Britain's data protection regulator has secured privacy commitments from ten of the world's largest AI developers, including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Meta and Apple, after finding problems with how they handle personal data under UK law.
The Information Commissioner's Office announced on Thursday (October 8) that the companies have changed — or committed to changing — how they treat personal information. The ten developers named are Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Cohere, DeepSeek, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Stability AI.
What the companies agreed to
According to the ICO, the commitments cover three areas: clearer explanations of how personal information is used to train AI models, better ways for people to exercise their data rights, and tougher assessments of the safeguards developers have in place.
The changes come out of a supervisory programme the regulator launched in 2025, which initially covered eleven developers. "The benefits of AI depend on trust and transparency," said Richard Nevinson, the ICO's director of technology regulation, adding that the engagement "has secured real commitments that will help people better understand and control how their data is used."
xAI left out
Notably absent is Elon Musk's xAI, one of the original eleven developers. The ICO said it had paused its engagement with the company to pursue a separate, formal investigation into Grok, its chatbot — a materially different regulatory track that can end in enforcement notices, fines, or both under UK data protection law.
The regulator is not treating the matter as closed. It said it is monitoring whether developers deliver on their promises and acknowledged that current AI training practices still raise problems under UK data protection law. Open questions include personal data held inside trained models — sensitive information in particular — how people can get their details removed once a model has been trained on them, and the risk of personal information being extracted from models. The ICO said its next focus will be autonomous AI agents, some of which will need cooperation between industry, regulators and governments to resolve.
Sources:
UK ICO Secures Data Protection Commitments From OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Seven Other AI Developers — gHacks Tech News
UK ICO Secures AI Data Deals From 10 Firms — Tech Insider
The Information Commissioner's Office announced on Thursday (October 8) that the companies have changed — or committed to changing — how they treat personal information. The ten developers named are Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Cohere, DeepSeek, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Stability AI.
What the companies agreed to
According to the ICO, the commitments cover three areas: clearer explanations of how personal information is used to train AI models, better ways for people to exercise their data rights, and tougher assessments of the safeguards developers have in place.
The changes come out of a supervisory programme the regulator launched in 2025, which initially covered eleven developers. "The benefits of AI depend on trust and transparency," said Richard Nevinson, the ICO's director of technology regulation, adding that the engagement "has secured real commitments that will help people better understand and control how their data is used."
xAI left out
Notably absent is Elon Musk's xAI, one of the original eleven developers. The ICO said it had paused its engagement with the company to pursue a separate, formal investigation into Grok, its chatbot — a materially different regulatory track that can end in enforcement notices, fines, or both under UK data protection law.
The regulator is not treating the matter as closed. It said it is monitoring whether developers deliver on their promises and acknowledged that current AI training practices still raise problems under UK data protection law. Open questions include personal data held inside trained models — sensitive information in particular — how people can get their details removed once a model has been trained on them, and the risk of personal information being extracted from models. The ICO said its next focus will be autonomous AI agents, some of which will need cooperation between industry, regulators and governments to resolve.
Sources:
UK ICO Secures Data Protection Commitments From OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Seven Other AI Developers — gHacks Tech News
UK ICO Secures AI Data Deals From 10 Firms — Tech Insider
