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Below: Microsoft proposes changes to its Office product to prevent an antitrust investigation, and a poll finds half of Americans want artificial intelligence to be regulated. First:
Utah’s porn crackdown has a VPN problem
A new Utah law requiring companies to verify users’ ages to access pornography took effect Wednesday, sparking backlash from advocacy groups who say it undermines residents’ online privacy.
In the wake of the law, searches and downloads for virtual private networks (VPNs) — which mask a user’s personal information — have soared in Utah, according to data shared with The Technology 202. That suggests residents may already be trying to circumvent the rules.
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The uptick underscores the enforcement challenges officials are likely to face as they advance rules aimed at protecting children online, including efforts cropping up around the country imposing fresh age-verification requirements.
And it could expose companies that don’t shut out VPNs to fresh legal risk.
Several VPN service providers said they either saw a major jump in traffic or a spike in downloads after the law kicked in Wednesday — and since the site Pornhub announced it will shut out users in Utah in protest. The tools could allow users to still access impacted sites without coughing up their information.
“VPN is an easy way to circumvent age-verification requirements,” said Suzanne Bernstein, a law fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center advocacy group.
- Surfshark VPN said the number of downloads of its product in Utah has approximately doubled in the past few days.
- Private Internet Access said visits to its website from Utah more than doubled in the 24 hours after the age-verification law went into effect.
- ExpressVPN said their website has seen a 300 percent boost in traffic from users in Utah since the law took effect.
Shoshana Weissmann, digital director and fellow at the R Street Institute think tank, said the age-verification rules could force companies to either collect more personal data, such as government-issued identification, or biometric data, including by scanning users’ faces.
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“Age-verification technology is really invasive in its current form,” she said.
The Utah law (S.B. 287), meant to keep minors off porn sites, is part of a mounting push in the United States to expand protections for kids online, including by vetting their ages.
A separate Utah law (S.B. 152) requiring that social media platforms obtain parental consent to let minors use their services would force companies to “verify the age of a Utah resident seeking to maintain or open” an account.
A similar law in Arkansas (S.B. 396) requiring parental consent for users under 18 to go on social media obligates companies to “verify the age of an account holder.”
Some states have taken a less direct approach to age verification, including a California law requiring platforms to vet their products for potential risks to kids before rolling them out.
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That law, the California Age Appropriate Design Code (A.B. 2273), applies to platforms “likely to be accessed by children” but does not explicitly require companies to vet users’ ages.
Samir Jain, vice president of policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the difference can be moot. “There are lots of different ways that these laws are imposing de facto or implicit age-verification requirements,” he said.
The think tank receives funding from tech companies including Google, Facebook and Amazon. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
While users may be able to use VPNs to avoid getting shut out by sites, companies could still be on the hook for letting them evade the rules, Weissmann and Jain said.
Utah’s social media law, set to take effect next year, states that a “social media company shall not permit a Utah minor account holder to change or bypass restrictions on access.” That type of language could expose social media companies and VPNs to legal threats, Jain said.
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“There’s a danger that you end up discouraging the use or even outlawing the use of VPNs or encryption or other … methods of maintaining privacy that might make it difficult to enforce these kinds of laws,” Jain said.
A spokesperson for Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) did not return a request for comment.
Cox said in March that their age-verification laws won’t be “foolproof,” but they will be “working with social media companies … to figure out what that's going to look like.”
“We don’t want them having copies of driver's licenses on hand,” he said. “That's not what we're trying to do here. We believe that there are technical, logical fixes that we can work around this.”
Utah’s porn law is also facing legal challenges: A trade group representing the adult entertainment industry this week accused the state of violating constitutional privacy and free speech rights, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Our top tabs
Microsoft proposes selling versions of Office without Teams to ward off antitrust investigation
Microsoft proposed not including the Teams workplace communications app in certain versions of its Office product to ward off a potential antitrust investigation and a fine from E.U. enforcers, Foo Yun Chee reports for Reuters.
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The European Commission (EC) antitrust regulator is also weighing the proposal with Microsoft rivals, the report said, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The proposal comes after Salesforce-owned workplace communications tool Slack in 2020 complained that Microsoft had unfairly integrated the Teams app into its Office suite of workplace products.
“We have received several complaints regarding Microsoft, including by Slack, regarding Microsoft's conduct in relation to its Teams product. As you know the assessment is ongoing so we cannot comment further,” an EC spokesperson told Reuters.
Microsoft said it was “open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well.” Salesforce declined to comment.
U.K. probing large language and generative AI models for competition, risk concerns
Britain’s antitrust enforcer opened an investigation into large language and generative artificial intelligence models to examine competition and consumer risk concerns in the AI space, Ryan Browne reports for CNBC.
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The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) plans to explore how the market for those tools, labeled “foundation models,” evolves and would release guidance on how to best spur competition and protect consumers as the technology is adopted, according to the report.
“AI has burst into the public consciousness over the past few months but has been on our radar for some time,” CMA head Sarah Cardell said. “It’s a technology developing at speed and has the potential to transform the way businesses compete as well as drive substantial economic growth.”
Global policymakers are making sweeping attempts at AI regulations amid a boom in popularity for AI language tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing AI chatbot. Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan this week published an op-ed in the New York Times describing how to best regulate AI.
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The White House yesterday hosted chief executives of tech and AI companies, and emphasized that their AI tools must be developed and deployed safely.
Half of Americans want Congress to regulate AI, poll finds
About half of Americans want Congress to take regulatory action on AI technologies, Rebecca Klar reports for the Hill, citing a poll conducted for the Omidyar Network-backed Tech Oversight Project.
“Fifty-four percent of polled registered voters said Congress should take ‘swift action’ to regulate the technology in a way that promotes privacy, fairness and safety to ensure ‘maximum benefit to society with minimal risks,’” Klar writes.
Just 15 percent of respondents said that regulating AI would stifle innovation. Additionally, 41 percent said Congress should take charge of the regulations, versus 20 percent that argued tech companies should lead them.
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The poll conducted by Change Research surveyed about 1,200 registered voters nationwide between April 28 and May 2 with a margin of error of 3 percentage points, the report says.
The Biden administration yesterday launched a trustworthy AI investment and invited major tech companies to participate in public auditing of their AI systems at the Def Con cybersecurity conference this summer.
Rant and rave
Tech Twitter reacts to Google’s teaser of its first foldable phone set to be revealed next week. Bloomberg News’s Mark Gurman:
Stripe’s Owen Williams:
Podcaster Marques Brownlee:
Agency scanner
Hill happenings
'It’s got everyone’s attention': Inside Congress’s struggle to rein in AI (Politico)
Inside the industry
AI-powered Bing ditches waitlist, adds images and video (Axios)
Coming to DEF CON 31: Hacking AI models (CyberScoop)
Privacy monitor
TikTok advertisers stick by the app amid threat of U.S. ban (Reuters)
Workforce report
Pay falls for many tech workers as the downturn hits home (The Information)
Trending
The ultimate guide to managing your passwords (Tatum Hunter)
Daybook
- George Washington University holds an event titled “Generative AI 101” at 11 a.m.
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