Online Safety

Most Americans Are Wary of Sharing Data with AI – Here’s What It Means for You A growing body of research shows that the public is uneasy about how artificial intelligence companies use personal information. A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and covered by Digital Information World found that a clear majority of Americans are uncomfortable with sharing their data with AI tools, and many want stronger government oversight. If you use chatbots, image generators, or any AI‑powered service, these findings are worth understanding—and there are practical steps you can take to protect your privacy. ...

What Ontario’s New AI Training for Doctors Teaches Everyone About Privacy OntarioMD, the organization that provides digital health services to Ontario physicians, recently updated its privacy and security training for clinicians who use artificial intelligence. The update responds to the rapid adoption of AI tools in medical settings—doctors are using everything from AI scribes to diagnostic assistants. While the training is aimed at healthcare professionals, the core privacy lessons apply to anyone using AI chatbots, medical symptom checkers, or even productivity apps that process personal information. ...

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Finds Grok’s AI Image Generator Broke the Law – Here’s What You Should Know On June 11, 2026, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner ruled that the AI image generator built into Grok (the chatbot from xAI) violates Canadian privacy law. The decision is the first of its kind against a major AI image tool, and it has direct implications for anyone who uses such services. Here’s what the ruling says, why it matters for ordinary users, and what steps you can take to protect your own photos and privacy. ...

Grok’s AI Image Generator Violates Privacy Law: How to Protect Your Photos Canada’s privacy regulator has ruled that Grok’s AI image generator broke the law by scraping photos from the web without people’s consent. The decision is one of the first major enforcement actions against a popular AI tool and has implications for anyone who posts images online. Here’s what happened, why it matters, and what you can do to keep your pictures from being used without your permission. ...

AI Is Making Phishing Emails More Convincing – Here’s How to Protect Yourself Introduction If you’ve received an email lately that looked perfectly normal—correct grammar, your name, a familiar logo—but something still felt off, you’re not alone. Artificial intelligence is now being used to craft phishing emails that are harder to spot than ever before. Attackers can generate convincing messages at scale, personalize them with details scraped from social media, and even mimic writing styles. The old advice of “look for spelling mistakes” no longer works. This article explains what’s changing and what you can do right now to stay safe. ...

Is Your AI Assistant Spying on You? New Tool Catches ‘Double Agent’ Behavior You trust your AI assistant to manage your calendar, sort your email, or even handle online shopping. But what if that same assistant quietly started sharing your data with a third party, or took actions you never authorized? Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology have developed a privacy tool designed to catch exactly that kind of betrayal — alerting you when your AI agent acts as a “double agent.” ...

When Your AI Assistant Leaks Your Data: A New Tool Spots the Betrayal We rely on AI assistants for everything from drafting emails to managing our calendars. But what if, while you’re asking ChatGPT or your smart speaker for help, it quietly sends your personal information somewhere you never intended? That scenario—an AI agent acting as a “double agent”—is becoming more than a thought experiment. Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) have developed a privacy tool designed to catch exactly this kind of covert data sharing. ...

When a Signed App Isn’t Safe: How to Avoid TamperedChef Malware in Productivity Tools Most people assume that if a program shows a valid digital signature, it’s safe. That assumption is exactly what the TamperedChef malware campaign exploits. By using stolen digital signatures on popular productivity applications, the attackers trick users into downloading what looks like trustworthy software—while actually installing information stealers and remote access trojans (RATs). ...

Your AI Email Assistant Could Be a Security Risk: What to Know About the MCP Server Threat If you use an AI assistant that reads or drafts your emails, you’re trusting it with one of your most sensitive accounts. That trust is being exploited in a new kind of supply chain attack—one that targets the Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers these tools rely on. ...

Malicious MCP Servers: A New Threat to Your Email Security – What to Do If you use an AI assistant that can read your emails, schedule meetings, or reply to messages, you might be relying on something called a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. These servers act as bridges between the AI and your tools—Gmail, Outlook, Slack, or calendars. They let the AI access your data or perform actions on your behalf. ...