For those who don't know:

• The EU has proposed a law intended to protect children from online abuse.

• But the draft includes a highly controversial measure: mandatory scanning (client-side scanning) of private communications, including encrypted ones, for child sexual abuse material.

• Experts and authorities (such as the EDPB and EDPS) warn that this kind of mandatory scanning could lead to mass surveillance through automated tools, posing a serious threat to fundamental rights like privacy and data protection.

• According to reports, 15 member states support the proposal, 6 are against it, and 6 remain undecided. The law would not apply to political officials, but it would affect the reading of communication of ordinary citizens.

I read in TechCrunch today that Perplexity is trying to dominate the Indian market, which could potentially increase the number of users (and thus compete with OpenAI).

Perplexity is trying to attract more users by offering a free 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription normally worth $200 to all 360 million Airtel subscribers. (That is the cost for them.)