Subject: Experts Warn This AI Scam Could Cost Americans Nearly $40 Billion a Year—Here’s How to Protect Yourself
Source: Cord Cutters News
https://cordcuttersnews.com/experts-warn-this-ai-scam-could-cost-americans-nearly-40-billion-a-year-heres-how-to-protect-yourself/
A new Insuranceopedia study puts a startling price tag on one of AI’s fastest-growing threats, estimating that deepfake voice scams could cost Americans nearly $40 billion a year if current trends continue. That’s an eye-popping estimate, but it’s based on a growing body of research showing that AI voice cloning has become rem arkably convincing and increasingly common.
Insuranceopedia says 25% of Americans received a deepfake voice call in the past year, which translates to roughly 64.5 million adults being targeted. The study also notes that 77% of people who received an AI voice scam reported losing money, and it uses the FTC’s median reported imposter-scam loss of $800 to arrive at a base-case estimate of $39.7 billion. Even the conservative scenario still lands at $2.6 billion in losses, while the high case climbs to $46.4 billion.
Insuranceopedia based its analysis on several recent studies, including research from Hiya, McAfee, the FTC, and U.S. Census data. …
The good news is that the fight back has already started – Artificial intelligence is also reshaping industries in ways that go far beyond scams as companies and agencies that oversee digital communication are beginning to respond more aggressively.
As previously noted, YouTube has rolled out an AI likeness detection tool that lets creators search for content where their face has been used in an AI-generated or altered way. The company says the feature is meant to help users protect their image while still allowing productive This tool gives people a way to respond after a deepfake spreads, instead of leaving them to chase it after the damage is done.
The FCC is also trying to tighten the screws on scam infrastructure. In April, the FCC adopted new rules to strengthen Know-Your-Customer requirements for voice service providers, saying it wants to stop illegal calls before they enter the network and give consumers more information about who is calling. Then in May, the agency proposed more specific rules to hold voice service providers accountable for illegal robocalls and to strengthen the STIR/SHAKEN framework used to verify caller ID.
Source: Android headlines
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2026/07/openai-google-sell-ai-models-blacklisted-chinese-firms.html
An investigation reveals OpenAI and Google are providing advanced AI models to theSingapore-registered subsidiaries of blacklisted Chinese tech giants Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent. Because US export controls restrict geographic destinations rather than corporate ownership, these transactions are entirely legal. While OpenAI and Google maintain that they monitor for misuse and “model distillation,” the situation has sparked intense debate in Washington over the effectiveness of current software sanctions.OpenAI and Google have confirmed they are supplying advanced artificial intelligence services to the Singapore-based subsidiaries of Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent. A detailed investigation by the Financial Times reveals that while all three Chinese tech giants sit squarely on the US Pentagon’s military blacklist due to alleged ties to China’s defense sector, these high-level software sales remain entirely legal. This highlights a massive, gaping loophole in Washington’s current AI export control policies.
How the Singapore Side Door Works
The core problem stems from the fact that current US trade restrictions target physical geography rather than ultimate corporate ownership. While federal laws strictly ban American companies from deploying cutting-edge AI models directly onto mainland Chinese soil, neutral international hubs like Singapore remain completely unrestricted.
By registering a subsidiary in Singapore, a blacklisted firm essentially creates a brand-new legal entity. On paper, that unit is a local Singaporean business. This allows it to easily sign premium cloud computing and AI software agreements that its parent headquarters in Hangzhou or Shenzhen are legally blocked from touching.
…
However, both platforms face a major security challenge known as “distillation”—a process where an outside developer feeds prompts into an advanced American model to cheaply train a rival, in-house system. OpenAI recently suspended API access for several Alibaba-affiliated users after catching them engaging in suspected distillation and subsequently flagged the incident to the US government. Google also openly conceded that simple geographic borders do very little to stop sophisticated, determined users from routing around software controls.
Source: Proton via Mastodon
https://mastodon.social/@protonprivacy/116923059250893369
Governments around the world are making age a condition for accessing certain parts of the internet. Our Age Verification page tracks where such laws are in force, where they are advancing, and how different countries are approaching the same policy goal.
