cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11726995

Archived version

Electric vehicle maker BYD has removed any reference to "China" and "surveillance" from its Australian privacy policy just days after receiving questions from Four Corners.

The original policy gave the company almost unlimited powers to collect data on its Australian vehicle owners and broad discretion over how it could disclose it.

It said the data could be gathered "in connection with suspected illegal or improper activities" and that this could be done through "surveillance activities".

"This gives some highly concerning indications about the potential data practices of the company," said UNSW's Katharine Kemp, an expert in privacy law and how it relates to connected vehicles.

The policy named China as one of 16 countries where Australians' data could be sent.

...

While all references to China have been removed, nothing stops it from transferring data overseas, including to China.

"Should we need to transfer your personal data to other countries … we will comply with applicable data protection laws regarding cross-border data transfers," the new policy says.

...

BYD said Chinese authorities had no access to the data of Australians.

"We haven't and would not transfer any data of Australians to the Chinese authorities," it said.

This is despite China's national security laws obligating companies to co-operate with authorities if requested.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11726995

Archived version

Electric vehicle maker BYD has removed any reference to "China" and "surveillance" from its Australian privacy policy just days after receiving questions from Four Corners.

The original policy gave the company almost unlimited powers to collect data on its Australian vehicle owners and broad discretion over how it could disclose it.

It said the data could be gathered "in connection with suspected illegal or improper activities" and that this could be done through "surveillance activities".

"This gives some highly concerning indications about the potential data practices of the company," said UNSW's Katharine Kemp, an expert in privacy law and how it relates to connected vehicles.

The policy named China as one of 16 countries where Australians' data could be sent.

...

While all references to China have been removed, nothing stops it from transferring data overseas, including to China.

"Should we need to transfer your personal data to other countries … we will comply with applicable data protection laws regarding cross-border data transfers," the new policy says.

...

BYD said Chinese authorities had no access to the data of Australians.

"We haven't and would not transfer any data of Australians to the Chinese authorities," it said.

This is despite China's national security laws obligating companies to co-operate with authorities if requested.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11727107

Archived version

...

Canada and the EU are working to modernize the electronic systems that their businesses and people use to move money from place to place.

...

The draft of the coming [October] summit’s joint statement, dated Sept. 21, says Canada and the EU will commit to stitching together payment systems. It is a work in progress of the text that the two sides are planning to release at the Montreal event.

“We will also work toward connecting next-generation payment systems to facilitate faster, lower-cost and more seamless cross-border transactions, making it easier for Canadians and Europeans to conduct business, invest and transfer funds internationally,” the statement says. “These efforts will help mobilize capital for strategic sectors and support long-term economic growth and competitiveness.”

The U.S.’s power over international payments was demonstrated in 2025 when Mr. Trump imposed sanctions on Winnipeg-born International Criminal Court judge Kimberly Prost over her work on a case involving American troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. sanctions left Ms. Prost unable to use most credit cards or multinational services such as Amazon or airlines.

...

The draft statement shows that Canada and the EU plan to announce that they’ve completed a Digital Trade Agreement “to allow for faster, lower-cost secure digital trade and transactions” and that they plan deeper co-operation on critical minerals.

...

The capitals also plan to announce a deal between competition watchdogs in the EU and Canada “to effectively address anti-competitive conduct” as well as the launch of negotiations “toward a framework” for Canada to participate in the European Union’s Galileo space program.

...

In addition, the Canada-EU draft statement says they plan a “long-term feasibility study on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports to Europe” from Canada.

And, it says, Canada and the EU will launch negotiations toward participation in Erasmus+, the EU’s flagship education and mobility program that enables students to study at universities in the bloc.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11726995

Archived version

Electric vehicle maker BYD has removed any reference to "China" and "surveillance" from its Australian privacy policy just days after receiving questions from Four Corners.

The original policy gave the company almost unlimited powers to collect data on its Australian vehicle owners and broad discretion over how it could disclose it.

