Privacy and data protection Archives | Page 26 of 318

Saudi Arabia steps into global AI leadership to shape AI future

The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), a multilateral initiative hosted by the OECD and launched by the G7, has officially welcomed Saudi Arabia as a new member. The move reflects the Kingdom’s commitment to shaping global AI governance and ethical technology use.

Accession is led by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority and supported by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Joining GPAI aligns with Vision 2030, which aims to localise advanced technologies and boost the digital economy’s contribution to GDP.

Through membership in GPAI, which unites over 40 countries, Saudi Arabia will help establish international AI standards, promote human-centric and responsible AI development, and strengthen global cooperation in the sector.

Officials also anticipate that the move will attract high-quality international investment, leveraging the Kingdom’s expanding regulatory framework and growing AI and data ecosystem.

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Generative AI presents the biggest data-risk challenge in history

Cybersecurity specialists warn that generative AI systems, such as large language models, are creating a data risk frontier far larger than that posed by previous digital innovations.

Because these models are trained on extensive datasets drawn from web pages, internal documents, email corpora and proprietary sources, they can unintentionally memorise or regenerate sensitive information, increasing the risk of exposure.

The article highlights several core concerns. Data leakage and memorisation, where AI models can repeat or infer private data if training processes are not tightly controlled.

Amplification of poor hygiene, when generative tools can magnify the reach of bad actors by automating phishing, social engineering, and malware generation at scale.

Compounding breach impact, if an AI model is trained on stolen or leaked data, it could internalise and regurgitate that information without detection, entrenching harm. Cloud and access governance gaps that allow organisations to adopt AI without robust access controls and encryption may widen their attack surface.

The author calls for revised data governance frameworks, including strict training data provenance, auditability, encryption, minimisation and purpose limitation, to mitigate what is described as ‘the biggest data risk in history.’

Recommendations also include accountability measures for models, continuous monitoring, and legislative action to align AI development with privacy and security principles.

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Altman urges urgent AI regulation

OpenAI chief Sam Altman has called for urgent global regulation of AI, speaking at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. Addressing leaders and executives in New Delhi, he said the rapid pace of development demands coordinated international oversight.

In New Delhi, Altman suggested creating a body similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency to oversee advanced AI systems. He warned that highly capable open source biomodels could pose serious biosecurity risks if misused.

Altman argued in New Delhi that democratising AI is essential to prevent power from being concentrated in a single company or country. He added that safeguards are urgently required, even as technology continues to disrupt labour markets.

During the summit in New Delhi, Altman said ChatGPT has 100 million weekly users in India, with more than a third being students. OpenAI also announced plans with Tata Consultancy Services to build data centre infrastructure in India.

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Fake Google Forms phishing campaign targets job seekers

A phishing campaign is targeting job seekers with fake Google Forms pages designed to harvest account credentials. Attackers are using a spoofed domain, forms.google.ss-o[.]com, to mimic the legitimate Google Forms service and trick victims into signing in.

The fraudulent pages advertise a Customer Support Executive role and prompt applicants to enter personal details before clicking a ‘Sign in’ button. Victims are then redirected to id-v4[.]com/generation.php, a domain previously linked to credential harvesting campaigns.

Researchers identified the operation as part of a broader wave of job-themed phishing attacks. The attackers used a script called generation_form.php to create personalised tracking links and implemented redirects to evade security analysis by sending suspicious visitors to local Google search pages.

Security experts warn that the campaign relies on domain impersonation techniques, including the use of ‘ss-o’ to resemble ‘single sign-on’. The fake site reproduces Google branding elements and standard disclaimers to increase credibility.

Users are advised to avoid clicking unsolicited job links, verify opportunities through official channels, and enable multi-factor authentication. Password managers and real-time anti-malware tools can also reduce exposure to credential theft.

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EVMbench from OpenAI, Paradigm and OtterSec measures AI smart contract risks

OpenAI, with Paradigm and OtterSec, introduced EVMbench to test how AI agents detect, patch, and exploit smart contract flaws. The benchmark draws on 120 real vulnerabilities from 40 blockchain projects to better reflect live conditions.

Researchers report that leading agents can now discover and exploit end-to-end vulnerabilities in live blockchain instances. Over six months, exploit success rates rose sharply, prompting both praise for improved auditing capabilities and concern over the rapid scaling of offensive skills.

EVMbench evaluates agents across three modes: detect, patch, and exploit. Each stage reflects increasing technical complexity and mirrors the responsibilities faced in production blockchain environments, where contracts are often immutable, and errors can lead to irreversible losses.

Recent incidents underline the stakes. A vulnerability in AI-generated Solidity code reportedly mispriced an asset, triggering liquidations and losses. Such cases highlight the risks of deploying AI-written financial logic without rigorous human review and governance safeguards.

While EVMbench advances measurement of AI capabilities, it remains limited to curated vulnerabilities and sandboxed conditions. As blockchain adoption expands and criminal misuse evolves, researchers stress the need for responsible AI development alongside stronger innovative contract security practices.

