinese authorities asked it to turn over data.

    Laws and regulations are only one aspect of the Communist Party’s pervasive control. There are no legal limits on the party’s powers. The authorities also can threaten to cancel licenses, conduct regulatory or tax investigations and use other penalties to compel compliance by Chinese and foreign companies operating in China.

    The party sometimes conveys orders using “window guidance,” or informal communication in private. It has used crackdowns to tighten control over technology companies and force them to align with its goals.

    The Chinese government has also sought more direct control over companies by getting seats on boards of directors.

    MUST TIKTOK TURN OVER DATA IF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT SAYS SO, EVEN WITH “ PROJECT TEXAS?”

    TikTok has promised to protect data on American users by storing them on servers operated by an outside contractor, Oracle Corp., in what’s known as “Project Texas.” Chew, the TikTok CEO, said all new U.S. user data are stored in the United States and the company should finish deleting older U.S. data from non-Oracle servers this year.

    The fear is that ByteDance would have to hand over information it obtained from TikTok if ordered to do so by Chinese authorities, but Chew has said Project Texas will put U.S. data out of China’s reach.

    ByteDance disclosed in December that four employees gained access to data about reporters and people connected to them while looking for how information about the company was leaked. Chew told the lawmakers China-based ByteDance employees may still have access to some U.S. data but that won’t be the case once Project Texas is complete.

    In November, TikTok’s head of privacy for Europe said some employees in China had access to information about users in Britain and the European Union.

    DOES THE COMMUNIST PARTY HAVE ANY INFLUENCE ON BYTEDANCE?

    In Thursday’s hearing, lawmakers repeatedly tried to pin down Chew on whether ByteDance had links to China’s communist rulers.

    He deflected questions about whether staff and top executives are Communist Party members.

    “I do know that the founder himself is not a member of the Communist Party, but we don’t know the political affiliation of our employees because that’s not something we ask,” Chew said.

    When questioned whether ByteDance was effectively controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, Chew said he disagreed.

    After a lawmaker said the Communist Party holds a “golden share” in ByteDance that allows it to control one ByteDance board seat, Chew said, “That’s not correct.”

    In China, so-called golden shares held by official investment funds are one way for Beijing to gain more oversight over business by giving them a 1% stake in companies.

    Chew pushed back when lawmakers claimed that the Communist Party owns shares in ByteDance that give it a vote in how the company is run. “The Communist Party doesn’t have voting rights in ByteDance,” Chew said.

    ByteDance’s main Chinese subsidiary is the license-holder for some of its video and information platforms that only serve the China market.

    Official investment funds have also bought 1% of the Chinese subsidiary of Weibo Corp., the country’s most popular microblog platform, and also of domestic subsidiaries of Alibaba.

    WHAT IS DOUYIN AND WHAT IS TIKTOK’S RELATIONSHIP WITH IT?

    DouYin is ByteDance’s short-video platform for the China market. It’s similar to TikTok, but its content is restricted by Chinese censorship rules that prohibit material deemed subversive or pornographic – a point emphasized by U.S. lawmakers worried about harmful content viewed by young people.

    The Communist Party’s extensive internet filters block most users in China from seeing TikTok. ByteDance has said TikTok has “no affiliation” with Beijing ByteDance Technology Co., the subsidiary that operates DouYin; Toutiao, a news and short-video platform, and other services.

    HOW DID CHINA REACT TO THE TIKTOK CEO’S WASHINGTON TESTIMONY?

    Most of the social media reaction in China was sympathetic to Chew, with praise for how he handled the hostile questions lobbed at him.

    Comments on the microblogging platforms Weibo and Douyin were critical of U.S. lawmakers for asking Chew leading or “trap” questions. Many commenters used a Chinese saying that means “If you want to accuse someone, there’s always a way.”

    ___

    AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan in London contributed.

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  • Utah social media law means kids need approval from parents

    Utah social media law means kids need approval from parents

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    SALT LAKE CITY — Children and teens in Utah would lose access to social media apps such as TikTok if they don’t have parental consent and face other restrictions under a first-in-the-nation law designed to shield young people from the addictive platforms.

    Two laws signed by Republican Gov. Spencer Cox Thursday prohibit kids under 18 from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m., require age verification for anyone who wants to use social media in the state and open the door to lawsuits on behalf of children claiming social media harmed them. Collectively, they seek to prevent children from being lured to apps by addictive features and from having ads promoted to them.

    The companies are expected to sue before the laws take effect in March 2024.

    The crusade against social media in Utah’s Republican-supermajority Legislature is the latest reflection of how politicians’ perceptions of technology companies has changed, including among typically pro-business Republicans.

    Tech giants like Facebook and Google have enjoyed unbridled growth for over a decade, but amid concerns over user privacy, hate speech, misinformation and harmful effects on teens’ mental health, lawmakers have made Big Tech attacks a rallying cry on the campaign trail and begun trying to rein them in once in office. Utah’s law was signed on the same day TikTok’s CEO testified before Congress about, among other things, the platform’s effects on teenagers’ mental health.

    But legislation has stalled on the federal level, pushing states to step in.

    Outside of Utah, lawmakers in red states including Arkansas, Texas, Ohio and Louisiana and blue states including New Jersey are advancing similar proposals. California, meanwhile, enacted a law last year requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally.

    The new Utah laws also require that parents be given access to their child’s accounts. They outline rules for people who want to sue over harms they claim the apps cause. If implemented, lawsuits against social media companies involving kids under 16 will shift the burden of proof and require social media companies show their products weren’t harmful — not the other way around.

    Social media companies could have to design new features to comply with parts of the laws that prohibit promoting ads to minors and showing them in search results. Tech companies like TikTok, Snapchat and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, make most of their money by targeting advertising to their users.

    The wave of legislation and its focus on age verification has garnered pushback from technology companies as well as digital privacy groups known for blasting their data collection practices.

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier this month demanded Cox veto the Utah legislation, saying time limits and age verification would infringe on teens’ rights to free speech and privacy. Moreover, verifying every users’ age would empower social media platforms with more data, like the government-issued identification required, they said.

    If the law is implemented, the digital privacy advocacy group said in a statement, “the majority of young Utahns will find themselves effectively locked out of much of the web.”

    Tech industry lobbyists decried the laws as unconstitutional, saying they infringe on people’s right to exercise the First Amendment online.

    “Utah will soon require online services to collect sensitive information about teens and families, not only to verify ages, but to verify parental relationships, like government-issued IDs and birth certificates, putting their private data at risk of breach,” said Nicole Saad Bembridge, an associate director at NetChoice, a tech lobby group.

