Michael Veale

@[email protected]
6K Followers
1.3K Following
2.4K Posts

Professor of Technology Law and Policy at University College London (#UCL), Faculty of Laws.
Not resigned to today's technological power structures (yet). Researching at the intersection of emerging technologies, law and policy; data protection; machine learning; PETs and cryptographic infrastructures; platform and infrastructural regulation. 🏳️‍🌈

administrating a small exoplanet in the fediverse .

websitehttps://michae.lv
matrixmv:matrix.michae.lv
encrypted emailhttps://files.michae.lv/encryption.txt
bsky@michae.lv
Michael Veale1d ago

Meta's latest attempt to stop the progress of my 2018 GDPR access complaint and its draft fine of €360-€430 million dramatically failed in the Irish High Court last week https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/05/21/meta-loses-challenge-to-possible-430m-fine-over-personal-data-processing-complaint/

The case is long and contains excerpts from relevant documents which I cannot myself post as Ireland changed primary law (Data Protection Act 2018 s 26A) during my complaint to make it a criminal offence for me, the complainant, to do so (after trying to NDA me). https://www.bailii.org/ie/cases/IEHC/2026/2026IEHC323.html

Meta loses challenge to possible €430m fine over personal data processing complaint

Watchdog has power in inquiry into individual complaint to make orders affecting general data access practices, High Court rules

The Irish Times
Michael Veale2d ago
In Memoriam: Prof William Twining https://currentlegalproblems.org/article/in-memoriam-prof-william-twining/ (Philip Schofield, David Sugarman, Jane Holder)
In memoriam: Prof. William Twining - Philip Schofield, David Sugarman and Jane Holder

Professor William Lawrence Twining, FBA (Quain Emeritus Professor of Jurisprudence), who died on 9 October 2025 aged 91, served as the Quain Professor of…

Michael VealeMay 19
CPDP ConferencesMay 18

The U.S. Deregulatory Effect on Global Lawmaking, Policy, and Enforcement

Organised by EPIC with Maria Villegas Bravo (moderator), Calli Schroeder, Tomaso Falchetta, Alexandra Geese, @mikarv

More information: https://cpdp.be/125024

#CPDP2026 #CompetingVisionsSharedFutures #CPDPPanels

Michael VealeMay 13
“It has not been a productivity booster at all, it feels like a speedrun towards severe mental exhaustion” https://www.404media.co/software-developers-say-ai-is-rotting-their-brains/
Software Developers Say AI Is Rotting Their Brains

“It's making me dumber for sure.”

404 Media
Michael VealeMay 12
more Hugging Face content moderation challenges — the model marketplace finds itself hosting infostealers disguised as legitimate models https://www.heise.de/en/news/Infostealer-on-AI-platform-Hugging-Face-disguised-as-OpenAI-repository-11290946.html
Infostealer on AI platform Hugging Face disguised as OpenAI repository

The Open-OSS/privacy-filter repository contained an infostealer and was downloaded over 240,000 times before Hugging Face removed it.

heise online
Michael VealeMay 12
Canvas pays presumably enormous ransom to end extortion of universities and schools — receives questionable promise that data has been deleted. Moodle less of a monoculture but unis must harden it, possibly rebuild from the ground up in something other than PHP… https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/05/12/double-canvas-intrusion-confirmed-as-shinyhunters-resets-leak-deadline/5238361
Double Canvas intrusion confirmed as ShinyHunters resets leak deadline

May 12 … time is ticking for nearly 9,000 schools

theregister
Michael VealeMay 12
Amazon employees race to automate non-essential tasks to expend tokens to impress managers on internal AI usage leaderboards. Great outcome, all. https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/4965c8a3-169e-4815-bd1b-16f5e9a22e70
Amazon staff use AI tool for unnecessary tasks to inflate usage scores

In-house MeshClaw tool enables employees to delegate jobs to AI agents and climb company’s AI leaderboard

Financial Times
Michael VealeMay 11
GrapheneOSMay 10
Apple and Google are gradually expanding their use of hardware-based attestation. They're convincing a growing number of services to adopt it. Google's Play Integrity API and Apple's App Attest API are very similar. Apple brought it to the web via Privacy Pass, which Google intends on doing too.
Michael VealeMay 11
Musk’s xAI rapidly appoints an EU representative for the DSA following Grok investigation, choosing an entity with an address in Estonia but no registered presence in the country. https://www.ftm.eu/articles/elon-musk-ai-company-basement-address @fantafanta
Elon Musk’s AI firm directs complaints to dodgy address in Estonia

Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism

Follow the Money - Platform for investigative journalism
Michael VealeMay 6
really useful primer on data, ai and trade law from @streinz https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-world-trade-law/conceptualising-data-and-artificial-intelligence-in-world-trade-law/1D280F68D70CFBA9E0171B8C15939BCF especially good if the issue comes up in teaching
Conceptualising Data and Artificial Intelligence in World Trade Law (Chapter 22) - The Cambridge Companion to World Trade Law

The Cambridge Companion to World Trade Law - May 2026

Cambridge Core