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Lawsuit Accuses Amazon of Secretly Tracking Consumers Through Cellphones

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Key Points:

  • Amazon is facing a class action lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court, accusing the company of secretly tracking consumers’ movements and selling the collected data.
  • The lawsuit claims Amazon used its Amazon Ads SDK code to allow app developers to collect geolocation data from users’ phones without their consent, revealing sensitive information such as religious affiliations, sexual orientations, and health concerns.
  • The complaint is led by Felix Kolotinsky, a California resident, who alleges that Amazon collected his personal data through the Speedtest by Ookla app.
  • The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages for millions of affected California consumers. The lawsuit cites violations of California state law related to unauthorized computer access and penal law.

Broader Implications:

  • The case highlights growing concerns about companies profiting from user data without proper consent, a trend that has sparked multiple lawsuits and regulatory inquiries in recent years.
  • The lawsuit comes amid other similar cases, such as a recent suit filed by Texas against Allstate for tracking drivers through cellphones.

Apple Clarifies Siri Privacy After $95 Million Settlement

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Apple has clarified its stance on Siri’s privacy practices following a $95 million settlement in a class action lawsuit that accused the company of recording private conversations after unintentional activations of its voice assistant. The lawsuit alleged that these conversations were then shared with third parties, including advertisers.

Apple denied the claims, stating that it has never sold or used Siri data to build marketing profiles. The company emphasized that no data was shared for advertising purposes, and no audio recordings were retained unless users explicitly consented to improve Siri’s performance. As part of the settlement, Apple agreed to pay up to $20 per device to affected users of Siri-enabled devices like iPhones and Apple Watches.

The company clarified that certain Siri features do require real-time data input from Apple servers to function correctly, but it uses the minimum amount of data necessary. Apple also reiterated its commitment to enhancing privacy features for Siri in the future.

This settlement comes amid ongoing legal scrutiny, including a similar lawsuit involving Google’s Voice Assistant, which is currently pending in federal court in California.

 

Meta Accused of Using Pirated Books for AI Training with Zuckerberg’s Approval

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Meta Platforms (META.O) is facing serious allegations from a group of authors, including Ta-Nehisi Coates and comedian Sarah Silverman, who claim that the company used pirated versions of copyrighted books to train its artificial intelligence systems, including the Llama language model. The authors argue that this use was approved by Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, according to newly disclosed court documents.

The authors, who filed a lawsuit against Meta in 2023 for copyright infringement, allege that internal Meta documents, produced during the discovery phase of the case, show the company was fully aware that the books it used were pirated. Meta has yet to comment on the allegations.

The lawsuit focuses on Meta’s use of the AI training dataset LibGen, a repository of pirated books that the authors claim was distributed through peer-to-peer torrents. The new evidence presented by the authors suggests that Meta executives, including Zuckerberg, were aware that LibGen’s contents were pirated but chose to proceed with using the dataset. Internal Meta communications reportedly confirm this.

The authors are seeking to update their complaint, asserting that the new evidence strengthens their case for copyright infringement. The suit also brings renewed attention to the ongoing legal battles over the use of copyrighted materials to train AI systems, with defendants arguing that such uses may fall under “fair use” doctrine.

In a previous ruling, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria dismissed claims related to copyright infringement and the alleged unlawful stripping of copyright management information (CMI) by Meta’s chatbots. However, during a hearing on Thursday, Chhabria indicated that he would permit the authors to file an amended complaint, despite his doubts about the validity of the fraud and CMI claims.