Snapchat Revises AI Privacy Policy Following UK ICO Probe

Instant messaging app Snapchat its artificial intelligence-powered tool under compliance after the U.K. data regulator said it violated the privacy rights of individual Snapchat users.

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The U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office last year rebuked Snapchat for failing to properly assess the privacy risk to the users of My AI, the platform’s generative artificial intelligence-powered chatbot.

Agency analysis found the company failed to adequately assess the data protection risks generative AI technology posed to children. On Tuesday, the U.K. ICO concluded its probe by stating that the company has brought its privacy measures in compliance with U.K. data protection laws.

Snapchat did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We will continue to monitor organizations’ risk assessments and use the full range of our enforcement powers – including fines – to protect the public from harm,” said Stephen Almond, the ICO’s executive director of regulatory risk. The regulator urged companies to take appropriate data risk assessments before placing a product on the market.

The latest decision from the agency comes as it is fighting to impose a fine on Clearview AI after a tribunal overturned the fine imposed by the ICO (see:
UK Privacy Watchdog Pursues Clearview AI Fine After Reversal).

Although the U.K. does not have a binding regulation on AI, the ICO’s efforts align with the British government’s overall AI regulation strategy that depends on existing authorities to monitor AI within their jurisdictions.

As part of its efforts to curb potential privacy violations using AI, the regulator last month launched a consultation probing the link between AI model purpose and accuracy. This follows the regulator’s earlier consultations to evaluate the legality of processing personal identifiable information within data scraped from public datasets, as well as a consultation calling for restrictions on the processing of sensitive data (see: UK Privacy Watchdog Probes Gen AI Privacy Concerns).