SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — European officials widened a ban on Meta’s “behavioral advertising” practices to most of Europe on Wednesday, setting up a broader conflict between the continent’s privacy-conscious institutions and an American technology giant. Behavioral advertising, used by Meta’s Facebook and Instagram among many other tech companies, involves observing individual behavior such as browsing […]

New York would restrict the way online platforms like Instagram and YouTube can collect and share children’s personal information and let parents keep their kids from being bombarded by “addictive” feeds from accounts they don’t follow, under legislation proposed Wednesday. The bills offered by state leaders are aimed at protecting young people from features designed […]

LONDON (AP) — Meta plans to give Facebook and Instagram users in Europe the option of paying for ad-free versions of the social media platforms as a way to comply with the continent’s strict data privacy rules, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The company wants to charge users about 10 euros ($10.50) a month […]

OTTAWA — The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected an attempt by Google to overturn a decision that found the company’s search engine is covered by Canada’s privacy law, marking another victory for people seeking a digital “right to be forgotten.” The court ruled Friday in a 2-1 decision to uphold a 2021 decision by […]

MONTREAL — Some big players in Canada’s technology sector have signed on to a voluntary code of conduct for generative AI announced by the federal government Wednesday as anxiety persists over its proliferation and pace of development. The self-imposed safeguards will “build safety and trust as the technology spreads,” Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told a […]

Republican presidential hopefuls have largely shunned TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing app that some in both parties allege is a potential spy mechanism for China. But entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy recently became the first 2024 candidate to join the platform, which says it has over 150 million U.S. users. That’s even as he’s accused Beijing of […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Appearing in the biggest antitrust trial in a quarter century, DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg testified Thursday that it was hard for his small search engine company to compete with Google because the powerhouse has deals with phone companies and equipment manufacturers to make its product the default search option on so many […]

OTTAWA — Dozens of civil society organizations, experts and academics are calling on the Liberal government to remove proposed measures on artificial intelligence from a federal privacy bill, saying they must be considered separately. The Liberals introduced privacy legislation last year to give Canadians more control over how their personal data is used by commercial […]

Canada’s largest network of research hospitals has appointed a chief artificial intelligence scientist to harness promising technology that has the potential to speed up diagnoses, improve and personalize patient care and shorten recovery times. Bo Wang, whose expertise at the Toronto-based University Health Network includes machine learning and computational biology, is stepping into the role […]

Google is introducing Bard, its artificially intelligent chatbot, to other members of its digital family — including Gmail, Maps and YouTube — as it seeks ward off competitive threats posed by similar technology run by Open AI and Microsoft. Bard’s expanded capabilities announced Tuesday will be provided through an English-only extension that will enable users […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge has halted implementation of a California law intended to restrict companies’ use of information gathered from young internet users in order to protect the privacy of minors. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman on Monday granted a preliminary injunction, saying the legislation interferes with firms’ use of […]

OTTAWA — The Department of National Defence broke the federal whistleblower law by not being transparent about the results of investigations into wrongdoing, the federal integrity watchdog said in a report released Tuesday. Joe Friday, the public sector integrity commissioner, shared what he called “disturbing” findings that both the Defence Department and the Canadian Armed […]