Apple's strategic privacy approach

Plus: AR/VR headsets are trending, not without privacy issues

Jun 09, 2023

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👋 Hi, Luiza Jarovsky here. Read about my work, invite me to speak, tell me what you've been working on, or just say hi here.

🔥 Instagram, child protection, and the algorithmic wild west

The Wall Street Journal, in collaboration with researchers at Stanford and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, uncovered that Instagram's (owned by Meta) algorithms are helping to connect a vast network of pedophiles with child exploitation content. According to the journal: “Instagram connects pedophiles and guides them to content sellers via recommendation systems that excel at linking those who share niche interests.” On the topic, Thierry Breton, the EU Commissioner for Internal Market, tweeted yesterday: “Meta's voluntary code on child protection seems not to work. Mark Zuckerberg must now explain & take immediate action. I will discuss with him at Meta’s HQ in Menlo Park on 23 June. After 25 August, under DSA Meta has to demonstrate measures to us or face heavy sanctions.” This is one more example of algorithmic externalities, as I discussed in a recent edition of this newsletter. Current data protection regulations still do not tackle the negative consequences emerging from the application of algorithms to online social systems and personal data, such as social networks. Companies should be transparent, accountable, and liable for the algorithms they decide to apply when conducting their businesses. Perhaps the Digital Services Act (DSA) will help. For now, we are still living in the algorithmic wild west.

🔥 AR/VR headsets are trending, not without privacy issues

One of the most expected announcements at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC - June 5-9th) was the Apple Vision Pro. According to Mac Rumors, “Apple Vision Pro is Apple's augmented and virtual reality headset, a device that has been in development for more than a decade. Vision Pro marks the company's first entrance into a new product category since the 2015 Apple Watch (…) A launch is set for early 2024.” Virtual reality (VR)/ augmented reality (AR)/extended reality (XR)/ mixed reality (MR) experts are saying that it really works and it's good. Meta (Facebook) did not want to miss the boat and also quietly announced the upcoming launch of Meta's new VR headset - Quest 3. It looks like the Metaverse hype is officially back, and for many people, it is not clear if there are privacy issues affecting these types of devices. There are. Zuckerberg gave us a tip at the event launching Meta's VC headset at the end of 2021: “When we communicate, all our nonverbal expressions and gestures are often even more important than what we say, and the way we connect virtually needs to reflect that too.” After investigating Meta's recent patents, journalists argued that we can expect that our biometric data will be collected and used to target us with super personalized ads. These ads will be targeted to our most intimate emotions and immediate feelings during an “extended reality” experience. Wired pointed out that “Meta’s privacy policy for its headsets says that data shared with outside services ‘will be subject to their own terms and privacy policies.’” On the topic of mixed reality headsets and privacy, this week, privacy lawyer Joseph Jerome wrote an excellent piece arguing that “eye movements can be used to infer a person’s age and gender, as well as medical conditions, fatigue, or other impairments. While there may be other ways for companies to learn this information, gleaning these insights from eye data is problematic because of how involuntary many of our eye movements can be.” To end this topic with a touch of privacy-creepiness, Sterlin Crispin, a neurotechnology prototyping researcher that helped develop Apple's new headset, this week tweeted that: “One of the coolest results involved predicting a user was going to click on something before they actually did. (…) you can create biofeedback with a user's brain by monitoring their eye behavior, and redesigning the UI in real time to create more of this anticipatory pupil response. It’s a crude brain computer interface via the eyes, but very cool.” As I keep saying, there will be plenty of work for privacy professionals in the next few years. If you are considering changing careers, the time is now (by the way, here's our global privacy job board).