It said the data could be gathered "in connection with suspected illegal or improper activities" and that this could be done through "surveillance activities".

"This gives some highly concerning indications about the potential data practices of the company," said UNSW's Katharine Kemp, an expert in privacy law and how it relates to connected vehicles.

The policy named China as one of 16 countries where Australians' data could be sent.

...

While all references to China have been removed, nothing stops it from transferring data overseas, including to China.

"Should we need to transfer your personal data to other countries … we will comply with applicable data protection laws regarding cross-border data transfers," the new policy says.

...

BYD said Chinese authorities had no access to the data of Australians.

"We haven't and would not transfer any data of Australians to the Chinese authorities," it said.

This is despite China's national security laws obligating companies to co-operate with authorities if requested.

...

Archived version

...

Canada and the EU are working to modernize the electronic systems that their businesses and people use to move money from place to place.

...

The draft of the coming [October] summit’s joint statement, dated Sept. 21, says Canada and the EU will commit to stitching together payment systems. It is a work in progress of the text that the two sides are planning to release at the Montreal event.

“We will also work toward connecting next-generation payment systems to facilitate faster, lower-cost and more seamless cross-border transactions, making it easier for Canadians and Europeans to conduct business, invest and transfer funds internationally,” the statement says. “These efforts will help mobilize capital for strategic sectors and support long-term economic growth and competitiveness.”

The U.S.’s power over international payments was demonstrated in 2025 when Mr. Trump imposed sanctions on Winnipeg-born International Criminal Court judge Kimberly Prost over her work on a case involving American troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. sanctions left Ms. Prost unable to use most credit cards or multinational services such as Amazon or airlines.

...

The draft statement shows that Canada and the EU plan to announce that they’ve completed a Digital Trade Agreement “to allow for faster, lower-cost secure digital trade and transactions” and that they plan deeper co-operation on critical minerals.

...

The capitals also plan to announce a deal between competition watchdogs in the EU and Canada “to effectively address anti-competitive conduct” as well as the launch of negotiations “toward a framework” for Canada to participate in the European Union’s Galileo space program.

...

In addition, the Canada-EU draft statement says they plan a “long-term feasibility study on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports to Europe” from Canada.

And, it says, Canada and the EU will launch negotiations toward participation in Erasmus+, the EU’s flagship education and mobility program that enables students to study at universities in the bloc.

...

Archived version

Electric vehicle maker BYD has removed any reference to "China" and "surveillance" from its Australian privacy policy just days after receiving questions from Four Corners.

The original policy gave the company almost unlimited powers to collect data on its Australian vehicle owners and broad discretion over how it could disclose it.

It said the data could be gathered "in connection with suspected illegal or improper activities" and that this could be done through "surveillance activities".

"This gives some highly concerning indications about the potential data practices of the company," said UNSW's Katharine Kemp, an expert in privacy law and how it relates to connected vehicles.

The policy named China as one of 16 countries where Australians' data could be sent.

...

While all references to China have been removed, nothing stops it from transferring data overseas, including to China.

"Should we need to transfer your personal data to other countries … we will comply with applicable data protection laws regarding cross-border data transfers," the new policy says.

...

BYD said Chinese authorities had no access to the data of Australians.

"We haven't and would not transfer any data of Australians to the Chinese authorities," it said.

This is despite China's national security laws obligating companies to co-operate with authorities if requested.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11574331

Here is the report: Cyber Threat Report 2026 - Pūrongo Tuma ā-Ipurangi 2026 (pdf)

...

New Zealand's cyber security agency said China was the country's most persistent and capable state-backed cyber threat, as foreign actors targeted ​government agencies and organisations in sectors including health, education and information technology.

The National Cyber ‌Security Centre (NCSC), part of the New Zealand intelligence community, said it had identified activity suspected to originate from foreign state actors that put sensitive New Zealand information at risk.

