United Kingdom
Palantir defends its record as MPs demand more scrutiny of data use
- Guidance has been sent to every trust in NHS England which states they should all be using Palantir’s core products in hospitals from this month. This has received significant backlash, Labour MP Emily Darlington told the BBC that Palantir being involved with patient data in the NHS was a “major security risk”.
- The analytics company is headquartered in the US and was contracted by the NHS for its Foundry “federated data platform” (FDP). The FDP software is designed to link up otherwise-incompatible databases, which fixes an issue that has hindered the NHS, where unrelated IT systems are used in different locations, such as patient’s GP, clinic, and hospital.
- Palantir has argued its software allows “access, integration and analysis of those databases for things like waiting lists, hospital supplies, and available beds and operating theatres”.
- Fears around data security have been brushed off by Palantir, who have said that they have no interest in patient data in the UK. However, critics have pointed to Palantir’s funding links to the CIA, leading to allegations around surveillance, its contracts with the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), and its owner Peter Thiel being a major donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
About 15,000 drivers can pursue Arnold Clark data breach claim
- Around 15,000 drivers have been told they can pursue a compensation claim against Arnold Clark after a dark web data breach.
- Back in 2022, the car dealership company suffered from a cyber-attack which resulted in customer data appearing online. The details of customers held by the firm were believed to include copies of passports and drivers’ licenses.
- Arnold Clark’s headquarters are located in Glasgow and had argued that legal action should be stopped as a similar case is already being pursued in England. However, the Court of Session has ruled that because vehicles were sold in Scotland, customers could proceed with their claim.
- In the latest group proceedings, Lord Sandison heard evidence that many customers did not believe the company did enough to protect their personal data.
United States
AI ruling prompts warnings from US lawyers: Your chats could be used against you
- Some U.S. lawyers are warning their clients not to treat AI chatbots like trusted confidants when their freedom or legal liability is on the line. This comes as people are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence for advice.
- This has come after a federal judge in New York ruled this year that the former CEO of a bankrupt financial services company could not shield his AI chats from prosecutors pursuing securities fraud charges against him.
- It is being informed to clients that conversations with chatbots could be demanded by prosecutors in criminal cases or by litigation adversaries in civil cases.
- Under U.S. law, individuals’ discussions with their lawyers are practically always confidential, but AI chatbots are not lawyers and should not be treated as such.
- Advisories have been posted to many law firms’ websites, outlining advice for people and companies to decrease the chances of AI chats turning up in court.
What is Anthropic’s Mythos AI model and why does it have the financial world in a panic?
- Anthropic PBC’s latest AI release has put the financial world in panic. The San Francisco-based company had announced that it developed a powerful general-purpose AI model called Mythos that excels at uncovering and exploiting software vulnerabilities. The tool is so powerful that Anthropic has declined to release it to the general public.
- Financial regulators in some countries, including Canada, gathered to discuss the implications for financial system resiliency.
- Up until Mythos, AI models could not find and exploit serious software vulnerabilities on their own. Instead, they would provide assistance to a skilled human so that work would be faster. However, Mythos can run on its own – it can look at a piece of software, find a weakness, and figure out how to exploit it without a person walking through each step.
- Anthropic had acknowledged that Mythos had discovered thousands of high severity vulnerabilities in major operating systems and web browser.
- Financial regulators and executives are concerned by Mythos due to the new and increasingly powerful AI capabilities that can identify software vulnerabilities faster and easier. This could lead to very sophisticated cyber-attacks that could be seen across multiple institutions.
Europe
Italy court allows class action against Meta over Facebook data scraping
- A Milan court accepted a class action brought by a consumer group against Meta Platforms over the theft of personal data suffered by Facebook Italy.
- The data scraping incident, which took place between January 2018 and September 2019, affected around 533 million Facebook users globally.
- The CTCU consumer association is seeking compensation on behalf of social media users who lost, or feared losing, control over their personal data in breach of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- It has been estimated that around 35 million Facebook users in Italy could potentially be affected by the data scraping.
- A Meta spokesperson has said that they disagree with the court’s decision and that Meta has not violated any law.
For the latest updates on data breaches, AI, the Meta class action and more, visit our Data Protection News hub.
