Fwd: [ DuckDuckGo Privacy Weekly ] For Oct 10, 2024

ICYMI — DuckDuckGo AI Chat: Private Access to Popular AI Chatbots [spreadprivacy.com] Did you know that DuckDuckGo offers free, private access to popular chatbots? It's called DuckDuckGo AI Chat! This optional feature is free to use within a daily limit, and can easily be switched off. Chats are private, anonymized by us, and not used for any AI model training. Check it out at duck.ai. In the news... Google Must Crack Open Android for Third-Party Stores, Rules Epic Judge [theverge.com] "Judge James Donato issued his final ruling in Epic v. Google, ordering Google to effectively open up the Google Play app store to competition for three whole years. Google will have to distribute rival third-party app stores within Google Play, and it must give rival third-party app stores access to the full catalog of Google Play apps, unless developers opt out individually." Sean Hollister reports. As 23andMe Struggles, Concerns Surface About Its Genetic Data [nytimes.com] Recent "turmoil" faced by genetic testing company 23andMe, including "a drop in share prices, a recent board resignation and a data breach last year"... "has raised questions about what might happen to the genetic data of the company's roughly 15 million customers." "If a threat actor was able to access a genome, which contains DNA information, one of the biggest concerns is that someone's medical characteristics and potential for health risks, [Mark Gerstein, a professor of biomedical informatics at Yale University] said, like psychosis or heart disease, could be revealed." License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of More Than Just Cars. [wired.com] Matt Burgess and Dhruv Mehrotra say that DRN Data, a license-plate-recognition (LPR) company owned by Motorola Solutions, initially designed their "AI-powered cameras mounted on cars and trucks... to capture license plates" but they are now photographing political lawn signs, bumper stickers, and even individuals wearing T-shirts with text, "all while recording the precise locations of these observations." This "data reviewed by WIRED shows how a tool originally intended for traffic enforcement has evolved into a system capable of monitoring speech protected by the US Constitution." Proudly Private, Dax the Duck Mascot - DuckDuckGo P.S. Our newsletter doesn't track you, but about 85% of other emails do! Get a @ duck dot com forwarding address to remove trackers and protect your email address. Learn more. Follow us on Twitter. Learn about privacy on our blog. Join our remote team! Check out our open positions. Duck Duck Go, Inc. 20 Paoli Pike Paoli, Pennsylvania 19301, USA Forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe here. No longer want to receive? Unsubscribe here.