Meta is facing a new lawsuit in the US over privacy concerns tied to its AI smart glasses.
The legal complaint follows investigative reporting indicating that contractors working for a Kenya-based subcontractor reviewed footage captured by users’ devices, including sensitive personal scenes.
The lawsuit alleges that some of the reviewed material included nudity and other intimate activities recorded by the glasses’ cameras.
According to the complaint, the footage formed part of a data review process designed to improve the AI system integrated into the wearable device.
Plaintiffs claim Meta marketed the product as prioritising user privacy, citing advertisements suggesting that the glasses were ‘designed for privacy’ and that users remained in control of their personal data.
The complaint argues that such messaging could mislead consumers if the footage were subject to human review without clear disclosure.
A legal action that also names eyewear manufacturer Luxottica, which partnered with Meta to produce the glasses.
Meanwhile, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has begun examining the issue after reports that face-blurring safeguards may not have consistently protected individuals captured in the recordings.
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Experts gathered in London, UK, to examine how the concept of privacy has evolved over centuries. Discussions in London, UK, highlighted that privacy was only widely recognised as a legal and social norm after the Second World War.
Speakers in London noted that earlier societies often viewed privacy with suspicion or did not recognise it at all. Historical examples discussed included practices from Roman society and the French monarchy.
Modern legal protections expanded rapidly in recent decades, with privacy laws now covering about 80 percent of the global population. Scholars said the concept remains relatively new despite its central role in modern democracies.
The debate also explored whether privacy will remain a stable social value as technology evolves. Analysts in London said emerging technologies such as AI are reshaping debates over personal data and surveillance.
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Meta has announced that third-party AI chatbots will again be allowed to operate through WhatsApp in Europe, reversing restrictions introduced earlier this year.
The decision follows pressure from the European Commission, which had warned it could impose interim competition measures.
Earlier in 2026, Meta limited access to rival chatbot services on the messaging platform, prompting regulators to examine whether the move unfairly restricted competition in the rapidly expanding AI market.
WhatsApp remains one of the most widely used messaging applications across European countries, making platform access critical for emerging AI services.
Under the new arrangement, companies will be able to distribute general-purpose AI chatbots via the WhatsApp Business API for 12 months.
The change is intended to give European regulators time to complete their investigation while allowing competing AI services to operate within the platform ecosystem.
Meta has also indicated that businesses offering chatbots through WhatsApp will be required to pay fees to access the system.
The European Commission is now assessing whether these adjustments sufficiently address competition concerns surrounding the integration of AI services inside major digital platforms.
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Pressure is growing in New Zealand to strengthen the Privacy Act following several high-profile data breaches. Debate in New Zealand intensified after a cyberattack exposed medical records from the Manage My Health patient portal.
The breach in New Zealand affected about 120,000 patients and involved threats to release documents on the dark web. Another incident forced the MediMap medication platform offline after unauthorised changes were detected in patient records.
Privacy specialists argue that current enforcement powers are too weak to deter serious failures. The Privacy Act allows only limited financial penalties, with fines generally capped at NZD10,000.
Officials are now considering reforms, including stronger penalties for privacy violations. Policymakers also warn that failure to strengthen the law could threaten the country’s EU data adequacy status.
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The European Commission has convened a new expert panel tasked with examining how children can be better protected across digital platforms, including social media, gaming environments and AI tools.
The initiative reflects growing concern across Europe regarding the psychological and safety risks associated with young users’ online behaviour.
Specialists from health, computer science, child rights and digital literacy will work alongside youth representatives to assess current research and policy responses.
Discussions during the first meeting centred on platform responsibility, including age-appropriate safety-by-design features, algorithmic amplification and addictive product design.
An initiative that also addresses digital literacy for children, parents and educators, while considering how regulatory measures can reduce risks without undermining the benefits of online participation.
The panel’s work complements the enforcement of the Digital Services Act and related European policies designed to strengthen protections for minors online.
Among the tools under development is an EU age-verification application currently tested in several member states, intended to support privacy-preserving checks compatible with the future EU digital identity framework.
The panel is expected to deliver policy recommendations to the Commission by summer 2026.
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AI is beginning to reshape corporate strategy as organisations shift from isolated technology experiments to broader operational transformation.
According to OpenAI, businesses that treat AI as a collection of disconnected pilots risk missing the bigger structural change that the technology enables.
A new framework describes five value models through which AI can gradually reshape companies. The first stage focuses on workforce empowerment, where tools such as ChatGPT spread AI capabilities across teams and improve everyday productivity.
Once employees develop fluency, organisations can introduce AI-native distribution models that transform how customers discover products and interact with digital services.