    What’s not clear in Utah’s new law and those under consideration elsewhere is how states plan to enforce the new regulations. Companies are already prohibited from collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent under the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. To comply, social media companies already ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms — but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents’ consent.

    Cox said studies have shown that time spent on social media leads to “poor mental health outcomes” for children.

    “We remain very optimistic that we will be able to pass not just here in the state of Utah but across the country legislation that significantly changes the relationship of our children with these very destructive social media apps,” he said.

    The set of laws won support from parents groups and child advocates, who generally welcomed them, with some caveats. Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on kids and technology, hailed the effort to rein in social media’s addictive features and set rules for litigation, with its CEO saying it “adds momentum for other states to hold social media companies accountable to ensure kids across the country are protected online.”

    However, Jim Steyer, the CEO and founder of Common Sense, said giving parents access to children’s social media posts would “deprive kids of the online privacy protections we advocate for.” Age verification and parental consent may hamper kids who want to create accounts on certain platforms, but does little to stop companies from harvesting their data once they’re on, Steyer said.

    The laws are the latest effort from Utah lawmakers focused on the fragility of children in the digital age. Two years ago, Cox signed legislation that called on tech companies to automatically block porn on cellphones and tablets sold in the state, after arguments about the dangers it posed to children found resonance among Utah lawmakers, the majority of whom are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Amid concerns about enforcement, lawmakers ultimately revised that legislation to prevent it from taking effect unless five other states passed similar laws.

    The regulations come as parents and lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about kids and teenagers’ social media use and how platforms like TikTok, Instagram and others are affecting young people’s mental health. The dangers of social media to children is also emerging as a focus for trial lawyers, with addiction lawsuits being filed thorughout the country.

    ___

    Ortutay reported from Oakland, California.

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  • What the hell is wrong with TikTok? 

    What the hell is wrong with TikTok? 

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    Press play to listen to this article

    Voiced by artificial intelligence.

    Western governments are ticked off with TikTok. The Chinese-owned app loved by teenagers around the world is facing allegations of facilitating espionage, failing to protect personal data, and even of corrupting young minds.

    Governments in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and across Europe have moved to ban the use of TikTok on officials’ phones in recent months. If hawks get their way, the app could face further restrictions. The White House has demanded that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, sell the app or face an outright ban in the U.S.

    But do the allegations stack up? Security officials have given few details about why they are moving against TikTok. That may be due to sensitivity around matters of national security, or it may simply indicate that there’s not much substance behind the bluster.

    TikTok’s Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew will be questioned in the U.S. Congress on Thursday and can expect politicians from all sides of the spectrum to probe him on TikTok’s dangers. Here are some of the themes they may pick up on: 

    1. Chinese access to TikTok data

    Perhaps the most pressing concern is around the Chinese government’s potential access to troves of data from TikTok’s millions of users. 

    Western security officials have warned that ByteDance could be subject to China’s national security legislation, particularly the 2017 National Security Law that requires Chinese companies to “support, assist and cooperate” with national intelligence efforts. This law is a blank check for Chinese spy agencies, they say.

    TikTok’s user data could also be accessed by the company’s hundreds of Chinese engineers and operations staff, any one of whom could be working for the state, Western officials say. In December 2022, some ByteDance employees in China and the U.S. targeted journalists at Western media outlets using the app (and were later fired). 

    EU institutions banned their staff from having TikTok on their work phones last month. An internal email sent to staff of the European Data Protection Supervisor, seen by POLITICO, said the move aimed “to reduce the exposure of the Commission from cyberattacks because this application is collecting so much data on mobile devices that could be used to stage an attack on the Commission.” 

    And the Irish Data Protection Commission, TikTok’s lead privacy regulator in the EU, is set to decide in the next few months if the company unlawfully transferred European users’ data to China. 

    Skeptics of the security argument say that the Chinese government could simply buy troves of user data from little-regulated brokers. American social media companies like Twitter have had their own problems preserving users’ data from the prying eyes of foreign governments, they note. 

    TikTok says it has never given data to the Chinese government and would decline if asked to do so. Strictly speaking, ByteDance is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which TikTok argues would shield it from legal obligations to assist Chinese agencies. ByteDance is owned 20 percent by its founders and Chinese investors, 60 percent by global investors, and 20 percent by employees. 

    There’s little hope to completely stop European data from going to China | Alex Plavevski/EPA

    The company has unveiled two separate plans to safeguard data. In the U.S., Project Texas is a $1.5 billion plan to build a wall between the U.S. subsidiary and its Chinese owners. The €1.2 billion European version, named Project Clover, would move most of TikTok’s European data onto servers in Europe.

    Nevertheless, TikTok’s chief European lobbyist Theo Bertram also said in March that it would be “practically extremely difficult” to completely stop European data from going to China.

    2. A way in for Chinese spies

    If Chinese agencies can’t access TikTok’s data legally, they can just go in through the back door, Western officials allege. China’s cyber-spies are among the best in the world, and their job will be made easier if datasets or digital infrastructure are housed in their home territory.

    Dutch intelligence agencies have advised government officials to uninstall apps from countries waging an “offensive cyber program” against the Netherlands — including China, but also Russia, Iran and North Korea.

    Critics of the cyber espionage argument refer to a 2021 study by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which found that the app did not exhibit the “overtly malicious behavior” that would be expected of spyware. Still, the director of the lab said researchers lacked information on what happens to TikTok data held in China.

    TikTok’s Project Texas and Project Clover include steps to assuage fears of cyber espionage, as well as legal data access. The EU plan would give a European security provider (still to be determined) the power to audit cybersecurity policies and data controls, and to restrict access to some employees. Bertram said this provider could speak with European security agencies and regulators “without us [TikTok] being involved, to give confidence that there’s nothing to hide.” 

    Bertram also said the company was looking to hire more engineers outside China. 

    3. Privacy rights

    Critics of TikTok have accused the app of mass data collection, particularly in the U.S., where there are no general federal privacy rights for citizens.

    In jurisdictions that do have strict privacy laws, TikTok faces widespread allegations of failing to comply with them.

    The company is being investigated in Ireland, the U.K. and Canada over its handling of underage users’ data. Watchdogs in the Netherlands, Italy and France have also investigated its privacy practices around personalized advertising and for failing to limit children’s access to its platform. 

    TikTok has denied accusations leveled in some of the reports and argued that U.S. tech companies are collecting the same large amount of data. Meta, Amazon and others have also been given large fines for violating Europeans’ privacy.

    4. Psychological operations

    Perhaps the most serious accusation, and certainly the most legally novel one, is that TikTok is part of an all-encompassing Chinese civilizational struggle against the West. Its role: to spread disinformation and stultifying content in young Western minds, sowing division and apathy.

