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Elon Musk’s X faces privacy complaints in Europe over data use concerns

A privacy campaign group on Monday lodged complaints against Elon Musk's X in eight European countries over concerns it was "feeding" users' personal data into its AI technology without their consent.

Published: 12 August 2024 08:37 CEST
Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, speaks at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California
Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, speaks at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Photo by Apu Gomes / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

The complaints filed by the European Center for Digital Rights – also known as Noyb (‘None of Your Business’) – come after Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) earlier this month took court action against X over data collection practices used to train its AI.

X had recently started “irreversibly feeding” the personal data of more than 60 million European users into its Grok AI technology, “without ever informing them or asking for their consent”, according to Noyb.

Noyb slammed X for “never proactively informing” its users that their data was being used for AI training, saying many people appeared to have “found out about the new default setting through a viral post on 26 July”.

Last week the DPC – which acts on behalf of the European Union – said that X had agreed to suspend its much-criticised processing of users’ personal data for its AI technology.

But Noyb founder Max Schrems said in a statement that the DPC failed to “question the legality” of the actual processing, seemingly taking action “around the edges, not at the core of the problem”.

Noyb also warned that it remained unclear what happened with already ingested EU data.

Calling for a “full investigation”, Noyb has filed complaints in Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

The group has requested an “urgency procedure” against X that allows data protection authorities in the eight European countries to act.

“We want to ensure that Twitter (now X) fully complies with EU law, which – at a bare minimum – requires to ask users for consent,” Schrems said, referring to the bloc’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The GDPR aims to make it easier for people to control how companies use their personal information.

The group recently launched similar legal action against social media giant Meta, causing it to halt its AI plans.

Noyb has taken several court proceedings against technology giants, often prompting action from regulatory authorities.

The group began working in 2018 with the advent of the GDPR.

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JOBS

Spanish telecoms firm MasOrange to cut nearly 800 jobs

Spanish telecoms firm MasOrange plans to cut around 800 jobs, or around 10 percent of its workforce, in Spain, a union and the firm said on Tuesday, the latest in a string of layoffs in the sector in the country.

Published: 3 September 2024 12:55 CEST
Spanish telecoms firm MasOrange to cut nearly 800 jobs

The company, which was born in March from the merger of French telecoms giant Orange’s unit in Spain and Spanish rival MasMovil, is the country’s second-largest telecoms firm after former state monopoly Telefonica.

The job cuts plan was presented by the firm on Tuesday and it “aims to cut a maximum of 795 jobs in six of the nine companies that make up the group, the UGT union said in a statement.

MasOrange and unions will start negotiating the layoffs on September 17th, the union added.

“UGT rejects the measure, which deepens policies of destruction of well-trained, well-paid jobs that bring wealth and added value to the economy of Spain,” the statement said.

MasOrange confirmed the job cut plan, saying it “will be voluntary” and involve a maximum of 10 percent of employees.

Heavily indebted Telefonica announced in December plans to cut 3,400 of the group’s 16,500 jobs in Spain by 2026 as part of efforts to cut costs and boost profitability.

Vodafone Spain announced in June that it was planning to axe almost 1,200 staff, more than a third of its workforce, just weeks after it was bought by investment fund Zegona from Britain’s Vodafone.

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