According to Fortune, the European Commission plans to relax GDPR privacy regulations to cut red tape and boost AI-driven economic growth, potentially allowing AI companies to process sensitive data like religion or ethnicity for training. The UK government is investigating whether China’s Yutong, the world’s largest bus maker, can remotely deactivate 700 electric buses already on British roads. TikTok Shop sold $19 billion in products globally from July through September 2024, nearly matching eBay’s $20 billion quarterly revenue. Meanwhile, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels warned that Europe risks falling behind in innovation due to restrictive regulations, echoing concerns from Google, Meta, Microsoft, and X who’ve all delayed AI launches in the region.
EU Privacy Rollback for AI
This is a massive shift in Europe’s approach to tech regulation. For years, GDPR has been the gold standard for privacy protection, and now they’re considering carving out exceptions specifically for AI companies. The proposed changes would let AI firms process “special categories of data” like religion and ethnicity, and redefine “personal data” to exclude pseudonymized information.
Here’s the thing: European businesses have been screaming about this for a while. When even Amazon’s CTO is warning that Europe is “underinvesting in R&D” and innovation is happening elsewhere, you know there’s a real problem. Major tech companies have been holding back AI products in Europe because the regulations are just too restrictive. But is relaxing privacy protections really the answer? It feels like they’re choosing between being competitive and protecting citizens’ rights.
chinese-bus-security-concerns”>Chinese Bus Security Concerns
The UK investigation into Yutong buses is exactly the kind of national security concern that’s been brewing for years. We’re not talking about theoretical risks here – Norway already found that Yutong retained remote access to battery and power supply management systems. That means a Chinese company could potentially shut down public transportation in Western countries.
And let’s be real – this isn’t happening in a vacuum. China’s relationship with Western nations is increasingly tense, and having critical infrastructure controlled by foreign companies with remote access capabilities is… concerning. Yutong says they “strictly comply” with local laws, but the fact that Transport for London hasn’t placed their double-decker bus order yet tells you everything you need to know about the level of trust here.
TikTok Shop’s Meteoric Rise
TikTok Shop doing $19 billion in a single quarter is absolutely wild when you put it in context. eBay took decades to build that kind of business, and TikTok is basically matching them in what? Its second year of serious commerce operations? The U.S. market alone accounted for $4.5 billion of that, which suggests Americans are actually embracing livestream shopping despite initial skepticism.
What’s fascinating is that most TikTok usage in the U.S. is still social media-focused rather than commerce-focused. But when you see products in action through short videos, it apparently works. Remember QVC? Livestream shopping has been trying to break through in the U.S. for years, and TikTok might finally be the platform that makes it mainstream. The federal ban talk becomes even more complicated when there’s this much commerce revenue at stake.
Quick Tech Hits
Several other interesting developments are worth noting. Tech layoffs are apparently connected to AI spending – not the AI itself, but the financial stress from investing in it. Rivian spun off Mind Robotics with $110 million in funding, which could signal where they see future growth. And cold storage crypto wallets are having a moment as people get serious about security after all those hack attacks.
Apple Music’s lack of a free tier might be holding it back from global domination, which seems like an obvious miss. Subsea cable investment is exploding with $13 billion planned between 2025-2027. OpenAI wants Chips Act tax credits extended to AI data centers. And in what might be the least surprising finding ever, AI investors are apparently as bad as human investors at picking winners. Some things never change.
