159 stories on European law, technology regulation and digital rights, latest from 21 August 2026. Every headline links to the original source.
21 August 2026
Uber fined nearly 825 million euros for automated driver blocking
autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl The Dutch DPA fined Uber €824.99m for automatically deactivating drivers over fraud flags and low ratings without human review. Uber is appealing.
U.S. Citizen Who Deleted Phone's Data Says His Prosecution Puts Privacy at Risk
nytimes.com US prosecutors charged Samuel Tunick with obstruction for entering a duress passcode that wiped his phone during a CBP airport search.
TikTok agrees to $400 million US children's privacy settlement
reuters.com TikTok and ByteDance settled the DOJ's COPPA suit for $400m: $300m now, $100m once the 2019 Musical.ly consent decree is vacated.
EU's push for watermarking won't worsen AI writing, experts say
euractiv.com Under the AI transparency code, watermarking applies only to texts over 200 tokens; its co-chairs say quality loss is confined to very short outputs.
20 August 2026
The EU's proposed CADA: Why cloud sovereignty matters for business strategy
iapp.org The Cloud and AI Development Act proposal sets cloud assurance levels and data centre acceleration zones; Ireland targets a Council progress report by year-end.
How the EU's new AML regulation will change personal data processing
iapp.org The EU AML Regulation becomes directly applicable on 10 July 2027, adding GDPR-specific rules on automated processing, human oversight and reuse of AML data.
eSafety secures court-enforceable undertaking from Roblox to do more to protect Australian kids from grooming and sexual exploitation
esafety.gov.au Roblox has three months to block adult contact with unknown children, make under-16 profiles private by default and let a third party audit its age estimation.
AP advises Twitch users: opt out from sharing data with Amazon AI
autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl The Dutch DPA urged Twitch users to disable the default-on setting letting Amazon train AI on their streams, faces, voices and chats.
19 August 2026
Will AI give you the job? Automated hiring tools spark discrimination and secrecy lawsuits
theguardian.com A class action argues Eightfold AI's 0-5 applicant scores are undisclosed consumer reports; parallel suits accuse IBM of age bias and Meta of targeting leave-takers.
Offering Zero Data Retention for frontier models
openai.com OpenAI previewed Private Safety Processing, spotting misuse patterns across interactions without staff access to content; rollout and a white paper due in September.
FTC Seeks Comment on Enforcement Policy Statement Regarding Personalized Pricing
ftc.gov The FTC voted 2-0 to propose treating undisclosed use of personal data to set individual prices as a deceptive practice, opening a 30-day comment period.
18 August 2026
US states take on Meta in pivotal trial over child social media addiction claims
theguardian.com Twenty-nine US states opened a jury trial in Oakland accusing Meta of deliberately designing addictive products for minors; damages could reach $200bn.
SEC Proposes New Regulation Crypto Assets
sec.gov The SEC proposed exemptions letting crypto issuers raise up to $5m over four years or $75m a year without registration, preempting state securities law.
Piratage du système d'information des impôts : les vérifications sont en cours
cnil.fr The CNIL was notified of the DGFiP tax-system breach exposing income, withholding and cadastral data, and may inspect and sanction over security failings.
OpenAI announces slowing pace of development after hack by rogue agent
theguardian.com OpenAI paused model testing for two weeks and put major training runs on hold, saying Astra may near its critical cybersecurity threshold.
Facial recognition in policing: earning public trust through strong data protection governance
ico.org.uk The ICO audited five English and Welsh police forces on facial recognition and issued 107 recommendations, finding inconsistent data protection compliance.
ChatGPT Ads expands across Europe
openai.com ChatGPT Ads reaches 31 European countries next week, shown only to Free and Go users, with OpenAI saying conversations stay private from advertisers.
Changes for apps in the European Union
developer.apple.com Apple will move all EU developers to a single set of business terms on 1 October, replacing the per-install Core Technology Fee with a flat 5% commission.
17 Iranians Charged With Conducting Massive Cyber Theft Campaign On Behalf Of The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
justice.gov Prosecutors charged 17 Mabna Institute members over IRGC-directed intrusions at 322 universities that took 31.5 terabytes of research data.
17 August 2026
Vietnam Tightens Online Speech Controls as Cyber Law Takes Effect
techpolicy.press Vietnam's revised Cybersecurity Law took effect on 1 July, giving platforms six hours to remove content in urgent cases and fining users up to $1,900.