Germany's data protection commissioner has asked Apple and Google to remove Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from their app stores in the country due to concerns about data protection, following a similar crackdown elsewhere.
FRANKFURT, June 27 (Reuters) - Germany's data protection commissioner has asked Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab and Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab to remove Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from their app stores in the country due to concerns about data protection, following a similar crackdown elsewhere.
Commissioner Meike Kamp said in a statement on Friday that she had made the request because DeepSeek illegally transfers users' personal data to China.
The two U.S. tech giants must now review the request promptly and decide whether to block the app in Germany, she added, though her office has not set a precise timeframe.
Google said it had received the notice and was reviewing it.
DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment. Apple was not immediately available for comment.
According to its own privacy policy, opens new tab, DeepSeek stores numerous pieces of personal data, such as requests to its AI programme or uploaded files, on computers in China.
"DeepSeek has not been able to provide my agency with convincing evidence that German users' data is protected in China to a level equivalent to that in the European Union," Kamp said.
"Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies," she added.
The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice.
The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe.
Having secured broad cross-party agreement, the department of culture plans to submit a proposal to amend the current law for consultation before the summer recess and then submit the amendment in the autumn.
It defines a deepfake as a very realistic digital representation of a person, including their appearance and voice.
The Danish culture minister, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, said he hoped the bill before parliament would send an “unequivocal message” that everybody had the right to the way they looked and sounded.
He told the Guardian: “In the bill we agree and are sending an unequivocal message that everybody has the right to their own body, their own voice and their own facial features, which is apparently not how the current law is protecting people against generative AI.”
He added: “Human beings can be run through the digital copy machine and be misused for all sorts of purposes and I’m not willing to accept that.”
The move, which is believed to have the backing of nine in 10 MPs, comes amid rapidly developing AI technology that has made it easier than ever to create a convincing fake image, video or sound to mimic the features of another person.
The changes to Danish copyright law will, once approved, theoretically give people in Denmark the right to demand that online platforms remove such content if it is shared without consent.
Spyware maker NSO Group will have to pay more than $167 million in damages to WhatsApp for a 2019 hacking campaign against more than 1,400 users.
On Tuesday, after a five-year legal battle, a jury ruled that NSO Group must pay $167,254,000 in punitive damages and around $444,719 in compensatory damages.
This is a huge legal win for WhatsApp, which had asked for more than $400,000 in compensatory damages, based on the time its employees had to dedicate to remediate the attacks, investigate them, and push fixes to patch the vulnerability abused by NSO Group, as well as unspecified punitive damages.
WhatsApp’s spokesperson Zade Alsawah said in a statement that “our court case has made history as the first victory against illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone.”
Alsawah said the ruling “is an important step forward for privacy and security as the first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone. Today, the jury’s decision to force NSO, a notorious foreign spyware merchant, to pay damages is a critical deterrent to this malicious industry against their illegal acts aimed at American companies and the privacy and security of the people we serve.”
NSO Group’s spokesperson Gil Lainer left the door open for an appeal.
“We will carefully examine the verdict’s details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal,” Lainer said in a statement.
La Confédération n'avait pas établi de distinction entre les fournisseurs de services de communication dérivés. Toutes les entreprises classées comme FSDC sont soumises à des obligations de coopération moins strictes – jusqu'à présent. Le Conseil fédéral souhaite désormais introduire une catégorisation plus précise pour les FSDC. Il prévoit à cet effet un modèle à trois niveaux, à savoir les FSDC avec des obligations «minimales», avec des obligations «restreintes» et avec des obligations «complètes».
Une révision partielle des ordonnances relatives au service de surveillance de la correspondance postale et des télécommunications (service SCPT) fait des remous dans le secteur technologique suisse. La pierre d'achoppement est une nouvelle classification des entreprises qui doivent aider le service SCPT dans ses activités de surveillance.
Jusqu'à présent, la Confédération faisait la distinction entre les fournisseurs de services de télécommunication (FST) et les fournisseurs de services de communication dérivés (FSDC), selon un communiqué de la Confédération. La Confédération divisait également les FST en deux sous-catégories, à savoir ceux les FST ayant des obligations complètes et les FST ayant des obligations restreintes.
Trois nouveaux niveaux
La Confédération n'avait pas établi de distinction entre les fournisseurs de services de communication dérivés. Toutes les entreprises classées comme FSDC sont soumises à des obligations de coopération moins strictes – jusqu'à présent. Le Conseil fédéral souhaite désormais introduire une catégorisation plus précise pour les FSDC. Il prévoit à cet effet un modèle à trois niveaux, à savoir les FSDC avec des obligations «minimales», avec des obligations «restreintes» et avec des obligations «complètes».
In a sanctions package including more than 150 new measures, the British government said it was closing loopholes being exploited by the Kremlin.
Switzerland's National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) has announced a new reporting obligation for critical infrastructure organizations in the country, requiring them to report cyberattacks to the agency within 24 hours of their discovery.
Four distributors of the encrypted communications service Sky ECC, used extensively by criminals, were arrested in Spain and the Netherlands.
The Spanish police have arrested a suspected hacker in Alicante for allegedly conducting 40 cyberattacks targeting critical public and private organizations, including the Guardia Civil, the Ministry of Defense, NATO, the US Army, and various universities.
Elle estimait que la société chargée du renouvellement de ses serveurs informatiques avait failli dans sa mission.
Telegram reveals that the communications platform has fulfilled 900 U.S. government requests, sharing the phone number or IP address information of 2,253 users with law enforcement.
Chinese social media platforms like WeChat, Douyin, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo now required popular users’ legal names to be made visible to the public.
Meta has been fined €251 million (around $263 million) in the European Union for a Facebook security breach that affected millions of users, which the
Health care breaches lead to legislation
Highlights of the new standard include:
An international law enforcement operation led to the arrest of one of the three administrators of the dual dark web market 'Bohemia/Cannabia,' known for hosting ads for drug sales and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Europol and law enforcement from nine countries successfully dismantled an encrypted communications platform called
Meta and X have already paused some AI training over same set of concerns.
À l'occasion d'un communiqué de presse publié le 14 août 2024, le Conseil fédéral a approuvé le Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF) et arrêté son en vigueur au 15 septembre 2024. Selon cette décision, les entreprises américaines participant au Swiss-U.S. DPF garantissent un niveau adéquat de protection des données en vertu de la LPD, de sorte que les données personnelles peuvent être transférées aux entreprises américaines participantes sans avoir à conclure de clauses contractuelles types adoptées par la Commission Européenne (SCC) et sans qu'il soit nécessaire de procéder à une analyse d'impact du transfert de données.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority imposed the largest fine yet against facial recognition company Clearview AI under the GDPR.
Three men have pleaded guilty to running OTP.Agency, an online platform that provided social engineering help to obtain one-time passcodes from customers of various banks and services in the U.K.
The popular Docker-OSX project has been removed from Docker Hub after Apple filed a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown request, alleging that it violated its copyright.
