Latest cybersecurity reporting from selected sources.

Meta Ruling Points to Obligatory VerificationThe European Union all but mandated the use of age verification technologies by large social platforms by provisionally finding that Meta broke digital rules by allowing pre-teens to login. Many European countries are following Australia's lead in raising the minimum age for social media use.

GrokAI Non-Consensual Sexual Imagery Raises Official HacklesEuropean regulatory pressure on Elon Musk's X social media network intensified this week with new probes into potential breaches of privacy roles by Grok AI chatbot. X claims to have stopped Grok from outputting the offending images, but apparently the chatbot still generates them.

German Court Rebuffs Consumer Group Bid for InjunctionMeta can use the public posts of European Instagram and Facebook users to train its artificial intelligence models starting Tuesday after a German court rejected an injunction against the company. The court said Meta has a "legitimate interest" in processing the data.

All Risk, No Reward: Meta's Ongoing Legal Issues in EuropeSocial media giant Meta is likely to face more legal hurdles over its plans to use the personal data of European Facebook and Instagram users to train artificial intelligence models. Meta paused efforts to train AI with European data in June 2024.

Irish DPC Imposes a Fine for GDPR ViolationsTikTok must pay 530 million euros to the Irish data regulator for non-compliance with European privacy law. The nearly $600 million fine stems from TikTok's storage of European user data on servers in China and failure to disclose data transfers to China from July 2020 through November 2022.

European Commission Also Fines Apple 500 Million EurosEuropean regulators said Facebook conducted an end run around privacy regulations by requiring users to pay a monthly subscription fee or else accept that their personal data would be fed to advertisers. The European Commission fined the social media giant 200 million euros.

Also: Interpol Says 'Pig Butchering' Shames Victims, A Data Leak Scandal in MexicoThis week, U.S. asks Israel to extradite an alleged LockBit coder, don't say "pig butchering," and an Apache Struts flaw. A hunt for alleged data thieves in Mexico, Europe probes TikTok and Netfilix fined 4.75 million. A ransomware attack against Texas medical centers and a credit union breach.

Meta Vows to AppealThe Irish data regulator fined social media platform Meta 251 million euros over a 2018 hack that exposed sensitive data of millions of European Facebook users, including that of children. The bug was in Facebook's "View As" feature permitting a user to see their own profile as it appears to others.

The Irish DPC Imposed the Fine for GDPR ViolationsThe Irish Data Protection Commission imposed a 310 million euro fine on LinkedIn for violating a European privacy law stemming from the company's use of customer data. It ordered the social media platform to bring its data processing under compliance.

European Court of Justice Says Meta May Not Indefinitely Retain User DataTargeted advertising may face additional restrictions following a ruling by the top European Union court that social media giant Meta cannot indefinitely retain user data. Nor can it use data for advertising "without distinction as to type of data," the European Court of Justice said Friday.

Fine Is For 2019 Disclosure That Meta Stored User Passwords In PlaintextThe Irish data regulator fined social media giant Meta 91 million euros after an investigation found the company insecurely stored passwords of millions of European Facebook and Instagram users. A Meta spokesperson said the company identified the problem in 2019 and took "immediate action."

Company Says It Will Still Attempt to Use Public Posts Dating to 2007 to Train AISocial media giant Meta will delay plans to train artificial intelligence with data harvested from European Instagram and Facebook users weeks after a rights group lodged a complaint against the company with 11 European data regulators. A Meta spokesperson said the delay is temporary.

Austrian Privacy Group Lodges Complaints With 11 European Regulators Against MetaMeta's plan to train artificial intelligence with data generated by Facebook and Instagram users faces friction in Europe after a rights group alleged it violates continental privacy law. Austrian privacy organization NOYB said it lodged complaints against Meta with 11 European data regulators.

The European Data Protection Board Says the Company Inhibits Real Choice for UsersSocial media giant Meta's attempt to navigate European data protection rules by offering a fee-based opt-out from behavioral advertising came under fire Wednesday by a trading bloc agency that said freedom from personalized marketing should typically be free.

'Pay or Consent' May Violate the Digital Services Act, Say EU OfficialsThe European Commission will scrutinize Meta's pivot to a subscription model in response to a string of rulings from data protection boards limiting the social media giant's ability to legally collect user data. Europe announced a slew of investigations into American big-tech companies.

EU Lawmakers Say Privacy Shouldn't Be for SaleFacebook's attempt to navigate European privacy regulations by giving users a fee-based opt-out from behavioral advertising triggered backlash from more than a dozen European politicians who accused the social media giant of treating human rights as a commodity.