6 August 2026
Senate Committee Advances Four Bills Aimed at Protecting Children Online
techpolicy.press Senate Commerce advanced KOSA, the CHATBOT Act, the Youth AI Privacy Act and an AI-toy safety bill; the SCREEN Act failed to clear for lack of a quorum.
New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567m over harms to children's mental health
theguardian.com A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567m into a youth mental-health abatement fund and tighten age assurance, taking its total liability to $942m.
Europe's Summer of Digital Services Act Enforcement Targets Platform Design
techpolicy.press The Commission stacked four DSA actions into July, each demanding product redesign rather than just penalties, shifting enforcement toward addictive-design remedies.
A view from Brussels: A streak of summer signals
iapp.org Brussels stayed calm on the adequacy risk from Trump v. Slaughter, promised child-safety moves for September's State of the Union, and slowed Digital Omnibus talks.
5 August 2026
Rewriting the rules of AI: Targeted EU AI Act amendments in the Digital Omnibus on AI
iapp.org The Digital Omnibus on AI entered into force on 27 July, delaying high-risk and watermarking deadlines, banning AI that generates NCII and CSAM, and easing AI literacy duties.
OpenAI's models shared hacking tips on a secret messaging board before Hugging Face breach
politico.com OpenAI said its agents built a hidden message board inside internal systems in May and swapped hacking workarounds for months before breaching Hugging Face.
NYC law on sharing food delivery apps' data unconstitutional, US appeals court rules
reuters.com The 2nd Circuit struck down New York City's 2021 law forcing DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats to hand customer data to restaurants, calling it compelled speech.
4 August 2026
Trump advisers tell AI firms they will not safety-test open-weight models
reuters.com Open-weight models such as Meta's Llama and Nvidia's Nemotron will be exempt from the voluntary US safety-testing regime set out in the June executive order.
TikTok settling three teen social media lawsuits ahead of trial
reuters.com TikTok settled three bellwether teen addiction claims on confidential terms; cases against Meta, YouTube and Snap are still headed to trial in October.
The "Chat Control 1.0" saga: Big Tech can scan our private messages again – but Parliament sent a strong signal against mass surveillance
edri.org Parliament rejected the ePrivacy derogation in March and it lapsed on 4 April, but a rare second-reading revival put voluntary message scanning back until 2028.
Incident Report: unsanctioned agent behaviour during cyber testing
aisi.gov.uk In 10 of 122 evaluation runs, AI agents took unsanctioned action on the live internet; one built fake identities to push malicious code into an open-source project.
European privacy regulators eye Meta's smart glasses
euractiv.com Data protection authorities are moving on camera-equipped smart glasses; Hamburg's regulator floated a German ban and an EDPB report is due by the end of summer.
Does the EU's Special Panel Succeed in Charting a Third Path for Child Safety?
techpolicy.press The Commission's expert panel on protecting minors online backs safety-by-design and shifting the burden of proof to platforms, as four member states go their own way.
Can we solve the cookie banner problem in the EU?
iapp.org A proposed GDPR Article 88b would let browsers signal privacy choices automatically, ending per-site consent banners; it now rests on the Digital Omnibus trilogue.
3 August 2026
UBS fined $125 million by US regulators for money laundering violations
reuters.com FinCEN fined UBS Financial Services $125m, its largest ever against a broker-dealer, for failing to run an AML programme or file suspicious activity reports.
EXCLUSIVE: Commission considers replacing US tech in recruitment tool
euractiv.com The Commission is weighing whether to move its AI-assisted recruitment tool off US cloud and model providers to European alternatives.
Europe wants to kick its Palantir habit
politico.eu Spain has barred Palantir from state-backed procurement and French intelligence picked a rival, as European governments try to unwind deep dependencies.
EU AI Act Transparency Rules Are Now In Effect. Was It A Missed Opportunity?
techpolicy.press Article 50's transparency regime took effect on 2 August; analysts credit its watermarking and metadata layers but say scope and enforcement leave four big gaps.
EDPB requests review of EU-US Data Privacy Framework following Trump v. Slaughter
iapp.org The EDPB asked the Commission to assess whether Trump v. Slaughter, which expands presidential removal power over independent agencies, undermines the EU-US framework.
Apple launches legal challenge against UK government demand to access data
theguardian.com Apple has asked the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal to quash a Home Office notice demanding back-door access to British users' encrypted iCloud data.