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General Motors and OnStar are banned from disclosing consumers’ geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies for five years. The FTC launched an investigation after reports that GM collected data about customers’ vehicle use and sold it to third-party platforms used by insurance companies without adequate consent, specifically from the OnStar Smart Driver program. GM has now stopped sharing sensitive information with data brokers and must take additional steps to increase transparency for its customers.

Apple is facing a class-action lawsuit over its Siri voice assistant due to privacy concerns. The lawsuit claims Siri was eavesdropping and recording users without their consent. Apple has agreed to a $95 million settlement to resolve the issue. The settlement impacts millions of users who might have been affected. Some of the recordings have been shared with third parties. Users can disable Siri to avoid being recorded. This settlement highlights the importance of user data privacy and transparency, and it has also resulted in Apple making changes to its Siri privacy policy and functionality.

Microsoft’s new AI feature ‘Recall’ for Copilot+ PCs stores screenshots of sensitive data, including credit cards and social security numbers, even when a ‘sensitive information’ filter is enabled. This has raised serious privacy and security concerns among users. This feature takes continuous screenshots of everything a user does. The data is stored locally but sent off to Microsoft’s LLM for analysis. This has prompted an investigation by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. This incident highlights the potential risks of AI-powered surveillance features and the importance of user privacy.

The FTC has taken action against data brokers Gravy Analytics and Mobilewalla for illegally collecting and selling sensitive information about American residents, including geolocation data from sensitive locations such as places of worship, abortion clinics, and political events. The FTC’s actions aim to protect consumer privacy and limit the collection of sensitive data from vulnerable locations. This highlights the increasing concerns regarding data privacy and the need for stricter regulations on data brokers. The settlements highlight the importance of responsible data handling and compliance with privacy regulations.