Meta Warns Australias Privacy Reforms Could Cripple AI Progress B&T
Benefits update coming for public sector retirees impacted by WEP and GPO
Members of techUK join a thriving community of companies committed to demonstrating the power of data analytics and AI. We help our members to build strong relationships with industry leaders, policymakers and regulators, reach new customers, and enable their business to grow. This includes work programmes on cloud, data protection, data analytics, AI, digital ethics, Digital Identity and Internet of Things as well as emerging and transformative technologies and innovation policy.
The colossal volume of data flowing through modern enterprises has rendered traditional manual monitoring approaches obsolete. Financial services companies process millions of transactions daily, or SaaS platforms generate terabytes of user interaction data. Hidden within these vast datasets are the irregular patterns that may signal threats, opportunities or system malfunctions – but finding them cannot be achieved by writing rules or inspecting the data. “It is worth bearing in mind that, although there are databases of information that may not contain personal information, like Australian legislation, there are limits to the utility of such corpuses. Tim has worked in complex data systems including building low-latency FX trading and enterprise data warehouses. Our members develop strong networks, build meaningful partnerships and grow their businesses as we all work together to create a thriving environment where industry, government and stakeholders come together to realise the positive outcomes tech can deliver.
B&T is Australia’s leading news publication magazine for the advertising, marketing, media and PR industries.
Woolworths backed the idea of a National AI Coordinator to align government policy and engage with international standards bodies like ISO. While Meta’s submission has drawn attention for its direct challenge to privacy reform, many other large organisations echoed similar concerns, calling for national consistency, international alignment and less red tape. Meta has found that the nature of AI technology necessitates the processing of comprehensive real data to avoid biases and ensure language accuracy,” Meta wrote. As AI continues to transform industries across the globe, the need for professionals who can operationalise its ethical implementation has never been more critical. Whether you’re looking to join the field or are already working as a responsible AI practitioner, these resources from techUK will help you navigate this evolving profession. With a curated dataset in hand, supervised learning models can be trained to classify anomalies with greater precision and contextual understanding.
Chatham House has released a collection of essays that examines innovative approaches to AI regulation and governance. It presents and evaluates proposals and mechanisms for ensuring responsible AI, from EU-style regulations to open-source governance, from treaties to CERN-like research facilities and publicly owned corporations. Drawing on perspectives from around the world, the collection underscores the need to protect openness, ensure inclusivity and fairness in AI, and establish clear ethical frameworks and lines of cooperation between states and technology companies. Prior to joining techUK in January 2015 Sue was responsible for Symantec’s Government Relations in the UK and Ireland.
What we deliver
Before joining techUK, Usman worked as a policy, regulatory and government/public affairs professional in the advertising sector. Since joining techUK, Usman has delivered a regular drumbeat of activity to engage members and advance techUK’s AI programme. This has included two campaign weeks, the creation of the AI Adoption Hub (now the AI Hub), the AI Leader’s Event Series, the Putting AI into Action webinar series and the Industrial AI sprint campaign.
- In addition to being a regular industry speaker on issues including AI ethics, data protection and cyber security, Sue was recently a judge for the UK Tech 50 and is a regular judge of the annual UK Cloud Awards.
- For organisations that successfully implement this phased approach, anomaly detection becomes not just a security tool but a foundation for predictive capabilities.
- While Meta’s submission has drawn attention for its direct challenge to privacy reform, many other large organisations echoed similar concerns, calling for national consistency, international alignment and less red tape.
As businesses continue navigating digital transformation, this pragmatic path to AI adoption offers both immediate operational benefits and long-term strategic advantages – turning the theoretical promise of AI into practical business impact. By presenting detected anomalies to human experts or semi-automated classification tools, organisations can efficiently create labelled datasets that capture domain knowledge and business context. Woolworths said data-driven tools like electronic shelf labels and digital trolleys had boosted productivity while supporting jobs. However, it warned that “uncertainty”, particularly inconsistent privacy and surveillance laws across states, was making it harder to innovate at scale. “This means that authentic and effective learning to ultimately power meaningful products of communication is best realised from training that includes those discussions and artefacts themselves”. In its submission, the tech giant argued that the Government’s proposed changes to the Privacy Act may go too far, particularly by limiting the ability to use publicly available user data to train AI systems.
Phase 1: unsupervised learning
- Woolworths said data-driven tools like electronic shelf labels and digital trolleys had boosted productivity while supporting jobs.
- “For example, synthetic data is not workable because it needs to be generated by a generative AI model itself; therefore, in order for a model to even create synthetic data, it needs to first be trained on an appropriate data source.
- She has spoken at events including the UK-China Internet Forum in Beijing, UN IGF and European RSA on issues ranging from data usage and privacy, cloud computing and online child safety.
- “It is worth bearing in mind that, although there are databases of information that may not contain personal information, like Australian legislation, there are limits to the utility of such corpuses.
- Sue has an BA degree on History and American Studies from Leeds University and a Masters Degree on International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Birmingham.
Tim founded Blue Hat after a number of COO and CTO roles in Banking, Startup and Consulting businesses. She has been recognised as one of the most influential people in UK tech by Computer Weekly’s UKtech50 Longlist and in 2021 was inducted into the Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame. Many organisations recognise the need to implement AI but struggle with where to begin, often finding themselves caught between overly simplistic solutions and unwieldy, resource-intensive projects.
TechUK is the trade association which brings together people, companies and organisations to realise the positive outcomes of what digital technology can achieve. With over 1,000 members (the majority of which are SMEs) across the UK, techUK creates a network for innovation and collaboration across business, government and stakeholders to provide a better future for people, society, the economy and the planet. By providing expertise and insight, we support our members, partners and stakeholders as they prepare the UK for what comes next in a constantly changing world. The eighth annual Digital Ethics Summit, hosted by techUK on 4 December 2024, marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of AI ethics and governance. Following 2023’s “AI Epiphany” year of breakthrough developments in generative AI, 2024 emerged as a period of practical implementation and organisational introspection. The summit brought together leaders and experts from across the digital ethics landscape to explore how organisations are translating ethical principles into practice through assurance techniques and standards.
She has spoken at events including the UK-China Internet Forum in Beijing, UN IGF and European RSA on issues ranging from data usage and privacy, cloud computing and online child safety. Before joining Symantec, Sue was senior policy advisor at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Sue has an BA degree on History and American Studies from Leeds University and a Masters Degree on International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Birmingham. For organisations that successfully implement this phased approach, anomaly detection becomes not just a security tool but a foundation for predictive capabilities. The patterns identified through anomaly detection often reveal early indicators of emerging trends, customer behaviours, or system issues before they become critical. A pragmatic, phased approach to anomaly detection – whether detecting fraud, system failures or unusual user behaviours – offers a compelling entry point that delivers immediate value while building foundations for more sophisticated uses of your data.
Sue Daley OBE
Learn how a pragmatic, phased approach to anomaly detection, using artificial intelligence, benefits from the strengths of unsupervised and supervised learning. A key influencer in driving forward the data agenda in the UK, Sue was co-chair of the UK government’s National Data Strategy Forum until July 2024. As well as being recognised in the UK’s Big Data 100 and the Global Top 100 Data Visionaries for 2020 Sue has also been shortlisted for the Milton Keynes Women Leaders Awards and was a judge for the Loebner Prize in AI. In addition to being a regular industry speaker on issues including AI ethics, data protection and cyber security, Sue was recently a judge for the UK Tech 50 and is a regular judge of the annual UK Cloud Awards.
0 comments on Meta Warns Australias Privacy Reforms Could Cripple AI Progress B&T