    Earlier this month, the director of the U.S. National Security Agency warned that Chinese control of TikTok’s algorithm could allow the government to carry out influence operations among Western populations. TikTok says it has around 300 million active users in Europe and the U.S. The app ranked as the most downloaded in 2022.

    A woman watches a video of Egyptian influencer Haneen Hossam | Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images

    Reports emerged in 2019 suggesting that TikTok was censoring pro-LGBTQ content and videos mentioning Tiananmen Square. ByteDance has also been accused of pushing inane time-wasting videos to Western children, in contrast to the wholesome educational content served on its Chinese app Douyin.

    Besides accusations of deliberate “influence operations,” TikTok has also been criticized for failing to protect children from addiction to its app, dangerous viral challenges, and disinformation. The French regulator said last week that the app was still in the “very early stages” of content moderation. TikTok’s Italian headquarters was raided this week by the consumer protection regulator with the help of Italian law enforcement to investigate how the company protects children from viral challenges.

    Researchers at Citizen Lab said that TikTok doesn’t enforce obvious censorship. Other critics of this argument have pointed out that Western-owned platforms have also been manipulated by foreign countries, such as Russia’s campaign on Facebook to influence the 2016 U.S. elections. 

    TikTok says it has adapted its content moderation since 2019 and regularly releases a transparency report about what it removes. The company has also touted a “transparency center” that opened in the U.S. in July 2020 and one in Ireland in 2022. It has also said it will comply with new EU content moderation rules, the Digital Services Act, which will request that platforms give access to regulators and researchers to their algorithms and data.

    Additional reporting by Laura Kayali in Paris, Sue Allan in Ottawa, Brendan Bordelon in Washington, D.C., and Josh Sisco in San Francisco.

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  • MEPs cling to TikTok for Gen Z votes

    MEPs cling to TikTok for Gen Z votes

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    Voiced by artificial intelligence.

    It may come with security risks but, for European Parliamentarians, TikTok is just too good a political tool to abandon.

    Staff at the European Parliament were ordered to delete the video-sharing application from any work devices by March 20, after an edict last month from the Parliament’s President Roberta Metsola cited cybersecurity risks about the Chinese-owned platform. The chamber also “strongly recommended” that members of the European Parliament and their political advisers give up the app.

    But with European Parliament elections scheduled for late spring 2024, the chamber’s political groups and many of its members are opting to stay on TikTok to win over the hearts and minds of the platform’s user base of young voters. TikTok says around 125 million Europeans actively use the app every month on average.

    “It’s always important in my parliamentary work to communicate beyond those who are already convinced,” said Leïla Chaibi, a French far-left lawmaker who has 3,500 TikTok followers and has previously used the tool to broadcast videos from Strasbourg explaining how the EU Parliament works.

    Malte Gallée, a 29-year-old German Greens lawmaker with over 36,000 followers on TikTok, said, “There are so many young people there but also more and more older people joining there. For me as a politician of course it’s important to be where the people that I represent are, and to know what they’re talking about.”

    Finding Gen Z 

    Parliament took its decision to ban the app from staffers’ phones in late February, in the wake of similar moves by the European Commission, Council of the EU and the bloc’s diplomatic service.

    A letter from the Parliament’s top IT official, obtained by POLITICO, said the institution took the decision after seeing similar bans by the likes of the U.S. federal government and the European Commission and to prevent “possible threats” against the Parliament and its lawmakers.

    For the chamber, it was a remarkable U-turn. Just a few months earlier its top lawmakers in the institution’s Bureau, including President Metsola and 14 vice presidents, approved the launch of an official Parliament account on TikTok, according to a “TikTok strategy” document from the Parliament’s communications directorate-general dated November 18 and seen by POLITICO. 

    “Members and political groups are increasingly opening TikTok accounts,” stated the document, pointing out that teenagers then aged 16 will be eligible to vote in 2024. “The main purpose of opening a TikTok channel for the European Parliament is to connect directly with the young generation and first time voters in the European elections in 2024, especially among Generation Z,” it said.

    Another supposed benefit of launching an official TikTok account would be countering disinformation about the war in Ukraine, the document stated.  

    Most awkwardly, the only sizeable TikTok account claiming to represent the European Parliament is actually a fake one that Parliament has asked TikTok to remove.

    Dummy phones and workarounds

    Among those who stand to lose out from the new TikTok policy are the European Parliament’s political groupings. Some of these groups have sizeable reach on the Chinese-owned app.

    All political groups with a TikTok account said they will use dedicated computers in order to skirt the TikTok ban on work devices | Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images

    The largest group, the center-right European People’s Party, has 51,000 followers on TikTok. Spokesperson Pedro López previously dismissed the Parliament’s move to stop using TikTok as “absurd,” vowing the EPP’s account will stay up and active. López wrote to POLITICO that “we will use dedicated computers … only for TikTok and not connected to any EP or EPP network.”

    That’s the same strategy that all other political groups with a TikTok account — The Left, Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and Liberal Renew groups — said they will use in order to skirt the TikTok ban on work devices like phones, computers or tablets, according to spokespeople. Around 30 Renew Europe lawmakers are active on the platform, according to the group’s spokesperson.

    Beyond the groups, it’s the individual members of parliament — especially those popular on the app — that are pushing back on efforts to restrict its use.

    Clare Daly, an Irish independent member who sits with the Left group, is one of the most popular MEPs on the platform with over 370,000 subscribed to watch clips of her plenary speeches. Daly has gained some 80,000 extra followers in just the few weeks since Parliament’s ban was announced.

    Daly in an email railed against Parliament’s new policy: “This decision is not guided by a serious threat assessment. It is security theatre, more about appeasing a climate of geopolitical sinophobia in EU politics than it is about protecting sensitive information or mitigating cybersecurity threats,” she said.

    According to Moritz Körner, an MEP from the centrist Renew Europe group, cybersecurity should be a priority. “Politicians should think about cybersecurity and espionage first and before thinking about their elections to the European Parliament,” he told POLITICO, adding that he doesn’t have a TikTok account.

    Others are finding workarounds to have it both ways.

    “We will use a dummy phone and not our work phones anymore. That [dummy] phone will only be used for producing videos,” said an assistant to German Social-democrat member Delara Burkhardt, who has close to 2,000 followers. The assistant credited the platform with driving a friendlier, less abrasive political debate than other platforms like Twitter: “On TikTok the culture is nicer, we get more questions.”

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    Eddy Wax and Clothilde Goujard

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  • TikTok CEO faces off with Congress over security fears

    TikTok CEO faces off with Congress over security fears

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    WASHINGTON — The CEO of TikTok will make a high-profile appearance Thursday before a U.S. Congressional committee, where he’ll face a grilling on data security and user safety while he makes his own case for why the hugely popular video-sharing app shouldn’t be banned.

