Jeff Cassman

Disney properties’ rights state that they are allowed to “photograph, film, videotape, record or otherwise reproduce the image and/or voice of any person who enters.” And while CCTV cameras are commonplace throughout theme parks, this kind of tech would take in-person surveillance to new heights, said Calli Schroeder, senior counsel and global privacy counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. 

This tech could be applicable for security surveillance or watching for “pressure or frustration points” in the park, Schroeder said, such as places where people struggle to find ride entrances or bathrooms that they could optimize park layouts. But it still implies a certain level of AI-based emotion recognition, she said, which can often be inaccurate for myriad reasons.  

Everyone emotes differently, she noted. And since Disney’s system bases its predictions off a set of behaviors it deems “normal,” it may be set off by the emotional expression of people from different cultures or those who are neurodivergent.  

“The use of the word ‘normal’ is a red flag already,” said Schroeder. “There may be some (guest behaviors) that are more common than others, but setting a threshold for normal is a little concerning.”  

In addition, a large part of Disney’s clientele includes children and minors, said Schroeder, so the potential tracking and use of their data by and for this system’s deep learning models is concerning in and of itself.  

“Incorporating AI into these systems, it’s going to be learning and trying to detect patterns from what they pick up,” she said. “You’re using this information in a way that these people very likely are unaware of.” 

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In comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, EPIC expressed support for the CFPB’s proposed Personal Financial Data Rights Rule and recommended ways to strengthen the rule’s privacy and data security requirements. The proposed rule would ensure that consumers can more readily access their data held by financial institutions while limiting the extent to which authorized third parties can collect, use, retain, and share that same data.

“EPIC urges the CFPB to promulgate rules that will empower consumers in their interactions with the financial services industry,” EPIC wrote. “The final rule should facilitate frictionless access by consumers to their financial information, enable consumers to understand and control who has access to their personal information and for what purposes they may use it, and prohibit third parties from collecting, using, or retaining personal information beyond what is reasonably necessary to provide the product or service requested by the consumer.”

EPIC highlighted ways the proposed rule could be strengthened with respect to data minimization, consumer rights, account verification, data security, and industry standards. In particular, EPIC urged the CFPB to “limit third parties’ collection, use, and retention of sensitive personal information to what is strictly necessary to provide the product or service the consumer requests, and only consistent with the reasonable expectations of the consumer.”

EPIC routinely calls on the CFPB to strengthen privacy protections for consumers. EPIC filed comments at a previous stage of the CFPB’s Personal Financial Data Rights Rulemaking. EPIC also filed comments supporting the CFPB’s proposed revisions to Fair Credit Reporting Act rules, which among other changes would clarify that data brokers must comply with FCRA.

There are additional concerns about AI, that go beyond just generative AI. Consumer advocates say governments should curb algorithmic feeds on social media, while some researchers warn that large language models pose a range of risks for consumer data and child safety. (In the UK, regulators recently sent a letter to Snap about how the company vetted its “My AI” chatbot to make sure it’s safe for kids to use.)

Last year, at least 10 states in the U.S. added new AI regulations inside of broader consumer privacy laws, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center. More will likely be introduced in 2024 at both the state and local level.

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The COPPA specifically aims to protect the privacy of children younger than 13 by requesting parental consent for the collection or use of any personal information of the users, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s website. The act went into effect in 2000, revised in 2013 and then had a workshop to decide on updates to the law in 2019.

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A privacy watchdog is weighing in against Google in a battle over claims that the company violated Chrome users’ privacy by allegedly gathering information about their web browsing activity.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed Thursday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Electronic Privacy Information Center says a trial judge wrongly ruled that users of the Chrome browser consented to Google’s alleged data practices.

That ruling, if it stands, “would eliminate even the modicum of privacy that the common law currently provides to internet users,” the advocacy group writes.

