[B] ガザ侵攻のイスラエル軍兵士の自殺が増加

日刊ベリタ
5 days 12 hours ago
2023年10月7日のハマスの攻撃後にガザへの侵攻に参加させられたイスラエル軍兵士の自殺が増えている。７月21日のRTの報道 (註)によると、侵攻開始から2023年の年末までに７人の兵士が自殺、2024年には21人、本年（2025年）には現在までに、少なくとも20人が自殺している。（落合栄一郎）
日刊ベリタ

Dating Apps Need to Learn How Consent Works

EFF update
5 days 16 hours ago

Staying safe whilst dating online should not be the responsibility of users—dating apps should be prioritizing our privacy by default, and laws should require companies to prioritize user privacy over their profit. But dating apps are taking shortcuts in safeguarding the privacy and security of users in favour of developing and deploying AI tools on their platforms, sometimes by using your most personal information to train their AI tools. 

Grindr has big plans for its gay wingman bot, Bumble launched AI Icebreakers, Tinder introduced AI tools to choose profile pictures for users, OKCupid teamed up with AI photo editing platform Photoroom to erase your ex from profile photos, and Hinge recently launched an AI tool to help users write prompts.

The list goes on, and the privacy harms are significant. Dating apps have built platforms that encourage people to be exceptionally open with sensitive and potentially dangerous personal information. But at the same time, the companies behind the platforms collect vast amounts of intimate details about their customers—everything from sexual preferences to precise location—who are often just searching for compatibility and connection. This data falling into the wrong hands can—and has—come with unacceptable consequences, especially for members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

This is why corporations should provide opt-in consent for AI training data obtained through channels like private messages, and employ minimization practices for all other data. Dating app users deserve the right to privacy, and should have a reasonable expectation that the contents of conversations—from text messages to private pictures—are not going to be shared or used for any purpose that opt-in consent has not been provided for. This includes the use of personal data for building AI tools, such as chatbots and picture selection tools. 

AI Icebreakers

Back in December 2023, Bumble introduced AI Icebreakers to the ‘Bumble for Friends’ section of the app to help users start conversations by providing them with AI-generated messages. Powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the feature was deployed in the app without ever asking for their consent. Instead, the company presented users with a pop-up upon entering the app which repeatedly nudged people to click ‘Okay’ or face the same pop-up every time the app is reopened until individuals finally relent and tap ‘Okay.’

Obtaining user data without explicit opt-in consent is bad enough. But Bumble has taken this even further by sharing personal user data from its platform with OpenAI to feed into the company’s AI systems. By doing this, Bumble has forced its AI feature on millions of users in Europe—without their consent but with their personal data.

In response, European nonprofit noyb recently filed a complaint with the Austrian data protection authority on Bumble’s violation of its transparency obligations under Article 5(1)(a) GDPR. In its report, noyb flagged concerns around Bumble’s data sharing with OpenAI, which allowed the company to generate an opening message based on information users shared on the app. 

In its complaint, noyb specifically alleges that Bumble: 

  • Failed to provide information about the processing of personal data for its AI Icebreaker feature 
  • Confused users with a “fake” consent banner
  • Lacks a legal basis under Article 6(1) GDPR as it never sought user consent and cannot legally claim to base its processing on legitimate interest 
  • Can only process sensitive data—such as data involving sexual orientation—with explicit consent per Article 9 GDPR
  • Failed to adequately respond to the complainant’s access request, regulated through Article 15 GDPR.
AI Chatbots for Dating

Grindr recently launched its AI wingman. The feature operates like a chatbot and currently keeps track of favorite matches and suggests date locations. In the coming years, Grindr plans for the chatbot to send messages to other AI agents on behalf of users, and make restaurant reservations—all without human intervention. This might sound great: online dating without the time investment? A win for some! But privacy concerns remain. 

The chatbot is being built in collaboration with a third party company called Ex-human, which raises concerns about data sharing. Grindr has communicated that its users’ personal data will remain on its own infrastructure, which Ex-Human does not have access to, and that users will be “notified” when AI tools are available on the app. The company also said that it will ask users for permission to use their chat history for AI training. But AI data poses privacy risks that do not seem fully accounted for, particularly in places where it’s not safe to be outwardly gay. 

In building this ‘gay chatbot,’ Grindr’s CEO said one of its biggest limitations was preserving user privacy. It’s good that they are cognizant of these harms, particularly because the company has a terrible track record of protecting user privacy, and the company was also recently sued for allegedly revealing the HIV status of users. Further, direct messages on Grindr are stored on the company’s servers, where you have to trust they will be secured, respected, and not used to train AI models without your consent. Given Grindr’s poor record of not respecting user consent and autonomy on the platform, users need additional protections and guardrails for their personal data and privacy than currently being provided—especially for AI tools that are being built by third parties. 