    Shou Zi Chew’s testimony comes at a crucial time for the company, which has acquired 150 million American users but is under increasing pressure from U.S. officials. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have been swept up in a wider geopolitical battle between Beijing and Washington over trade and technology.

    Chew, a 40-year-old Singapore native, is making a rare public appearance to counter the volley of accusations that TikTok has been facing. On Wednesday, the company sent dozens of popular TikTokers to Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers to preserve the platform. It has also been putting up ads all over Washington that tout promises of securing users data and privacy and creating a safe platform for its young users.

    Chew plans to tell the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce that TikTok prioritizes the safety of its young users and deny allegations that the app is a national security risk, according to his prepared remarks released ahead of the hearing.

    TikTok has been dogged by claims that its Chinese ownership means user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government or that it could be used to promote narratives favorable to the country’s Communist leaders.

    “We understand the popularity of Tiktok, we get that,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “But the President’s job is to make sure again that the Americans, national security is protected as well. ”

    For its part, TikTok has been trying to distance itself from its Chinese origins, saying that 60% percent of its parent company ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group. ByteDance was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs in Beijing in 2012.

    “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said.

    A U.S. ban on an app would be unprecedented and it’s unclear how the government would go about enforcing it.

    Experts says officials could try to force Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, preventing new users from downloading it as well as preventing existing users from updating it, ultimately rendering it useless.

    The U.S. could also block access to TikTok’s infrastructure and data, seize its domain names or force internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon to filter TikTok data traffic, said Ahmed Ghappour, a criminal law and computer security expert who teachers at Boston University School of Law.

    But a tech savvy user could still get around restrictions by using a virtual private network to make it appear the user is in another country where it’s not blocked, he said.

    To avoid a ban, TikTok has been trying to sell officials on a $1.5 billion plan called Project Texas, which routes all U.S. user data to domestic servers owned and maintained by software giant Oracle. Under the project, access to U.S. data is managed by U.S. employees through a separate entity called TikTok U.S. Data Security, which employs 1,500 people, is run independently of ByteDance and would be monitored by outside observers.

    As of October, all new U.S. user data was being stored inside the country. The company started deleting all historic U.S. user data from non-Oracle servers this month, in a process expected to be completed later this year, Chew said.

    A number of Western countries including Denmark, Canada, and New Zealand, along with the European Union, have already banned TikTok from devices issued to government employees, citing cybersecurity concerns.

    In the U.S., the federal government, Congress, the armed forces and more than half of states have banned the app from official devices.

    David Kennedy, a former government intelligence officer who runs the cybersecurity company TrustedSec, agrees with restricting TikTok access on government-issued phones because they might contain sensitive military information or other confidential material. A nationwide ban, however, might be too extreme, he said. He also wondered where it might lead.

    “We have Tesla in China, we have Microsoft in China, we have Apple in China. Are they going to start banning us now?” Kennedy said. “It could escalate very quickly.”

    ___

    Chan reported from London.

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  • March Madness: Athletes balance privacy, online profile

    March Madness: Athletes balance privacy, online profile

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    Aliyah Boston recalls her parents prodding her to be more active on social media, to extend her brand as her basketball prowess began to draw national attention.

    She said she would be more active — and then post just one photo in two months, which is no way for an athlete influencer to earn big money in the era of name, image and likeness compensation.

    Eventually, the South Carolina superstar saw the light — and the green.

    “With the NIL, my mom and my dad were like: this is the time for social media to continue to brand yourself,” Boston said. “That’s when I really started to post more.”

    The NIL age has opened a vast new world of earning potential for athletes. Social media platforms, once solely windows into smaller worlds, are now heavily trafficked gateways to wider audiences and revenue streams. Social media also turbocharged March Madness, an event that already had communal elements — think bracket and office pool — before the internet even existed.

    Taking advantage of this chaotic social media explosion to cash in requires a bit of savvy, discernment and engagement — lots of engagement.

    “Some things you think will go viral and it goes nowhere,” said Jeffrey Weiner, senior vice president of sports marketing firm GSE Worldwide. “Some things you think are silly and no one’s going to care about and it goes viral. You never know. You shouldn’t worry about the ‘like’ numbers and things like that. Just post, post, post.”

    Finding the right fit is key when it comes to NIL deals.

    If an athlete hawks something they don’t believe in, it will show in their posts. No one is going to buy a product or solicit a business if the person promoting it appears to be going through the motions or comes off as a used car salesman — unless that’s the schtick they’re going for.

    “I don’t want my page to turn into full of advertisements and me shoving things down people’s throats,” said Nebraska pole vaulter Jess Gardner, who has partnered with about 15 different brands and has more than 300,000 combined followers on TikTok and Instagram.

    “That’s not why people are coming to my page,” she said. “I make fun and lighthearted content, and so I can do that if I’m working with brands I actually love. That’s where I want to take the NIL route.”

    Personality sells.

    The tendency when promoting a product is to switch personalities, like a TV anchorperson shifting to an on-air persona. Many of the most successful influencers find a balance, staying true to their identity while still promoting the product.

    Authenticity with a dash of amusement is the best bet.

    “End of the day it’s a video distribution platform and it allows athletes to showcase their personality however they see fit,” said Julian Valentin, head of customer success for NIL platform Opendorse. “I always say with student athletes to only do what you’re comfortable with.”

    That’s the way Shaylee Gonzales approaches it.

    The Texas guard has 206,000 TikTok followers on, 93,000 more on Instagram. Her posts are a mix of basketball, fashion, personal life and products she has deals with.

    “The more you are yourself, the more people will like to follow you and feel like they know you,” she said. “I love posting things that I enjoy doing or hobbies I like to do.”

    Find the right balance of business and whimsiness and social media opens the the NIL revenue stream.

    Miami twin basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder are social media sensations who have cashed in on their online fame. Hanna Cavinder noted that the twins carefully choose what they post online.

    “Everybody thinks they know you, but they only know the things you want to show them,” she said. “Obviously, I love connecting with my audience and my fans and being organic. They love the twin thing, so we love sharing that. But honestly, I live a more private life than people think.”

    “You pick and choose what you want people to see,” she added. “And that’s just kind of how I go about it. Now, social media is more of my business, not more of my life.”

    With more than 4.4 million followers on their shared TikTok account alone, they have become millionaires through NIL deals.

    Those deals will likely increase during March Madness, especially after the Hurricanes upset No. 1 seed Indiana in the NCAA Tournament.