...

It linked suspected state-sponsored cyber activity to actors from China, Russia, ​Iran and North Korea, according to its annual Cyber Threat Report released on Thursday.

"Of these ​nations the People's Republic of China is the most persistent and capable state ⁠actor undertaking cyber activity in New Zealand," the report said.

The assessment is the latest warning from ​a Western-aligned intelligence agency over alleged Chinese cyber espionage, which Beijing has routinely denied. It follows a report ​from New Zealand’s security agency in August that said that China was the only country New Zealand had detected conducting espionage "at scale."

...

The Cyber Security repor said 86 of 369 cyber incidents deemed to be of potential national significance in the year to June 2026 had suspected links to state-sponsored actors. The incidents included activity targeting government agencies, health and education organisations, and IT managed-service ​providers.

The agency warned that geopolitical ​competition was increasingly ⁠playing out in the South Pacific, where it was aware of state-backed cyber espionage targeting governments and infrastructure.

New Zealand has close family, cultural, political and ​economic ties across the Pacific, and such activity could affect citizens, businesses and ​civic institutions, ⁠it said.

...

State-backed actors were likely to target organisations that operate infrastructure or networks, provide essential public services, or hold information that could offer a strategic advantage, the NCSC said.

It warned that cyber espionage can be ⁠difficult to ​detect, with actors conducting reconnaissance and positioning access in systems ​over months or years before using it for intelligence gathering or disruption.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11574331

Here is the report: Cyber Threat Report 2026 - Pūrongo Tuma ā-Ipurangi 2026 (pdf)

...

New Zealand's cyber security agency said China was the country's most persistent and capable state-backed cyber threat, as foreign actors targeted ​government agencies and organisations in sectors including health, education and information technology.

The National Cyber ‌Security Centre (NCSC), part of the New Zealand intelligence community, said it had identified activity suspected to originate from foreign state actors that put sensitive New Zealand information at risk.

...

It linked suspected state-sponsored cyber activity to actors from China, Russia, ​Iran and North Korea, according to its annual Cyber Threat Report released on Thursday.

"Of these ​nations the People's Republic of China is the most persistent and capable state ⁠actor undertaking cyber activity in New Zealand," the report said.

The assessment is the latest warning from ​a Western-aligned intelligence agency over alleged Chinese cyber espionage, which Beijing has routinely denied. It follows a report ​from New Zealand’s security agency in August that said that China was the only country New Zealand had detected conducting espionage "at scale."

...

The Cyber Security repor said 86 of 369 cyber incidents deemed to be of potential national significance in the year to June 2026 had suspected links to state-sponsored actors. The incidents included activity targeting government agencies, health and education organisations, and IT managed-service ​providers.

The agency warned that geopolitical ​competition was increasingly ⁠playing out in the South Pacific, where it was aware of state-backed cyber espionage targeting governments and infrastructure.

New Zealand has close family, cultural, political and ​economic ties across the Pacific, and such activity could affect citizens, businesses and ​civic institutions, ⁠it said.

...

State-backed actors were likely to target organisations that operate infrastructure or networks, provide essential public services, or hold information that could offer a strategic advantage, the NCSC said.

It warned that cyber espionage can be ⁠difficult to ​detect, with actors conducting reconnaissance and positioning access in systems ​over months or years before using it for intelligence gathering or disruption.

...

Here is the report: Cyber Threat Report 2026 - Pūrongo Tuma ā-Ipurangi 2026 (pdf)

...

New Zealand's cyber security agency said China was the country's most persistent and capable state-backed cyber threat, as foreign actors targeted ​government agencies and organisations in sectors including health, education and information technology.

The National Cyber ‌Security Centre (NCSC), part of the New Zealand intelligence community, said it had identified activity suspected to originate from foreign state actors that put sensitive New Zealand information at risk.

...

