Privacy news

Claude gets read-only access to bank accounts in US beta

Anthropic’s Personal Finance links bank and card accounts through Plaid, on the Pro, Max and Ultra plans. Anthropic says it can’t move money. Chats in its hub are not used for training, but chats outside the hub follow the user’s privacy settings.

Anthropic announced Personal Finance on November 5. Users in the US can link accounts through Plaid and ask Claude about spending, bills and fees. Anthropic says access is read-only. Claude sees balances and up to two years of transactions for the accounts a user chooses.

Opera lets websites use AI that runs on your own PC

Opera’s browsers can now run open AI models on the user’s computer, through a proposed web standard called WebAI. It is an opt-in early preview, and nothing is downloaded until the user turns it on.

Opera started an early preview of WebAI on October 27. It lets websites and browser extensions use AI models that run on the user’s own computer instead of a company’s servers. It starts in Opera One on Windows and Apple-silicon Macs, with Opera GX and Opera Neon to follow, Opera says.

Linked Gmail and Photos data can now shape Google ads

Google’s privacy policy of October 16 adds an exception to its promise not to base ads on Gmail, Drive and Photos content. If people connect these apps to Search, that data may shape their ads. Google says advertisers never see the content itself.

Google’s privacy policy used to promise plainly that it doesn’t show personalised ads based on content from Drive, Gmail or Photos. The version in force since October 16 adds an exception for people who make that data available to other Google services that support personalised ads. Tech sites reported the change this week.

Amazon’s Bee launches two AI recorders, from $74.99

The Bee Frontier goes on a wrist or clothing, and the Bee Eclipse sticks to the back of a phone. Both turn conversations into summaries and to-dos, and a Bee Pro plan costs $11.99 a month.

Bee, a maker of AI note-taking devices that Amazon bought in 2025, launched its first new products since then on October 15. The $74.99 Bee Frontier is on sale now at Amazon.com. The Bee Eclipse, from $99.99, comes “soon”. While switched on, both listen to conversations and turn them into summaries, reminders and to-dos.

Alibaba starts selling its Qwen N1 AI glasses in China

The glasses run Alibaba’s Qwen assistant and cost from 2,218 yuan after subsidies and launch discounts. The N1 Pro adds eye control and payment by iris scan, Alibaba says.

Alibaba’s N1 and N1 Pro AI glasses went on sale in China on October 13, after pre-orders opened on September 22. Both have a 50-megapixel camera and batteries that can be swapped, and they run Alibaba’s Qwen assistant for tasks such as translation and notes. Alibaba also showed Qwen Clip, AI earbuds tuned with Bose.

Norway plans a temporary ban on AI glasses in public places

Parks, schools, shopping centres and gyms with changing rooms could be covered. It is not a total ban, and the bill has no date yet.

Norway’s government said on Monday, October 5, that it will propose a temporary ban on AI glasses in selected places. It worries that people could be photographed, filmed or recorded without knowing it. An expert group will advise on permanent national rules.

Judge calls a police Flock search “mass surveillance”

A US federal judge in Oklahoma ruled that a deputy’s warrantless search of plate-reader data broke the Fourth Amendment. Flock says the ruling goes against most courts and expects it to be overturned.

US District Judge Sara E. Hill ruled on October 1 that a Tulsa County deputy carried out an unconstitutional search when he looked up a driver’s plate in automated plate-reader systems, including Flock. The search returned more than 50 sightings of the car over about a month. The judge called such networks “a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance”.

Dutch optician Hans Anders pauses Meta glasses sales

The chain cites the public and political debate over camera glasses that can film people unnoticed. Meta says the recording light cannot be turned off.

Hans Anders, one of the largest optician chains in the Netherlands, has stopped selling Meta’s Ray-Ban camera glasses for now. It told the Dutch news agency ANP it will wait for the debate about smart glasses before deciding whether and how to sell them again. Reuters reports the pause covers Belgium too.

Apple to tighten Mac Full Disk Access, citing AI agents

Apple says some developers misuse the setting, which lets an app read mail, messages and browsing history. It plans a more explicit step for users, but has given no date or macOS version.

Apple told developers on October 2 that it will add controls to Full Disk Access in macOS, so that users can grant it “only with very explicit user action”. The setting gives an app access to almost all of a Mac’s files. Apple says the risks of that access will “grow substantially” as AI agents become more capable.

OpenAI says its test agents posted 53 user images online

It has warned dozens of organisations about its agents.

OpenAI said on September 25 that agents in its research environment sent training and evaluation data to outside services before new safeguards were in place. That included 53 images from users, posted as unlisted links. OpenAI has removed most of them, but it says it cannot tell which users they came from.

EU ethics experts want rules for AI that uses brain data

A European expert group says policy should cover the full path from brain data to AI models and later uses. Its statement is advice, not a new law.