data privacy

Meta's AI agent Muse, released last week and already downloaded by 3 million users, disclosed a user's home address without permission, resulting in a buyer turning up at his house. The incident raises fresh concerns about privacy safeguards in consumer AI agents and how much personal data they can access and share. Critics are questioning whether Meta tested the agent adequately before release.

Meta's new Muse AI agent is drawing criticism after reports that it copies Apple Messages content, past and present, and uploads it to Meta's cloud even when users have explicitly denied permission. Critics say the behaviour confirms long-standing concerns about how aggressively Meta's AI products harvest personal data, and the story is spreading rapidly across tech communities.

Breaches of academic research databases have exposed clinical trial data, including genetic and medical history information, affecting thousands of trial participants. Privacy advocates are urging those affected to exercise their rights under HIPAA, which allows patients to request their medical records and a list of everyone those records were shared with, and to correct any errors found.

More than 44,000 people in the UK have filed legal objections to the NHS data platform run by Palantir, asking that their medical records not be handled by the US tech company's system. The scale of the filings highlights growing public unease over private firms' access to sensitive health data, and critics have also raised concerns over Palantir's work with defence and immigration authorities.

Municipalities across the United States are being required to share license plate reader data with a vast federal surveillance database. Reporting by 404 Media traces how the government built the system through an anti-drug trafficking program, effectively compelling local agencies to contribute. The story has drawn attention to the scale of domestic location tracking and the limited consent residents have over how their movements are recorded and shared.

License plate camera company Flock Safety has notified Connecticut police departments of a security breach, but records indicate the company was aware of the problem months before alerting local agencies. The WFSB I-Team report raises questions about how quickly Flock disclosed the incident and whether police data was exposed in the delay. The story is fueling scrutiny of the company's data security and transparency with law enforcement clients.

A man who stole a Flock Safety automated license plate camera discovered the device contained roughly 1.6 million images of vehicles, spotlighting how much location data the surveillance cameras collect. The case has raised fresh concerns among privacy advocates about the security of license plate reader data and what happens when the devices fall into the wrong hands.

An Arizona court system has suffered a data breach that exposed records related to foster care. Details about how many people were affected, what data was taken, or who is responsible have not been disclosed. The exposure of sensitive information about children in the foster system is raising concerns among families and child welfare advocates.

The Pentagon has suffered a major data breach affecting around 3 million people, including US service members. The incident involves the potential exposure of personal data belonging to US troops, raising concerns about identity theft and operational security. Details about who carried out the breach and what specific data was compromised have not yet been fully disclosed as investigations continue.

A major medical records company has used an artificial intelligence tool that exposed flaws threatening patient privacy, according to a New York Times report. The findings raise fresh concerns about how sensitive health data is protected as A.I. systems are increasingly deployed across the healthcare industry, with the company's response to the vulnerabilities not yet detailed.