It linked suspected state-sponsored cyber activity to actors from China, Russia, ​Iran and North Korea, according to its annual Cyber Threat Report released on Thursday.

"Of these ​nations the People's Republic of China is the most persistent and capable state ⁠actor undertaking cyber activity in New Zealand," the report said.

The assessment is the latest warning from ​a Western-aligned intelligence agency over alleged Chinese cyber espionage, which Beijing has routinely denied. It follows a report ​from New Zealand’s security agency in August that said that China was the only country New Zealand had detected conducting espionage "at scale."

...

The Cyber Security repor said 86 of 369 cyber incidents deemed to be of potential national significance in the year to June 2026 had suspected links to state-sponsored actors. The incidents included activity targeting government agencies, health and education organisations, and IT managed-service ​providers.

The agency warned that geopolitical ​competition was increasingly ⁠playing out in the South Pacific, where it was aware of state-backed cyber espionage targeting governments and infrastructure.

New Zealand has close family, cultural, political and ​economic ties across the Pacific, and such activity could affect citizens, businesses and ​civic institutions, ⁠it said.

...

State-backed actors were likely to target organisations that operate infrastructure or networks, provide essential public services, or hold information that could offer a strategic advantage, the NCSC said.

It warned that cyber espionage can be ⁠difficult to ​detect, with actors conducting reconnaissance and positioning access in systems ​over months or years before using it for intelligence gathering or disruption.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11559180

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11559173

TL;DR:

Newly unsealed court documents from Authors Guild v. OpenAI reveal that both OpenAI and Microsoft executives knowingly trained their AI models on pirated books and other copyrighted material while - behind the scenes - they admitted it was illegal and would destroy the livelihoods of human creators.

Archived version

• OpenAI and Microsoft Knew Their Systems Would Replace Human Writers – OpenAI Policy Director Jack Clark stated in May 2020: “Our work on AI and Creativity is going to increasingly lead to us creating systems that substitute for the labor of [] people . . . The better we do on GPT-X, the more worried genre fiction authors will become about us substituting for them on Amazon.” He then doubled down: “Our work in this area will make people unemployed. . . There will be a point where a bunch of artists express worry about what we’re doing here and we’ll likely ignore their concerns and release anyway . . .”
• “Autocompleting” Other People’s Work – OpenAI hired Tarun Gogineni in 2022 to lead its efforts to improve the writing quality of its models. Gogineni stated his “research mission” was to have GPT models write the “last two books of [Martin’s] A Song of Ice and Fire” series by “finishing it one day.” Gogineni even mused that he would “rest easy knowing that even if GRRM [George R. R. Martin] dies early, GPT-5 will autocomplete his series.”
• “Acceptable Economic Disruption.” – “Although [Gogineni] was aware of authors’ complaints that the ‘datasets are stolen’ and that authors were losing work to AI-generated competition, he did not find those complaints ‘all that sympathetic’ and instead viewed them as ‘acceptable economic disruption.’ He wrote that the world would soon experience ‘the death of the reader’ as ‘machines creat[ed] slop for more machines.’”
• Microsoft Knew OpenAI Used Pirated Books from the Start – “Microsoft knew about OpenAI’s use of LibGen as early as April 2019 when Sam Altman and Dario Amodei presented an early version of GPT-3 to Bill Gates and disclosed the use of LibGen to Gates and Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott, among others.”
• OpenAI Feared “Optics,” Not the Law – “Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s then-Research Director, responded that ‘as a training set [LibGen is] a bit sketchier.’ [OpenAI researcher Sam] McCandlish explained: ‘I was just worried about optics – i.e. ‘openai uses copyrighted data from sketchy russian website’ showing up on [Hacker News] would be unfortunate.”
• They Tried to Hide the Evidence – In an effort to cover its tracks the company called “Project Clear,” OpenAI deleted its LibGen files in the summer of 2022. “On June 15, 2022, in an OpenAI Slack channel, [OpenAI Corporate Designee] Paino asked: ‘general q: how concerned are we about mentions of libgen? (they’re all over google docs/slack/github . . .). That evening, [OpenAI VP of Research Bob] McGrew wrote to Paino and Nicholas Ryder: “Given how much OpenAI is in the news, now is the right time to excise Libgen from our systems and storage. What would be involved in that?’”