    “I think what I love the most is it’s setting me up so much for the future,” Haley Cavinder said. “And name, image and likeness, all athletes, especially female athletes, if you use it the right way and to your advantage and you remain consistent, it’ll help you in the future.”

    That’s what got Boston’s attention — well, after her parents noticed first.

    The All-American has promoted Buick, Crocs, Orange Theory, Under Armour and Six Star Nutrition, among other brands. She will likely be one of the WNBA’s top draft picks and could have a lucrative overseas career as well, but has already set a firm financial foundation.

    “I have people in my corner who help me be able to work with brands, agencies,” she said. “It’s been smooth.”

    And lucrative.

    ___

    AP National Writer Eddie Pells, AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds and AP Sports Writer Eric Olson contributed.

    ___

    AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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  • TikTok updates content rulebook as pressure from West builds

    TikTok updates content rulebook as pressure from West builds

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    TikTok has rolled out updated rules and standards for content and users as it faces increasing pressure from Western authorities over concerns that material on the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app could be used to push false information

    LONDON — TikTok on Tuesday rolled out updated rules and standards for content and users as it faces increasing pressure from Western authorities over concerns that material on the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app could be used to push false information.

    The company released a reorganized set of community guidelines that include eight principles to guide content moderation decisions.

    “These principles are based on our commitment to uphold human rights and aligned with international legal frameworks,” said Julie de Bailliencourt, TikTok‘s global head of product policy.

    She said TikTok strives to be fair, protect human dignity and balance freedom of expression with preventing harm.

    The Chinese-owned app has come under fire in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific, where a growing number of governments have banned TikTok from devices used for official business over worries it poses risks to cybersecurity and data privacy or could be used to push pro-Beijing narratives and misinformation.

    So far, there is no evidence to suggest this has happened or that TikTok has turned over user data to the Chinese government, as some of its critics have argued it would do.

    CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to appear Thursday before the U.S. Congress, where he will be grilled about the company’s privacy and data-security practices and relationship with the Chinese government.

    The guidelines, which take effect April 21, were repackaged from TikTok’s existing rules with extra details and explanations.

    Among the more significant changes are additional details about its restrictions on deepfakes, also known as synthetic media created by artificial intelligence technology. TikTok more clearly spells out its policy, saying all deepfakes or manipulated content that show realistic scenes must be labeled to indicate they’re fake or altered in some way.

    TikTok had previously banned deepfakes that mislead viewers about real-world events and cause harm. Its updated guidelines say deepfakes of private figures and young people are also not allowed.

    Deepfakes of public figures are OK in certain contexts, such as for artistic or educational content, but not for political or commercial endorsements.

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  • Killing of Maryland high schooler solved 52 years later

    Killing of Maryland high schooler solved 52 years later

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    MILLERSVILLE, Md. — More than a half-century after Maryland high school student Pamela Conyers was found strangled to death following her disappearance from a local shopping mall, law enforcement officials announced Friday that they finally solved the case.

    But the suspect, Forrest Clyde Williams III — whom detectives identified using DNA technology and genetics research — died in 2018 of natural causes. Officials haven’t linked him to other unsolved crimes, leaving many unanswered questions for residents of the close-knit suburban community outside Baltimore.

    The night of Conyers’ disappearance, the 16-year-old attended a high school pep rally and then drove to the mall. Her parents reported her missing when she never returned from running errands. Four days later, authorities discovered her body in a wooded area, not far from the family car she had been driving.

    There was no evidence to suggest Conyers knew her accused killer, Anne Arundel County police officials said at a news conference Friday. They also said they haven’t ruled out the possibility that another suspect was involved, meaning the case is not yet considered closed.

    Federal and local officials praised detectives for pursuing a decadeslong search for justice in the case.

    “We are pleased to deliver a measure of justice for Pamela Conyers and her loved ones,” said FBI agent Tom Sobocinski. “Cases may grow cold, investigators may change, but this proves that for law enforcement, victims are never forgotten.”

    Detectives used DNA analysis and a process called investigative genetic genealogy, both of which didn’t exist when Conyers was killed in 1970, Sobocinski said.

    When investigators collected evidence from the 1970 crime scene, they had no idea how it might later be used. But cold case detectives recently developed a DNA profile that they compared to information available in publicly accessible genealogical databases, officials said. That allowed them to identify potential relatives of the suspect, create a family tree and ultimately pinpoint Williams. He declined to specify which relatives led them to Williams or describe the process in detail.

    But Sobocinski said the case demonstrates how evolving technology allows law enforcement to solve cold cases, a process that “has given hope where previously there may have been none.”

    Such genealogic investigations have revolutionized cold case investigations across the country in recent years, though privacy advocates have expressed concern about the implications of law enforcement accessing public genealogy databases.

    Anne Arundel County officials provided little information about Williams, saying only that he had a sparse criminal history and spent most of his life in Virginia. He was 21 when Conyers was killed.

    Officials said his family moved to Maryland when Williams was a teenager and he attended an Anne Arundel County high school. He moved back to Virginia sometime later. Police presented an old mugshot of Williams from the early 1970s, saying he was arrested locally on minor counts, including drunk and disorderly conduct. Online court records didn’t include a reference to that arrest, though they show he received a citation for fishing without a license in 1990.

    Calls to phone numbers associated with his relatives weren’t immediately returned Friday.

    Williams was survived by two children and many other relatives, according to his obituary.

    “If he were still alive, he would have been charged with the murder of Pamela Conyers,” Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal Awad said during the Friday news conference.

    Officials said the Conyers family had requested privacy.

    Michael Golden, a high school classmate of Conyers, said the announcement brought some sense of closure — but also raised more questions. Golden attended the news conference with his high school yearbook in hand, opening it to a photo of Conyers.

    “It’s still frustrating because I don’t know anything about this guy,” he said of the suspect. “It’s something all of our classmates … have been grappling with for all these years.”

    Golden, who befriended Conyers during band practice, said he vividly remembers when she went missing. He recalled an image of her empty desk in trigonometry class the Monday morning after her disappearance.

    “I still mourn her death,” he said. “I got to grow old, and she didn’t. She’s forever 16.”

    David Wells, another longtime community member whose wife went to school with Conyers, said he was serving in the Air Force when the case was unfolding. He recalled being stationed in Hawaii and receiving letters from family members about the tragedy back home.

    Wells said he was surprised to learn detectives didn’t believe her killing was linked to other cold case homicides involving young women victims around the same time.

    While the investigation remains open, officials said detectives don’t believe the Conyers case is connected to the killing of Catherine Ann Cesnik, a Baltimore nun who went missing from a local shopping center and later was found dead from blunt force trauma. That case was featured in a 2017 Netflix documentary, “The Keepers.”