AI Picture Selection  

In the past year, Tinder and Bumble have both introduced AI tools to help users choose better pictures for their profiles. Tinder’s AI-powered feature, Photo Selector, requires users to upload a selfie, after which its facial recognition technology can identify the person in their camera roll images. The Photo Selector then chooses a “curated selection of photos” direct from users’ devices based on Tinder’s “learnings” about good profile images. Users are not informed about the parameters behind choosing photos, nor is there a separate privacy policy introduced to guardrail privacy issues relating to the potential collection of biometric data, and collection, storage, and sale of camera roll images. 

The Way Forward: Opt-In Consent for AI Tools and Consumer Privacy Legislation 

Putting users in control of their own data is fundamental to protecting individual and collective privacy. We all deserve the right to control how our data is used and by whom. And when it comes to data like profile photos and private messages, all companies should require opt-in consent before processing those messages for AI. Finding love should not involve such a privacy impinging tradeoff.

At EFF, we’ve also long advocated for the introduction of comprehensive consumer privacy legislation to limit the collection of our personal data at its source and prevent retained data being sold or given away, breached by hackers, disclosed to law enforcement, or used to manipulate a user’s choices through online behavioral advertising. This would help protect users on dating apps as reducing the amount of data collected prevents the subsequent use in ways like building AI tools and training AI models. 

The privacy options at our disposal may seem inadequate to meet the difficult moments ahead of us, especially for vulnerable communities, but these steps are essential to protecting users on dating apps. We urge companies to put people over profit and protect privacy on their platforms.

Paige Collings

【出版トピックス】7月─猛暑を吹き飛ばす出版界の大ヒット･好企画＝出版部会

日本ジャーナリストクラブ（JCJ）
5 days 16 hours ago
◆『8番出口』初版10万部で発売･即重版　水鈴社は7月9日、川村元気『8番出口』（文庫サイズ・本体888円）を初版10万部で発売。強い反響を受け、同日には早くも2刷1万5000部の発売日重版を決めた。　同書は、8月29日公開の映画「8番出口」（配給＝東宝）の監督と脚本を務めた川村氏が、自ら書き下ろした小説版。原作の無限ループゲームは2023年にリリースされ、全世界で社会現象になるほどの人気を集め、累計180万のダウンロードを記録している。　発行元の水鈴社(東京都渋谷区)は、設..
ＪＣＪ

When Your Power Meter Becomes a Tool of Mass Surveillance

EFF update
5 days 16 hours ago

Simply using extra electricity to power some Christmas lights or a big fish tank shouldn’t bring the police to your door. In fact, in California, the law explicitly protects the privacy of power customers, prohibiting public utilities from disclosing precise “smart” meter data in most cases. 

Despite this, Sacramento’s power company and law enforcement agencies have been running an illegal mass surveillance scheme for years, using our power meters as home-mounted spies. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is seeking to end Sacramento’s dragnet surveillance of energy customers and have asked for a court order to stop this practice for good.

For a decade, the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD) has been searching through all of its customers’ energy data, and passed on more than 33,000 tips about supposedly “high” usage households to police. Ostensibly looking for homes that were growing illegal amounts of cannabis, SMUD analysts have admitted that such “high” power usage could come from houses using air conditioning or heat pumps or just being large. And the threshold of so-called “suspicion” has steadily dropped, from 7,000 kWh per month in 2014 to just 2,800 kWh a month in 2023. One SMUD analyst admitted that they themselves “used 3500 [kWh] last month.”

This scheme has targeted Asian customers. SMUD analysts deemed one home suspicious because it was “4k [kWh], Asian,” and another suspicious because “multiple Asians have reported there.” Sacramento police sent accusatory letters in English and Chinese, but no other language, to residents who used above-average amounts of electricity.

In 2022, EFF and the law firm Vallejo, Antolin, Agarwal, Kanter LLP sued SMUD and the City of Sacramento, representing the Asian American Liberation Network and two Sacramento County residents. One is an immigrant from Vietnam. Sheriff’s deputies showed up unannounced at his home, falsely accused him of growing cannabis based on an erroneous SMUD tip, demanded entry for a search, and threatened him with arrest when he refused. He has never grown cannabis; rather, he consumes more than average electricity due to a spinal injury.

Last week, we filed our main brief explaining how this surveillance program violates the law and why it must be stopped. California’s state constitution bars unreasonable searches. This type of dragnet surveillance — suspicionless searches of entire zip codes worth of customer energy data — is inherently unreasonable. Additionally, a state statute generally prohibits public utilities from sharing such data. As we write in our brief, the Sacramento’s mass surveillance scheme does not qualify for one of the narrow exceptions to this rule. 

Mass surveillance violates the privacy of many individuals, as police without individualized suspicion seek (possibly non-existent) evidence of some kind of offense by some unknown person. As we’ve seen time and time again, innocent people inevitably get caught in the dragnet. For decades, EFF has been exposing and fighting these kinds of dangerous schemes. We remain committed to protecting digital privacy, whether it’s being threatened by national governments – or your local power company.

Related Cases: Asian American Liberation Network v. SMUD, et al.
Hudson Hongo