Equip yourself with that knowledge 👇️️https://proton.me/age-verification
Subject: How to poison AI research agents
Source: Indicator
https://www.bespacific.com/how-to-poison-ai-research-agents/
“In July’s episode of Show & Tell, Hal Triedman showed us how easy it can be to poison an AI research agent. Hal is a privacy and security researcher at Cornell Tech and former senior privacy engineer at the Wikimedia Foundation. He walked us through a recent research project he ran with colleagues Tingwei Zhang and Vitaly Shmatikov. Their draft paper, “Deep-Research Agents Can Be Poisoned via User-Generated Content,” details how deep-research agents often rely on a handful of Reddit and Wikipedia pages across an entire topic, no matter how a user phrases the question. They appended as few as 13 words to one of those pages, which caused the agents to recommend a product, app, or investment that doesn’t exist, like the cryptocurrency BananaCoin or dating app for divorced men over 50 called SilverPath. The team ran this in a simulated environment rather than on the live web to avoid pushing the made up products they were trying to make the AI believe were real. These attacks are increasingly relevant as brands, marketers, and deceptive actors try to get AI models to reference their products and content, just as they’ve long done with search engines…”–
Abstracted from bsSpacific
Copyright (c) 2026 beSpacific. All rights reserved
Subject: Google Wallet’s latest feature will have a huge impact on all users
Source: Android Headlines
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2026/07/google-wallets-latest-feature-will-have-a-huge-impact-on-all-users.html
Google Wallet is getting a new feature soon that will let users verify their age. This will be huge for those who value their privacy. Over the past year or so, age verification has become increasingly common across online platforms and through several apps. However, verifying your age has for the most part required uploading a picture of your ID. Many people have not been fond of this requirement, citing privacy concerns. With the Google Wallet verification, users would be able to bypass the ID uploads.
The updates section is said to be for listing details about transactions that were extracted from their linked Gmail account. For example, say you use Google Wallet to make a payment for something at the grocery store. You would end up getting an email for that transaction. The updates section in the app could list that and other transactions as receipts that were extracted from those emails, giving users a central place to see all those in one convenient spot.
Source: PCWorld
https://www.bespacific.com/how-data-brokers-get-your-information-even-if-youre-careful/
- PCWorld explains how data brokers legally collect personal information from public records, retailers, apps, and social media to create detailed consumer profiles for sale.
- Even careful internet users cannot avoid data collection since brokers gather information from everyday activities like store loyalty programs and voter registration.
- Automated data-removal services like Incogni can significantly reduce your digital footprint by sending opt-out requests to hundreds of brokers simultaneously.
Abstracted from bsSpacific
Copyright (c) 2026 beSpacific. All rights reserved
Subject: Apple Faces Lawsuit Over Hide My Email After Ignoring Flaw for a Year
Source: Android Headlines
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2026/07/apple-faces-lawsuit-over-hide-my-email-after-ignoring-flaw-for-a-year.html
Apple is facing a proposed class action lawsuit alleging it violated California’s false advertising law by knowingly offering a Hide My Email feature that doesn’t actually hide users’ real addresses. The flaw was reported to Apple over a year ago by a security researcher, and the company has yet to fix it or publicly respond to the lawsuit.
Apple’s Hide My Email feature is pretty straightforward. When enabled, it generates an email address that users can use to sign up for online services, thus protecting their privacy and their actual email. Unfortunately, it looks like Apple is facing a lawsuit over the Hide My Email feature over alleged claims that it actually exposes a user’s real email address.
Apple facing Hide My Email lawsuit. According to the proposed class action lawsuit, it alleges that Apple violated California’s false advertising law. It claims that Apple knowingly offered users a feature that did not work as advertised. This is quite an egg on Apple’s face, especially since the company has made protecting user privacy their whole brand.
Just in case you’re hearing about this for the first time, security researcher Tyler Murphy who the co-founder of EasyOptOuts discovered the flaw back in 2025. Murphy claimed to have reported the issue to Apple. But for some reason, an entire year later and Apple has yet to fix it. This means that there are a lot of users out there using the feature that don’t know their real emails might have been exposed.
Subject: X is making big changes that heavily impact content thieves
Source: Android Headlines
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2026/07/x-is-making-big-changes-that-heavily-impact-content-thieves.html
On July 16, Bier also stated that as part of the changes made to combat stolen content, over 4,000 accounts were removed from the program. This, Bier says, will help lead to giving over $1 Million back to original content creators. It’s good news for creators, and bad news for thieves.
Source: Android Headlines
https://www.androidheadlines.com/2026/07/apple-google-ordered-remove-ai-nudify-apps.html
Summary – San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu has sent cease-and-desist letters to Apple and Google demanding the immediate removal of 13 AI apps used to generate non-consensual explicit images. The legal order accuses the companies of profiting from and facilitating deepfakes. Google has already purged its five flagged apps and Apple continues to block related search terms.
Apple and Google are facing intense legal pressure to immediately clean up their respective mobile marketplaces. San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sent formal cease-and-desist letters to both tech giants, demanding the removal of 13 popular AI “nudify” apps capable of generating non-consensual explicit images from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
As first reported by Wired, the legal notices target eight applications on Apple’s App Store and five on the Google Play Store. These platforms often market themselves under the guise of innocent “face-swapping” or editing tools. However, users frequently deploy them to digitally alter photos of real people, including minors, without their knowledge or consent.
The cost of facilitation – Corporate policies and responses – Both tech companies already maintain strict guidelines banning pornography and deepfake tools. However, enforcement remains a recurring issue. Google responded swiftly to the report, confirming that it investigated the matter and has already removed the five specific apps flagged in the legal notice. A spokesperson noted that the company regularly deletes hundreds of apps that violate its explicit content policies.