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  • French surveillance system for Olympics moves forward, despite civil rights campaign

    French surveillance system for Olympics moves forward, despite civil rights campaign

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    PARIS — A controversial video surveillance system cleared a legislative hurdle Wednesday to be used during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics amid opposition from left-leaning French politicians and digital rights NGOs, who argue it infringes upon privacy standards.

    The National Assembly’s law committee approved the system, but also voted to limit the temporary program’s duration until December 24, 2024, instead of June 2025. 

    The plan pitched by the French government includes experimental large-scale, real-time camera systems supported by an algorithm to spot suspicious behavior, including unsupervised luggage and alarming crowd movements like stampedes.  

    Earlier this week, civil society groups in France and beyond — including La Quadrature du Net, Access Now and Amnesty International — penned an op-ed in Le Monde raising concerns about what they argued was a “worrying precedent” that France could set in the EU. 

    There’s a risk that the measures, pitched as temporary, could become permanent, and they likely would not comply with the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, the groups also argue. 

    About 90 left-leaning lawmakers signed a petition initiated by La Quadrature du Net to scrap Article 7, which includes the AI-powered surveillance system. They failed, however, to gather enough votes to have it deleted from the bill. 

    Lawmakers also voted to ensure the general public is better informed of where the cameras are and to involve the cybersecurity agency ANSSI on top of the privacy regulator CNIL. They also widened the pool of images and data that can be used to train the algorithms ahead of the Olympics.

    The bill will go to a full plenary vote on March 21 for final approval.

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    Laura Kayali

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  • China says EU TikTok ban will harm business confidence

    China says EU TikTok ban will harm business confidence

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    BEIJING — China says a ban on the use of TikTok by official European Union institutions will harm business confidence in Europe.

    In the latest salvo in the battle over the Chinese-owned video sharing app, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council have banned TikTok from being installed on official devices

    That follows similar actions taken by the U.S. federal government, Congress and more than half of the 50 U.S. states. Canada has also banned it from government devices.

    TikTok is wildly popular among teens, but there are concerns China could use its legal and regulatory powers to obtain private user data or to try to push misinformation or narratives favoring China on the platform.

    China has been pushing back, though its ruling Communist Party has long blocked many foreign social media platforms and messaging apps, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram — and TikTok. A Chinese version of the app, Douyin, is permitted, but its content is not the same as that found on TikTok.

    “The EU claims to be the most open market in the world, but recently it has been taking restrictive measures and unreasonably suppressing other countries’ companies on the grounds of national security,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Wednesday.

    “This will dampen the international community’s confidence in the business environment in the EU,” Mao said.

    “The EU should match its words with deeds, respect the market economy and fair competition, stop overstretching and abusing the concept of national security and provide an open, fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for all companies,” Mao said.

    EU staffers are required to delete TikTok from devices that they use for professional business by March 15. In Norway, which is not a member of the 27-nation EU, the justice minister was forced to apologize this month for failing to disclose that she had installed TikTok on her government-issued phone.

    TikTok also has come under pressure from the EU to comply with upcoming new digital regulations aimed at getting big online platforms to clean up toxic and illegal content along with the bloc’s strict data privacy rules.

    In the U.S., the White House is giving a ll federal agencies, in guidance issued Monday, 30 days to wipe TikTok off all government devices. The White House already did not allow TikTok on its devices.

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  • Why TikTok is being banned on gov’t phones in US and beyond

    Why TikTok is being banned on gov’t phones in US and beyond

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    The United States is ratcheting up national security concerns about TikTok, mandating that all federal employees delete the Chinese-owned social media app from government-issued mobile phones. Other Western governments are pursuing similar bans, citing espionage fears.

    So how serious is the threat? And should TikTok users who don’t work for the government be worried about the app, too?

    The answers depend somewhat on whom you ask, and how concerned you are in general about technology companies gathering and sharing personal data.

    Here’s what to know:

    HOW ARE THE U.S. AND OTHER GOVERNMENTS BLOCKING TIKTOK?

    The White House said Monday it is giving U.S. federal agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices.

    Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forces and more than half of U.S. states had already banned TikTok amid concerns that its parent company, ByteDance, would give user data — such as browsing history and location — to the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

    The European Union’s executive branch has temporarily banned TikTok from employee phones, and Denmark and Canada have announced efforts to block TikTok on government-issued phones.

    China says the bans reveal the United States’ insecurities and are an abuse of state power. But they come at a time when Western technology companies, including Airbnb, Yahoo and LinkedIn, have been leaving China or downsizing operations there because of Beijing’s strict privacy law that specifies how companies can collect and store data.

    WHAT ARE THE CONCERNS ABOUT TIKTOK?

    Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with China’s authoritarian government.

    A law China implemented in 2017 requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to the country’s national security. There’s no evidence that TikTok has turned over such data, but fears abound due to the vast amount of user data it collects.

    Concerns were heightened in December when ByteDance said it fired four employees who accessed data on two journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down the source of a leaked report about the company. TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said the breach was an “egregious misuse” of the employees’ authority.

    There is also concern about TikTok’s content and whether it harms teenagers’ mental health. Researchers from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate said in a report released in December that eating disorder content on the platform had amassed 13.2 billion views. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. teens use TikTok, according to the Pew Research Center.

    WHO HAS PUSHED FOR TIKTOK RESTRICTIONS?

    In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his administration sought to force ByteDance to sell off its U.S. assets and ban TikTok from app stores. Courts blocked Trump’s efforts, and President Joe Biden rescinded Trump’s orders after taking office but ordered an in-depth study of the issue. A planned sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets was shelved.

    In Congress, concern about the app has been bipartisan. Congress passed the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act” in December as part of a sweeping government funding package. The legislation does allow for TikTok use in certain cases, including for national security, law enforcement and research purposes.

    House Republicans are expected to move forward Tuesday with a bill that would give Biden the power to ban TikTok nationwide. The legislation, proposed by Rep. Mike McCaul, looks to circumvent the challenges the administration would face in court if it moved forward with sanctions against the company.

    The bill has received pushback from civil liberties organizations. In a letter sent Monday to McCaul and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union said a nationwide TikTok ban would be unconstitutional and would “likely result in banning many other businesses and applications as well.”

    HOW RISKY IS TIKTOK?

    It depends on who you ask.

    U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has expressed concerns that the Chinese government could gain access to user data.

    “I don’t use TikTok, and I would not advise anyone to do so,” Monaco said earlier this month at the policy institute Chatham House in London.

    TikTok said in a blog post in June that it will route all data from U.S. users to servers controlled by Oracle, the Silicon Valley company it chose as its U.S. tech partner in 2020 in an effort to avoid a nationwide ban. But it is storing backups of the data in its own servers in the U.S. and Singapore. The company said it expects to delete U.S. user data from its own servers, but it did not provide a timeline as to when that would occur.