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Lithuania selects Swiss firm Procivis for national eIDAS 2.0 wallet sandbox

Swiss firm Procivis has secured a contract to deliver Lithuania’s end-to-end Digital Identity Wallet sandbox, supporting the country’s preparations under eIDAS 2.0. The project will establish a national testbed for digital ID use cases and interoperability across the European Union.

Selected by Lithuania’s digitalisation agency, Procivis will build a platform for public authorities and relying parties to test secure digital wallet use cases. The sandbox will validate readiness ahead of the EU’s 2027 digital identity wallet deadline.

The updated eIDAS 2.0 technical framework sets out how wallets will store and share trusted digital credentials and electronic identification. Governments and private organisations will be able to integrate services into the wallets, streamlining authentication, onboarding, and cross-border access.

Across Lithuania and the EU, testbeds and large-scale pilots have been central to turning regulatory requirements into interoperable infrastructure. Lithuania’s sandbox will also support activities under the EU’s LSP Aptitude consortium, which is testing cross-sector digital identity solutions.

Procivis said the collaboration aims to accelerate practical validation while ensuring compliance with European standards on security, interoperability, and data protection. The company stated that supporting a timely, budget-aligned implementation of eIDAS 2.0 remains central to its mission.

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AI-generated harmful imagery sparks alarming warning from 60 regulators

Nearly 60 privacy and data protection authorities issued a joint statement warning about the risks of AI-generated harmful and non-consensual imagery. The initiative was coordinated through the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA) and its International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group (IEWG), reflecting growing cross-border cooperation.

Regulators expressed concern about AI systems that create realistic but fabricated images and videos of identifiable individuals without their knowledge or consent. They warned that such tools can lead to serious privacy violations and reputational harm.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), which co-chairs the IEWG, highlighted the global dimension of the issue. Privacy Commissioner stressed that children are particularly vulnerable to abusive AI-generated content.

Authorities called on organisations developing and using AI systems to introduce strong safeguards against the misuse of personal data. They also urged transparency, effective mechanisms for content removal, and enhanced, age-appropriate protections for children and other vulnerable groups.

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Chinese AI video tool unsettles Hollywood

A new AI video model developed by ByteDance has unsettled Hollywood after generating cinema-quality clips from brief text prompts. Seedance 2.0, launched in 2025, went viral for producing realistic action scenes featuring western cinematic characters such as Spider Man and Deadpool.

In response, major studios, including Disney and Paramount, issued cease and desist letters over alleged copyright infringement. Japan has also begun investigating ByteDance after AI-generated anime videos spread widely online.

Industry experts say Seedance 2.0 stands out for combining text, visuals and audio within a single system. Analysts in Singapore and Melbourne argue that Chinese AI models are now matching US competitors at the technological frontier.

As Seedance 2.0 gains traction, Beijing continues to prioritise AI and robotics in its economic strategy. The rise of tools from China has intensified debate in the US and beyond over copyright, regulation and the future of creative work.

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India’s UIDAI rolls out AI-enabled biometric deduplication and document verification platform

UIDAI has deployed an advanced platform that uses AI-enabled models to improve biometric deduplication, the process of ensuring that each resident has a unique identity record, by checking fingerprints, facial images and iris scans against the entire Aadhaar database.

The authority describes this system, developed with the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, as an ‘Invisible Shield’ that can perform billions of computations efficiently at a population scale, running on high-performance inference infrastructure such as NVIDIA DGX systems to enhance accuracy and speed nationwide.

In addition to biometric matching, the platform incorporates AI-based document metadata extraction and verification to curb enrolment fraud, using secure APIs (e.g. DigiLocker) for source-of-truth checks against submitted documents.

The system is already being rolled out in several states. It is expected to expand across India in the coming months, boosting service quality, reducing turnaround times for Aadhaar enrolment and update transactions, and reinforcing trust in the digital identity infrastructure.

The initiative is part of a broader push to leverage AI for fraud detection and identity assurance at a national scale. It comes amid ongoing efforts by UIDAI to modernise authentication processes as biometric and AI-based systems evolve.

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Brand turns AI demon into marketing stunt

Beverage company Liquid Death triggered confusion during the Winter Olympics after airing an AI advert featuring a figure skater who transforms into a red-eyed demon. The commercial appeared on Peacock’s Olympics stream but was not posted online, leaving viewers questioning whether it was real.

The brand later confirmed the advert was intentional and designed to parody fears around AI. According to Liquid Death, the limited run and lack of online acknowledgement were meant to amplify the sense of unease during the Winter Olympics broadcast.

Marketing analysts said that brands are increasingly leaning into AI scepticism to build trust with wary consumers. Campaigns from Equinox and Almond Breeze have similarly contrasted human authenticity with AI-generated content.

Despite the strategy, the Winter Olympics stunt drew criticism on social media, with some users labelling the advert AI slop. The reaction highlights both the risks and rewards for brands experimenting with AI-themed messaging.

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