,,,

As an addition what may come in the not-so-distant fufure:

Hollywood fears an AI future. China is already living it

China’s film and video industry is in the midst of an AI revolution, and at ground zero are the micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones ...

The number of Chinese-made micro dramas surged in the first three months of this year to 128,000, according to the China Netcasting Services Assn. More than 95% of them were made with AI, the association said ...

Similar tools are being tested in the U.S., and the AI trends upending China’s entertainment industry may be a harbinger for what’s to come in Hollywood, said Michael Berry, a professor specializing in contemporary Chinese culture at UCLA ...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11559173

TL;DR:

Newly unsealed court documents from Authors Guild v. OpenAI reveal that both OpenAI and Microsoft executives knowingly trained their AI models on pirated books and other copyrighted material while - behind the scenes - they admitted it was illegal and would destroy the livelihoods of human creators.

Archived version

• OpenAI and Microsoft Knew Their Systems Would Replace Human Writers – OpenAI Policy Director Jack Clark stated in May 2020: “Our work on AI and Creativity is going to increasingly lead to us creating systems that substitute for the labor of [] people . . . The better we do on GPT-X, the more worried genre fiction authors will become about us substituting for them on Amazon.” He then doubled down: “Our work in this area will make people unemployed. . . There will be a point where a bunch of artists express worry about what we’re doing here and we’ll likely ignore their concerns and release anyway . . .”
• “Autocompleting” Other People’s Work – OpenAI hired Tarun Gogineni in 2022 to lead its efforts to improve the writing quality of its models. Gogineni stated his “research mission” was to have GPT models write the “last two books of [Martin’s] A Song of Ice and Fire” series by “finishing it one day.” Gogineni even mused that he would “rest easy knowing that even if GRRM [George R. R. Martin] dies early, GPT-5 will autocomplete his series.”
• “Acceptable Economic Disruption.” – “Although [Gogineni] was aware of authors’ complaints that the ‘datasets are stolen’ and that authors were losing work to AI-generated competition, he did not find those complaints ‘all that sympathetic’ and instead viewed them as ‘acceptable economic disruption.’ He wrote that the world would soon experience ‘the death of the reader’ as ‘machines creat[ed] slop for more machines.’”
• Microsoft Knew OpenAI Used Pirated Books from the Start – “Microsoft knew about OpenAI’s use of LibGen as early as April 2019 when Sam Altman and Dario Amodei presented an early version of GPT-3 to Bill Gates and disclosed the use of LibGen to Gates and Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott, among others.”
• OpenAI Feared “Optics,” Not the Law – “Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s then-Research Director, responded that ‘as a training set [LibGen is] a bit sketchier.’ [OpenAI researcher Sam] McCandlish explained: ‘I was just worried about optics – i.e. ‘openai uses copyrighted data from sketchy russian website’ showing up on [Hacker News] would be unfortunate.”
• They Tried to Hide the Evidence – In an effort to cover its tracks the company called “Project Clear,” OpenAI deleted its LibGen files in the summer of 2022. “On June 15, 2022, in an OpenAI Slack channel, [OpenAI Corporate Designee] Paino asked: ‘general q: how concerned are we about mentions of libgen? (they’re all over google docs/slack/github . . .). That evening, [OpenAI VP of Research Bob] McGrew wrote to Paino and Nicholas Ryder: “Given how much OpenAI is in the news, now is the right time to excise Libgen from our systems and storage. What would be involved in that?’”

,,,

As an addition what may come in the not-so-distant fufure:

Hollywood fears an AI future. China is already living it

China’s film and video industry is in the midst of an AI revolution, and at ground zero are the micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones ...

