Meta is violating the EU data protection law by requiring users to pay for ad-free service or consent to the use of their personal data, eight European consumer groups alleged Thursday. Meta didn't immediately comment. The groups, from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, France, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain, are European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) members. In complaints filed with their national data protection authorities (DPAs), they charged the tech giant with failing to comply with GDPR principles of fair processing, data minimization and purpose limitation. Moreover, they said Meta has no valid legal basis to justify the massive data sweep it carries out on Facebook and Instagram users because the choice it gives them can't lead to free and informed consent. "Meta has tried time and time again to justify the massive commercial surveillance it places its users under," said BEUC Deputy Director-General Ursula Pachl. "Its unfair 'pay-or-consent' choice is the company's latest effort to legalise its business model." In recent years several DPAs have tried to force Meta to change the legal basis for collecting and processing people's data, and the company's "last resort" is to obtain users' consent for those activities by offering them the choice to either pay to see a supposedly ad-free service or consent to the company's full commercial surveillance with ads, BEUC said. Asked why BEUC didn't file the complaint with the DPA in Ireland, where Meta is headquartered, a spokesperson said the organization wanted to involve national data protection authorities that can then take ownership of the issue when those authorities transfer the matter to the Irish authority. In addition, he said, BEUC wanted to involve its members because they know the procedural rules of their own DPAs and to maximize coverage of the issue to show that it affects all Europeans.

Congress should approve legislation increasing funding for investigations and prosecutions of child sexual abuse material cases, consumer and tech groups wrote in a joint letter Tuesday. Center for Democracy and Technology, Chamber of Progress, Computer & Communications Industry Association, NetChoice, TechFreedom and TechNet joined groups in signing a letter to Congress supporting the Invest in Child Safety Act (see 2402160058). Introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., the bill would authorize $5 billion in mandatory funding for investigations and prosecution through 2030. The letter cites a 2023 report from Stop Child Predators, which claimed that in 2022 law enforcement had the “capacity and resources to investigate less than 1% of all reports of CSAM received by the CyberTipline.”

Comments are due March 27 on SpaceX's application to relinquish its designation in Utah as an eligible telecommunications carrier, the state Public Service Commission said Monday. Meanwhile, Montana's PSC said this week it received an application to relinquish Starlink's ETC designation.

FTC Chair Lina Khan is one of the “few” Biden administration officials who’s “doing a pretty good job,” Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, said Tuesday at RemedyFest. He credited Khan with building a pro-competitive marketplace that accounts for more than just consumer prices. Many Republicans believe Khan is engaging in “fundamentally evil” behavior, given her aggressive approach to competition policy, said Vance: “I look at Lina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden administration who I think is actually doing a pretty good job. And that sort of sets me apart from most of my Republican colleagues.” He noted progress on bipartisan agreements between people like himself and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on the right and Khan and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on the left. Speaking separately, Khan credited Vance for his bipartisan legislation with Warren pushing banking reforms. Policymakers' goal should be establishing a system where the best ideas can succeed through open and fair markets, said Khan. She said startups and company founders often tell her about dominant companies blocking ideas from coming to the market or squeezing out competition when startups begin succeeding. The antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s helped open the door for startups like Google, and today’s policies must allow the next wave of innovation, she said.

The public will have until March 27 to comment on NTIA’s examination of benefits and risks of open and closed AI models (see 2402210041), according to a notice scheduled for Monday's Federal Register.

Avast misrepresented itself and sold user data without consent, the FTC alleged in a $16.5 million settlement announced with the U.K.-based software company Thursday. Since at least 2014, Avast has collected consumer browsing data through its browser extensions and antivirus software, according to the FTC complaint. Until 2020, Avast’s subsidiary Jumpshot sold the browsing information to more than 100 third parties, including “advertising, marketing and data analytics companies and data brokers,” the agency said. The company claimed it used an algorithm that removed identifying information but failed to “sufficiently anonymize consumers’ browsing information that it sold in non-aggregate form through various products,” the agency said. Chair Lina Khan said in a joint statement with Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya: “Exposing people’s detailed browsing data in ways that can be traced back to them marks an invasion of privacy and is likely to cause substantial injury. ... Businesses that sell or share browser history data without affirmatively obtaining people’s permission may be in violation of the law.” An attorney for Avast didn't comment.

DOJ hired Princeton computer science assistant professor Jonathan Mayer as its first chief science and technology adviser and first chief AI officer, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday. DOJ “must keep pace with rapidly evolving scientific and technological developments in order to fulfill our mission to uphold the rule of law,” said Garland. Mayer's hiring follows the direction of President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI.

NTIA on Wednesday requested comment on the benefits and risks of open and closed AI models. At the direction of President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, NTIA is exploring how widely available AI models can influence society and national security, said Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said, “These models can help unleash innovation across communities by making powerful tools accessible, but that same accessibility also poses serious risks.” NTIA is seeking input on varying degrees of AI model openness and the government’s role in “guiding, supporting, or restricting the availability of AI model weights.” Comments will be due 30 days after the request for comment is published in the Federal Register.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the FCC’s motion suspending the briefing schedule on Maurine and Matthew Molak's petition for review to vacate the commission’s Oct. 25 declaratory ruling that authorizes E-rate program funding for Wi-Fi on school buses until the court resolves the FCC’s motion to dismiss the Molaks’ petition (see 2402070002), said a clerk’s order Thursday (docket 23-60641). But the 5th Circuit, in a separate clerk’s order Thursday, denied the FCC’s unopposed motion for extra time to reply to the Molaks’ opposition to the motion to dismiss (see 2402120064).

The FTC is seeking public comment on changes to its impersonation rules to address growing complaints about AI-driven impersonation, the agency announced Thursday. The FTC issued a supplemental NPRM that would prohibit such impersonation. It would extend protections of a new rule on government and business impersonation the commission expected to finalize Thursday. The FTC said it issued the supplemental notice in response to “surging complaints around impersonation fraud, as well as public outcry about the harms caused to consumers and to impersonated individuals.” AI-generated deepfakes could “turbocharge this scourge, and the FTC is committed to using all of its tools to detect, deter, and halt impersonation fraud,” the agency added. The new rule allows the FTC to seek monetary relief from scammers in federal court. The public comment period will open for 60 days once the supplemental rule is published in the Federal Register. Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Thursday proposed legislation that would establish new penalties for AI-created deepfakes. The bill is included in her fiscal 2025 executive budget. It would create misdemeanor charges for “unauthorized uses of a person’s voice” and establish a private right of action to seek damages for harms associated with digitally manipulated images. The bill would “require disclosures on digitized political communications published within 60 days of an election.”