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On top of all that, many aspects of these technologies make them “genuinely difficult to regulate,” says Ben Winters, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a digital privacy research nonprofit. For instance, placing regulations on A.I.’s ability to generate text, images, music, or other information could be unconstitutional, given First Amendment protections. Some have proposed that companies should be held accountable for their algorithms’ output, but it’s unclear exactly where a company’s liability for information disseminated on their platforms begins and ends—and it could have chilling effects for freedom of speech online in general. Questions of accountability become extra tricky when dealing with algorithms, which function as a “black box”—many engineers who helped train and shape the technology can’t be sure exactly why the system they built ends up behaving one way or another. 

There are other gray areas that are difficult to navigate, like which types of online data are fair game for algorithmic inputs and what sort of consent, if any, companies should seek. In 2019, I reported on a case in which researchers scraped publicly available YouTube videos to train a model to guess what a person looks like—and one of the unwitting participants was surprised to learn he’d been part of the model’s training data. It’s not technically illegal, but it doesn’t feel ethical, either. Questions about online data privacy “dovetail with a lack of privacy protections that we still don’t have yet,” says Winters. 

… I asked Winters for details about how companies were carrying those out: What types of data are assessors assessing? Who are the assessors—people who work within a company, or third parties? “There isn’t a universal definition of it; every time it’s being used, it means something different,” Winters says. “Whether it’s valuable and helpful to consumers—well, the devil’s in the details.”

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Against the backdrop of high inflation rates and geopolitical uncertainty, states are increasingly enacting measures that encourage saving in precious metals and even using gold and silver as money.

With five bills signed into law in 2023, sound money reforms are gaining momentum across the United States.

Money Metals Exchange’s Sound Money Defense League project has emerged as an influential force, actively engaging in legislative battles by prompting intense grassroots support, drafting legislation, recruiting bill sponsors, and providing expert testimony directly to lawmakers.

Twenty-five states considered fifty pieces of legislation this year aimed at ending taxes on monetary metals, strengthening state finances by investing reserve funds in physical gold, establishing in-state depositories, and more.

The 2024 Sound Money Index, published by Money Metals Exchange, provides a full rundown on how each state stacks up in this important policy area.

Ending Sales Tax on Gold and Silver Is a Winning Issue

The vast majority of states have now eliminated taxes on the purchase of precious metals.

In 2023, Mississippi became the forty-third state to do so, following the recent examples set by Ohio and Arkansas in 2021 and Tennessee in 2022.

That leaves just seven sales tax states: New Mexico, Hawaii, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, and Vermont.

Of these seven states, five considered legislation in 2023 to end the tax.

New Jersey hopes to become the forty-fourth sales-tax-exempt state. Assembly Bill 5294 passed unanimously through the state Assembly by a vote of 74–0, and a Senate committee unanimously passed the bill this week.

Meanwhile, Money Metals leaders collaborated with legislators in Wisconsin to introduce Assembly Bill 29 and Senate Bill 33. These measures have garnered support from twenty-four cosponsors representing both sides of the aisle with a hearing expected soon.

The Alaska state House passed House Bill 3, the bill seeking the end to borough and city sales taxes on sound money. The measure will be considered by the Senate when the legislature reconvenes in early 2024.

In Kentucky, Representative Steven Doan sponsored House Bill 213 as a single-issue bill, but Republican leaders insisted on incorporating the language that would end sales taxes on precious metals into a broader bill covering multiple topics.

Despite broad support in the House, Senate leaders specifically removed the sound money provision, thwarting the effort in 2023.

The most contentious sound money battles of 2023 unfolded in Augusta, Maine, when Senator Eric Brakey introduced Legislative Draft 1051 to end sales taxes on gold and silver purchases.

The bill passed 17–15 out of the Maine Senate. On the House side, it received two favorable votes. However, Democrat majority leadership pressured its members, ultimately flipping enough votes to defeat the bill 71–72 during the final vote.

And finally, Vermont lawmakers introduced House Bill 295 to end the sales tax on sound money . . . as did lawmakers in Minnesota. But neither received a…