The number of Chinese-made micro dramas surged in the first three months of this year to 128,000, according to the China Netcasting Services Assn. More than 95% of them were made with AI, the association said ...

Similar tools are being tested in the U.S., and the AI trends upending China’s entertainment industry may be a harbinger for what’s to come in Hollywood, said Michael Berry, a professor specializing in contemporary Chinese culture at UCLA ...

TL;DR:

Newly unsealed court documents from Authors Guild v. OpenAI reveal that both OpenAI and Microsoft executives knowingly trained their AI models on pirated books and other copyrighted material while - behind the scenes - they admitted it was illegal and would destroy the livelihoods of human creators.

Archived version

• OpenAI and Microsoft Knew Their Systems Would Replace Human Writers – OpenAI Policy Director Jack Clark stated in May 2020: “Our work on AI and Creativity is going to increasingly lead to us creating systems that substitute for the labor of [] people . . . The better we do on GPT-X, the more worried genre fiction authors will become about us substituting for them on Amazon.” He then doubled down: “Our work in this area will make people unemployed. . . There will be a point where a bunch of artists express worry about what we’re doing here and we’ll likely ignore their concerns and release anyway . . .”
• “Autocompleting” Other People’s Work – OpenAI hired Tarun Gogineni in 2022 to lead its efforts to improve the writing quality of its models. Gogineni stated his “research mission” was to have GPT models write the “last two books of [Martin’s] A Song of Ice and Fire” series by “finishing it one day.” Gogineni even mused that he would “rest easy knowing that even if GRRM [George R. R. Martin] dies early, GPT-5 will autocomplete his series.”
• “Acceptable Economic Disruption.” – “Although [Gogineni] was aware of authors’ complaints that the ‘datasets are stolen’ and that authors were losing work to AI-generated competition, he did not find those complaints ‘all that sympathetic’ and instead viewed them as ‘acceptable economic disruption.’ He wrote that the world would soon experience ‘the death of the reader’ as ‘machines creat[ed] slop for more machines.’”
• Microsoft Knew OpenAI Used Pirated Books from the Start – “Microsoft knew about OpenAI’s use of LibGen as early as April 2019 when Sam Altman and Dario Amodei presented an early version of GPT-3 to Bill Gates and disclosed the use of LibGen to Gates and Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott, among others.”
• OpenAI Feared “Optics,” Not the Law – “Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s then-Research Director, responded that ‘as a training set [LibGen is] a bit sketchier.’ [OpenAI researcher Sam] McCandlish explained: ‘I was just worried about optics – i.e. ‘openai uses copyrighted data from sketchy russian website’ showing up on [Hacker News] would be unfortunate.”
• They Tried to Hide the Evidence – In an effort to cover its tracks the company called “Project Clear,” OpenAI deleted its LibGen files in the summer of 2022. “On June 15, 2022, in an OpenAI Slack channel, [OpenAI Corporate Designee] Paino asked: ‘general q: how concerned are we about mentions of libgen? (they’re all over google docs/slack/github . . .). That evening, [OpenAI VP of Research Bob] McGrew wrote to Paino and Nicholas Ryder: “Given how much OpenAI is in the news, now is the right time to excise Libgen from our systems and storage. What would be involved in that?’”

,,,

As an addition what may come in the not-so-distant fufure:

Hollywood fears an AI future. China is already living it

China’s film and video industry is in the midst of an AI revolution, and at ground zero are the micro dramas that play out on millions of smartphones ...

The number of Chinese-made micro dramas surged in the first three months of this year to 128,000, according to the China Netcasting Services Assn. More than 95% of them were made with AI, the association said ...

Similar tools are being tested in the U.S., and the AI trends upending China’s entertainment industry may be a harbinger for what’s to come in Hollywood, said Michael Berry, a professor specializing in contemporary Chinese culture at UCLA ...