    But the amount of information TikTok collects might not be that different from other popular social media sites, experts say.

    In an analysis published in 2021, the University of Toronto’s nonprofit Citizen Lab said TikTok and Facebook collect similar amounts of user data, including device identifiers that can be used to track a user and other information that can piece together a user’s behavior across different platforms. It’s valuable information for advertisers.

    “If you are not comfortable with that level of data collection and sharing, you should avoid using the app,” the Citizen Lab report said.

    WHAT ARE OTHER EXPERTS SAYING?

    While the potential abuse of privacy by the Chinese government is concerning, “it’s equally concerning that the US government, and many other governments, already abuse and exploit the data collected by every other U.S.-based tech company with the same data-harvesting business practices,” said Evan Greer, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future.

    “If policy makers want to protect Americans from surveillance, they should advocate for a basic privacy law that bans all companies from collecting so much sensitive data about us in the first place, rather than engaging in what amounts to xenophobic showboating that does exactly nothing to protect anyone,” Greer said.

    Others say there is legitimate reason for concern.

    People who use TikTok might think they’re not doing anything that would be of interest to a foreign government, but that’s not always the case, said Anton Dahbura, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute. Important information about the United States is not strictly limited to nuclear power plants or military facilities; it extends to other sectors, such as food processing, the finance industry and universities, Dahbura said.

    WHAT DOES TIKTOK SAY?

    Its unclear how much the government-wide TikTok ban might impact the company. Oberwetter, the TikTok spokesperson, said it has “no way” of knowing whether its users are government employees.

    The company, though, has questioned the bans, saying it has not been given an opportunity to answer questions and that governments were cutting themselves off from a platform beloved by millions.

    “These bans are little more than political theater,” Oberwetter said.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify next month before Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will ask about the company’s privacy and data-security practices, as well as its relationship with the Chinese government.

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  • Why TikTok is being banned on gov’t phones in US and beyond

    Why TikTok is being banned on gov’t phones in US and beyond

    [ad_1]

    The United States is ratcheting up national security concerns about TikTok, mandating that all federal employees delete the Chinese-owned social media app from government-issued mobile phones. Other Western governments are pursuing similar bans, citing espionage fears.

    So how serious is the threat? And should TikTok users who don’t work for the government be worried about the app, too?

    The answers depend somewhat on whom you ask, and how concerned you are in general about technology companies gathering and sharing personal data.

    Here’s what to know:

    HOW ARE THE U.S. AND OTHER GOVERNMENTS BLOCKING TIKTOK?

    The White House said Monday it is giving U.S. federal agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices.

    Congress, the White House, U.S. armed forced and more than half of U.S. states had already banned TikTok amid concerns that its parent company, ByteDance, would give user data — such as browsing history and location — to the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

    The European Union’s executive branch has temporarily banned TikTok from employee phones, and Denmark and Canada have announced efforts to block TikTok on government-issued phones.

    China says the bans reveal the United States’ insecurities and are an abuse of state power. But they come at a time when Western technology companies, including Airbnb, Yahoo and LinkedIn, have been leaving China or downsizing operations there because of Beijing’s strict privacy law that specifies how companies can collect and store data.

    WHAT ARE THE CONCERNS ABOUT TIKTOK?

    Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with China’s authoritarian government.

    A law China implemented in 2017 requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to the country’s national security. There’s no evidence that TikTok has turned over such data, but fears abound due to the vast amount of user data it collects.

    Concerns were heightened in December when ByteDance said it fired four employees who accessed data on two journalists from Buzzfeed News and The Financial Times while attempting to track down the source of a leaked report about the company. TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said the breach was an “egregious misuse” of the employees’ authority.

    There is also concern about TikTok’s content and whether it harms teenagers’ mental health. Researchers from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate said in a report released in December that eating disorder content on the platform had amassed 13.2 billion views. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. teens use TikTok, according to the Pew Research Center.

    WHO HAS PUSHED FOR TIKTOK RESTRICTIONS?

    In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his administration sought to force ByteDance to sell off its U.S. assets and ban TikTok from app stores. Courts blocked Trump’s efforts, and President Joe Biden rescinded Trump’s orders after taking office but ordered an in-depth study of the issue. A planned sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets was shelved.

    In Congress, concern about the app has been bipartisan. Congress passed the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act” in December as part of a sweeping government funding package. The legislation does allow for TikTok use in certain cases, including for national security, law enforcement and research purposes.

    House Republicans are expected to move forward Tuesday with a bill that would give Biden the power to ban TikTok nationwide. The legislation, proposed by Rep. Mike McCaul, looks to circumvent the challenges the administration would face in court if it moved forward with sanctions against the company.

    The bill has received pushback from civil liberties organizations. In a letter sent Monday to McCaul and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union said a nationwide TikTok ban would be unconstitutional and would “likely result in banning many other businesses and applications as well.”

    HOW RISKY IS TIKOK?

    It depends on who you ask.

    U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has expressed concerns that the Chinese government could gain access to user data.

    “I don’t use TikTok, and I would not advise anyone to do so,” Monaco said earlier this month at the policy institute Chatham House in London.

    TikTok said in a blog post in June that it will route all data from U.S. users to servers controlled by Oracle, the Silicon Valley company it chose as its U.S. tech partner in 2020 in an effort to avoid a nationwide ban. But it is storing backups of the data in its own servers in the U.S. and Singapore. The company said it expects to delete U.S. user data from its own servers, but it did not provide a timeline as to when that would occur.

    But the amount of information TikTok collects might not be that different from other popular social media sites, experts say.

    In an analysis published in 2021, the University of Toronto’s nonprofit Citizen Lab said TikTok and Facebook collect similar amounts of user data, including device identifiers that can be used to track a user and other information that can piece together a user’s behavior across different platforms. It’s valuable information for advertisers.

    “If you are not comfortable with that level of data collection and sharing, you should avoid using the app,” the Citizen Lab report said.

    WHAT ARE OTHER EXPERTS SAYING?

    While the potential abuse of privacy by the Chinese government is concerning, “it’s equally concerning that the US government, and many other governments, already abuse and exploit the data collected by every other U.S.-based tech company with the same data-harvesting business practices,” said Evan Greer, director of the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future.

    “If policy makers want to protect Americans from surveillance, they should advocate for a basic privacy law that bans all companies from collecting so much sensitive data about us in the first place, rather than engaging in what amounts to xenophobic showboating that does exactly nothing to protect anyone,” Greer said.

