Following an initial report on AI Foundation Models (FMs) last year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has expressed “real concerns” about it and is investigating the dominance of a small number of big tech firms at the centre…

The US The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that robo-calls using AI-generated voices are now illegal. What Are Robocalls And Why Make Them Illegal? A robo-call is a call made using voice cloning technology with an…

Following the recent boardroom power struggle that led to the sacking and reinstatement of OpenAI boss Sam Altman, Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI is now under US and UK antitrust scrutiny.  What Happened?  A recent boardroom…

It’s been reported that a trade group for U.S. authors (including John Grisham) has sued OpenAI, accusing it of unlawfully training its chatbot ChatGPT on their work.  Which Authors?  The Authors Guild trade group has filed the…

In this insight, we look at how, according to an investigation by Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), criminals may have been using Spotify to launder money since 2019.  How?  The reported money laundering process, which…

In this insight, we look at the new online form where customers can report online rip-offs that’s been developed as part of the new government campaign “The Online Rip-Off Tip-Off” to help shoppers spot and avoid misleading online practices. The…

Embattled Chinese owned short-video-sharing platform TikTok has received a £12.7m fine from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for breaching UK data protection law by failing to protect children’s privacy when using the TikTok…

Following the banning of Chinese short video sharing app TikTok from EU and US government devices, plus more trouble on the way in Canada, we look at some of the reasons why.  Banned From EU Government Devices  The European Commission…

The Government’s decision to amend the Online Safety Bill to allow ‘legal but harmful’ content has received a mixed reaction with criticism coming from The Samaritans.  What Is The Online Safety Bill? The UK government’s Online…

Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch has filed a complaint to the ICO that the face recognition search engine PimEyes may be unlawful, plus it could be enabling surveillance and stalking.  What Is PimEyes?  PimEyes is a search…

In this article, we look at how the risks to businesses posed by pirated software can far outweigh the benefits of using it, and how you can protect your business from the true costs of pirated software.  Benefits  On the surface,…

A Strengthened EU ‘Code of Practice on Disinformation’ will require big tech companies to take more action to ensure that purveyors of disinformation do not benefit from advertising revenues.  Broader Range Of Commitments  The…

In this article, we look at the cyber-crime gang Lapsus$, how they operate and the details of some of their recent high-profile attacks.  Lapsus$ ?  Lapsus$ is reported to be a mostly teenage cyber-crime gang (hackers), mainly…

In this insight, we look at what scalping is and why some people are looking to introduce legislation to stop it.   Scalping   The term “scalping” refers to stockpiling popular products and reselling them at a higher price…

Following recent announcements of a toughening-up of the (draft) Online Safety Bill, we look at what the bill is, and what its implications are. What Is The Online Safety Bill For? The UK government’s Online Safety Bill is (draft) legislation…

The introduction of the Age Appropriate Design Code (also known as the Children’s Code) by the ICO means that Facebook has decided to ask Instagram users to give their date of birth as part of the login. Age Appropriate Design Code The…

In this article, we take a brief look at the many different ways that technology is increasingly being used by legal professionals and by those seeking legal services, and how advancement such as AI are making a valuable contribution. DoNotPay DoNotPay…

The ICO has fined home improvements company ColourCoat Ltd £130,000 for making more than 900,000 nuisance marketing calls! What? ColourCoat Ltd of St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, which provides a number of home improvement services,…

Police in Sandwell in the West Midlands recently discovered a warehouse that had been converted to an operation to illegally supply large quantities of electricity for Bitcoin mining. Same Heat & Electricity Profile as a Cannabis Farm The…

Following the recent leak of an EU draft of rules for applying to AI, 40 MEPs have called for a ban on the use of facial recognition and other types of biometric surveillance in public places. Draft Rules The leaked draft rules by EU…

Consumer review website Trustpilot has expressed concerns over freedom of speech after a firm of London solicitors sued someone over a bad review. What Happened? Philip James Waymouth, who had sought legal advice (online) from London-based…

Doubt has again been cast on the effectiveness of HMRC’s IR35 tax status checker tool after news that it failed to provide a response in nearly 20 per cent of cases. IR35 The IR35 tax reform legislation that is designed to stop tax…

At a time when smaller news outlets have been forced to close and big tech companies dominate distribution, the Australian Government may make the likes of Google and Facebook pay for their news content. What’s The Problem? The pandemic…

An international law enforcement operation has led to the cracking of the EncroChat Android phone network and the arrest of criminal gangs. The Network The France-based EncroChat network, which was discovered by the French National…

When employees leave (or are asked to leave) or retire from businesses and organisations, those entities still have a legal responsibility to ensure that security levels are maintained with regards to data security. Laws For Data The…

There have been calls for government intervention after it was alleged that South Yorkshire Police shared its images of serious offenders with a private landlord (Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield) as part of a live facial recognition…

A poll by recruitment firm Hays appears to show a lack of awareness about preparedness for next year’s new IR35 tax reforms for medium-to-larger private sector organisations. What Is IR35? The IR35 tax reform legislation, set to be…

A report by IT company Prism Solutions has highlighted how traditional accountancy firms are having to change rapidly to meet challenges such as Cloud computing, GDPR and HMRC pressing quickly ahead with ‘Making Tax Digital’ (MTD). MTD According…

Multinational IT security company ‘Trend Micro’ has highlighted the future threat of cybercriminals making and posting (or threatening to post) malicious ‘deep fake’ videos online in order to cause damage to reputations and/or to extract…

Reports of a 2018 investigation by China Labour Watch (CLW) into the Amazon Echo manufacture at the Hengyang Foxconn factory show that the recruiting of young interns from vocational schools could mean that the Amazon devices are made with…

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has concluded that HMRC has breached GDPR in the way that it collected the biometric voice records of users and now must delete five million biometric voice files. What Voice Files? Back in…

The new UK Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 means that you could face up to 15 years in jail if you visit web pages where you can obtain information that’s deemed to be useful to ‘committing or preparing an act of terrorism'. Really? The…

The fact that the voiceprints of more than 2 million people have been added to HMRC’s Voice ID scheme since June 2018, to add to the 5 million plus other voiceprints already collected, has led to complaints and challenges to the lawfulness…

The UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has issued advice to holders of .eu domains that, in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit, they may need to switch to another top-level domain such as .com and may also need…

A vote in January on contentious new EU copyright laws could negatively impact tech platforms and all online publishers, create risky legal grey areas for many businesses, stifle freedom of expression, and lead to more surveillance and control. What…

It may be no surprise to hear that California, home of Silicon Valley, has become the first state to pass laws to make AI bots 'introduce themselves' (i.e. identify themselves as bots), and to ban weak default passwords. Other states and countries…

The results of a new survey by analytics, business intelligence and data management firm SAS indicate that more than half of UK consumers look likely to exercise their new GDPR rights within the first year of GDPR’s introduction. GDPR The…

Even though, in an interview this week, President Trump appeared to absolve Russia of election interference (since retracted), the US Department of Justice has now charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic officials in…

The ‘Deceived By Design’ report by the government-funded Norwegian Consumer Council has accused tech giants Microsoft, Facebook and Google of being unethical by leading users into selecting settings that do not benefit their privacy. Illusion…

In an almost inevitable turn of events, the social media and tech giants Facebook, Google, Instagram and WhatsApp faced a barrage of accusations that they were not compliant within hours of GDPR being introduced on May 25th. What’s Wrong? The…