Welcome to a newsletter from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) tracking the latest news about how AI and personal data are used, abused, and regulated. As many state legislatures have now or are soon wrapping up their sessions, I will transition to a “top 10” things that you should know about Privacy & AI policy each two weeks.

Top 10:

1. Right now, there is a short provision buried in the massive budget bill that would stop states from passing or enforcing any law that regulates AI and any other automated decision making system. This is a provision written purely to benefit tech companies at the expense of actual people. If it were to pass, it would be disastrous for everyday consumers and workers, establish a dangerous precedent for other sectors, and is antithetical to the essential democratic principle of federalism. Congress represents people, not corporations – and it is absolutely essential Senators vote to remove the moratorium provision. (Full blog on CFA)
   1. A bit of context from earlier in the week: The extreme federal budget provision that would strip states away from regulating AI in their jurisdictions passed a procedural hurdle that some expected to kill it. CFA’s press release on it is here! (Tech Policy Press)
2. Polling from the Institute for Family Studies shows 55% of American voters oppose the AI regulation moratorium, with the highest amount of people saying they “strongly oppose” followed by “not sure” and “somewhat oppose.” (IFS)
3. Data broker sites that provide private personal information to anyone who wants to buy it was used in the murder of Minnesota state legislators. (WIRED)
4. Oregon is very active right now– after expanding their privacy law to ban the sale of geolocation data and data for kids under 16, the Governor of Oregon signed a law criminalizing unlawful disclosure of data to people with intent to stalk, injure, and damage property when the victim subsequently experiences that injury. Very relevant after Minnesota. (BillTrack50)
5. Data broker/credit reporting agency Equifax is selling your employment and salary data they get from your employer to third parties in the form of a “Work Number.” (Tate’s Online Safety Community)
6. The NAACP is suing xAI (Elon Musk’s company) over the massive datacenter they placed in Memphis over the pollution it is causing. (ABC News)­­
7. The International Energy Agency published the “Energy and AI Observatory,” an in depth breakdown on the locations and prevalence of data centers, among many others – lots of impressive maps to play around with. (IEA)
8. Sen Wyden and Rep Ocasio-Cortez sent a letter inquiring about the US hiring Palantir to make a “mega-database” of American Citizens. (Sen Wyden Office)
9. I joined the Consumerpedia podcast to talk about AI in scams all over the internet – from crappy weird fake products to large scale scams fueled by AI. (Consumerpedia)
10. A good piece on the “black box myth” that has been destructive for years in AI policy  — a whole industry either lying about their practices or purposefully ensuring they aren’t transparent. (Tech Policy Press)

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