More advanced stages involve specialised systems. Expert capability integrates AI into research, creative production, and domain-specific analysis, allowing professionals to explore a wider range of ideas and experiments.
Meanwhile, systems and dependency management introduce AI tools capable of safely updating interconnected digital environments, including codebases, documentation, and operational processes.
The final stage involves full process re-engineering through autonomous agents. In such environments, AI systems coordinate complex workflows across departments while maintaining governance, accountability, and auditability.
Organisations that successfully progress through these stages may eventually redesign their business models rather than merely improving efficiency within existing structures.
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The Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has identified a powerful exploit toolkit, Coruna, that targets Apple iPhones running iOS versions 13.0 to 17.2.1.
The toolkit contains five complete exploit chains and 23 exploits designed to compromise devices using previously unseen techniques and mitigation bypasses.
Parts of the exploit chain were first detected in early 2025, when a client of a commercial surveillance vendor used them. Later investigations revealed the same framework in highly targeted attacks against Ukrainian users linked to a suspected Russian espionage group.
Toward the end of the year, the toolkit resurfaced in large-scale campaigns linked to financially motivated actors operating from China.
Coruna relies on a sophisticated JavaScript framework that identifies iPhone models and their iOS versions before delivering the appropriate WebKit remote code execution exploit and additional bypass techniques.
Several vulnerabilities exploited by the toolkit had previously been treated as zero-day flaws, highlighting the growing circulation of advanced cyber-attack tools among multiple threat actors.
Google warned that the payload can steal sensitive data, including financial and cryptocurrency wallet information, and allows attackers to deploy additional modules remotely.
The company has added related malicious domains to Safe Browsing and urged users to install the latest iOS updates, noting that the exploit kit does not affect the newest version of Apple’s operating system.
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The European Union’s data protection watchdog has urged stronger safeguards as negotiations continue with the US over access to biometric databases. European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski said limits must ensure Europeans’ data is used only for agreed purposes.
Talks between the EU and the US involve potential arrangements that would allow US authorities to query national biometric systems. Databases across the EU contain sensitive information, including fingerprints and facial recognition data.
Past transatlantic data-sharing agreements between the two have faced legal challenges due to insufficient safeguards. European regulators are closely monitoring the Data Privacy Framework amid ongoing concerns about oversight.
Officials also warned that emerging AI technologies could create new surveillance risks linked to US data access. European authorities said they must negotiate as a unified bloc when dealing with the US.
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Bitwarden has announced support for logging into Windows 11 devices using passkeys stored in its encrypted vault, enabling phishing-resistant authentication directly at the operating system login screen.
The feature is available across all Bitwarden plans, including the free tier, and is believed to be a first for a third-party password manager.
During the login process, Windows 11 displays a QR code that users scan with their mobile device running the Bitwarden app, which then confirms access to the stored passkey and completes authentication.
Unlike device-bound passkey implementations, passkeys are synchronised across devices via Bitwarden’s end-to-end encrypted vault, meaning users can still regain access even if their phone is lost.
The feature builds on Microsoft’s introduction of native support for external passkey managers in Windows 11 in November 2025. It requires the device to be joined to Microsoft Entra ID with FIDO2 security key sign-in enabled.
Microsoft says the passkey-based login will roll out throughout March, depending on an organisation’s Entra ID configuration.
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TikTok will not adopt end-to-end encryption for direct messages. The company explained that using this technology could hinder safety teams’ and law enforcement’s efforts to detect harmful content in private messages, which the company believes could make users less safe online.
Encrypted messaging ensures that only the sender and recipient can read a conversation and is widely used across the social media industry. Rivals including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and X have adopted the technology, saying protecting private communication is central to user privacy.
The issue has become more sensitive because the platform has long faced scrutiny over possible links between its parent company, ByteDance, and the government of the People’s Republic of China, something the company has repeatedly denied. Reflecting these concerns, earlier this year, US lawmakers ordered the separation of TikTok’s US operations from its global business.
The company told the BBC that encrypted messaging would make it impossible for police and platform safety teams to read direct messages when needed. TikTok emphasised that this decision was made to enhance user protection, with a particular focus on the safety of younger users, and that it sees monitoring capabilities as crucial for addressing harmful behaviour.
Industry analyst Matt Navarra said the platform’s decision to ‘swim against the tide’ is ‘notable’ but presents ‘challenging optics’. He noted, ‘Grooming and harassment risks are present in DMs [direct messages], so TikTok can state it is prioritising proactive safety over privacy absolutism,’ though he added that the decision ‘places TikTok out of alignment with global privacy expectations’.
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