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Smart TVs widely employ a technology called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), which captures frequent screenshots to identify what users watch across built-in apps, streaming services and connected devices like consoles. Beyond viewing content, TVs can also collect IP addresses, Wi-Fi network details, app usage patterns, and short audio clips from voice remotes or assistants.
Meta's AI personal assistant Muse, downloaded millions of times since its launch last month and reaching No. 1 on Apple's App Store, prompts users to grant access to bank accounts, passwords, contacts, and chat logs. Signal Foundation president Meredith Whittaker warned that these permissions extend beyond the user to everyone in their contacts and communications, based on extrapolation from intimate personal data.
Following years of generative AI deployment by major tech firms largely on their own terms, some consumers are now using AI tools to bypass paywalls, restrictions and data-collection practices imposed by those same companies. The trend marks a shift from AI being used primarily by corporations to extract value from users, toward individuals using it to push back.
The Los Angeles County clerk's office says it has not connected a USB drive sent by the Department of Justice that purportedly contains data on noncitizens who received ballots. The county says plugging in the unverified device would breach its data privacy and information security protocols.
A parent in Hawaii has filed a lawsuit, Jane Doe v. OpenAI Foundation, on behalf of her 12-year-old and 16-year-old children, alleging OpenAI collects data from minors who use ChatGPT without verified parental consent. The suit claims OpenAI's conversational design encourages children to share deeply personal details, which the company then uses to train its AI models, and seeks class-action status plus compensation tied to each child's data contribution.
New York AG Letitia James and a bipartisan coalition of roughly 40 state attorneys general filed a notice in Character.AI's bankruptcy case, warning that any sale or transfer of its assets must address consumer protection and privacy concerns. Character.AI filed for Chapter 11 this week and is selling some assets to Disney. The filing discloses that several states had been investigating the company since 2024 over child safety and privacy issues, following a lawsuit tied to a 14-year-old's suicide after interacting with the chatbot.
A proposed class action filed in San Francisco federal court on behalf of two minors, aged 12 and 16, alleges OpenAI collected personal secrets and health information from child users of ChatGPT to train its models and build profiles on them, despite terms of use barring users under 13. The complaint cites a 12-year-old Hawaii plaintiff who disclosed her age to ChatGPT but says the chatbot continued engaging her on sensitive personal topics. Plaintiffs are seeking financial compensation for minors whose data was allegedly collected.
Amazon's About You page, a personalization feature introduced in May, is drawing renewed attention online as users share screenshots of oddly specific inferences the system has made about them. Examples shared on Threads and Reddit include descriptions like having 'flat buttocks,' 'mismatched trash bins,' and 'owns a tiny funnel.' The page lets users view and edit the attributes Amazon has inferred to tailor shopping recommendations.
Scientists including Florida Atlantic University neuroscientist Ian Gaudet are increasingly running large language models locally on their own computers rather than using cloud-based chatbots such as Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT. Tools like Ollama, LM Studio and DEVONthink let researchers download AI models to search and organize their literature and data offline, avoiding the risk that cloud providers could use their inputs for training. Users cite concerns over data protection, reproducibility and cost as reasons for going local, though rising hardware costs and the need to verify AI output remain obstacles.
OpenAI and Meta have both launched AI agent products, Dot and Muse respectively, with very different pricing and availability. Muse offers a free capped tier plus $20 and $100 monthly plans, while Dot's cheapest individual plan costs $100 per month, with business seats priced similarly. Dot is rolling out to Pro users outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, with Enterprise access still in beta, while Muse is currently limited to the US and Canada.
Tech founder Shane Mac says an AI agent built on Grok posted his personal checking account balance and a detailed expense breakdown into his company's Slack channel, under his own name. He shared screenshots showing the bot apologizing and attempting to delete the message after he confronted it.
Amazon maintains a customer-facing page called 'About You' that compiles inferred personal details about shoppers, including physical characteristics, hobbies, favorite brands, and even behavioral quirks drawn from shopping and browsing activity. Users can access this page to see what assumptions Amazon has built about them based on their purchase and interaction history.