    Others say there is legitimate reason for concern.

    People who use TikTok might think they’re not doing anything that would be of interest to a foreign government, but that’s not always be the case, said Anton Dahbura, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute. Important information about the United States is not strictly limited to nuclear power plants or military facilities; it extends to other sectors, such as food processing, the finance industry and universities, Dahbura said.

    WHAT DOES TIKTOK SAY?

    Its unclear how much the government-wide TikTok ban might impact the company. Oberwetter, the TikTok spokesperson, said it has “no way” of knowing whether its users are government employees.

    The company, though, has questioned the bans, saying it has not been given an opportunity to answer questions and that governments were cutting themselves off from a platform beloved by millions.

    “These bans are little more than political theater,” Oberwetter said.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify next month before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the company’s privacy and data-security practices, as well as its relationship with the Chinese government.

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  • France aims to protect kids from parents oversharing pics online

    France aims to protect kids from parents oversharing pics online

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    PARIS — French parents had better think twice before posting too many pictures of their offspring on social media.

    On Tuesday, members of the National Assembly’s law committee unanimously green-lit draft legislation to protect children’s rights to their own images.

    “The message to parents is that their job is to protect their children’s privacy,” Bruno Studer, an MP from President Emmanuel Macron’s party who put the bill forward, said in an interview. “On average, children have 1,300 photos of themselves circulating on social media platforms before the age of 13, before they are even allowed to have an account,” he added.

    The French president and his wife Brigitte have made child protection online a political priority. Lawmakers are also working on age-verification requirements for social media and rules to limit kids’ screen time.

    Studer, who was first elected in 2017, has made a career out of child safety online. In the past few years, he authored two groundbreaking pieces of legislation: one requiring smartphone and tablet manufacturers to give parents the option to control their children’s internet access, and another introducing legal protections for YouTube child stars.

    So-called sharenting (combining “sharing” and “parenting,” referring to posting sensitive pictures of one’s kids online) constitutes one of the main risks to children’s privacy, according to the bill’s explanatory statement. Half of the pictures shared by child sexual abusers were initially posted by parents on social media, according to reports by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, mentioned in the text.

    The legislation adopted on Tuesday includes protecting their children’s privacy among parents’ legal duties. Both parents would be jointly responsible for their offspring’s image rights and “shall involve the child … according to his or her age and degree of maturity.”

    In case of disagreement between parents, a judge can ban one of them from posting or sharing a child’s pictures without authorization from the other. And in the most extreme cases, parents can lose their parental authority over their kids’ image rights “if the dissemination of the child’s image by both parents seriously affects the child’s dignity or moral integrity.”

    The bill still needs to go through a plenary session next week and the Senate before it would become law.

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    Laura Kayali

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  • Britcoin? UK gets closer to launching a digital currency

    Britcoin? UK gets closer to launching a digital currency

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    LONDON — Britcoin is moving closer to reality.

    U.K. authorities on Monday said British businesses and consumers are likely to need a digital version of the pound, formally asking for public comment on the idea of introducing a central bank digital currency.

    Britain, home to the world’s second-biggest financial center, is trailing former colonies such as Nigeria, the Bahamas and Jamaica in rolling out a digital currency. More than 80% of the world’s central banks are considering launching digital currencies or have already done so, according to the consultant PwC.

    “While cash is here to stay, a digital pound issued and backed by the Bank of England could be a new way to pay that’s trusted, accessible and easy to use,” Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt said in a statement. “That’s why we want to investigate what is possible first, whilst always making sure we protect financial stability.”

    The call for public input comes almost two years after the Treasury and Bank of England said they were considering introducing a digital currency.

    While Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suggested naming the initiative “Britcoin” when he was Treasury chief, the Bank of England has stressed that the potential currency shouldn’t be confused with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

    Backed by the central bank, the new currency would be “reliable and retain its value over time,” in contrast to cryptocurrencies that can fluctuate wildly and threaten the holdings of investors, the Bank of England says on its website.

    That industry has been particularly unstable in recent months, escalating calls for greater regulation. Crypto crashes last year tanked assets, while crypto exchange FTX’s multibillion-dollar collapse and bankruptcy in November triggered fraud charges against founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

    The proposed digital currency would be denominated in pounds, with 10 pounds of digital currency always equal to a 10-pound note, the bank said. Held in a digital wallet, the currency could be used to pay for goods and services electronically.

    Supporters of central bank digital currencies say they make digital transactions easier and cheaper and expand access to the financial system because they can be used by people who don’t have bank accounts.

    This is one of the reasons the Bahamas became the first country to introduce a digital currency in 2020. Nigeria and Jamaica have since followed suit, with China and more than 20 other countries running trial projects. The U.S. and European Union are considering introducing digital currencies.

    But digital currencies also present risks, including cyberattacks, privacy concerns and the danger that they can be used by criminals.

    Because money invested in central bank digital currencies is safer than a bank deposit, they also may draw savings away from commercial banks and weaken the financial system, critics argue.

    A digital pound would have “risks but no obvious benefits,” former Bank of England Gov. Mervyn King, now a member of the House of Lords, said recently.

    While such digital currencies may be useful in countries that don’t have effective banking systems, that’s not the case in the Britain, he said.

    “The government has said that it wants the U.K. to be at the forefront of innovation, crypto-assets and fintech, but we need to be selective and not driven by a misplaced enthusiasm for all things crypto,” King said.

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  • French privacy chief warns against using facial recognition for 2024 Olympics

    French privacy chief warns against using facial recognition for 2024 Olympics

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    PARIS — The French data protection authority’s president Marie-Laure Denis warned Tuesday against using facial recognition as part of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics security toolkit.

    “The members of the CNIL’s college call on parliamentarians not to introduce facial recognition, that is to say the identification of people on the fly in the public space,” she told Franceinfo.

    The French government is seeking to ramp up France’s arsenal of surveillance powers to ensure the safety of the millions of tourists expected for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. The plans include AI-powered cameras for the first time — but not facial recognition.

    The Senate’s plenary session starts to vote today on the law introducing the new powers. Senators are divided between those who want to add privacy safeguards and those who want to push the surveillance and security arsenal further, mainly by introducing facial recognition.

    “The amendment [to include facial recognition] was rejected in the Senate’s law committee, but it can come back [in the plenary session],” the CNIL’s chief cautioned.

    Civil liberties NGOs such as La Quadrature du Net and the Human Rights League are currently campaigning against the experimental AI-powered surveillance cameras. Denis however tried to assuage concerns.

    The CNIL will monitor algorithmic training to ensure there is no bias and that footage of people is deleted in due time, she said. The experiment will “not necessarily” become permanent, she added.

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    Laura Kayali

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