Welcome to your weekly Byte-Sized Briefs!
These are just a few pieces of tech news from the week, ranging from gaming and AI to PC hardware and mobile devices.
Tiny Updates, Major Impact
July 12- July 18, 2026- Week 29
Samsung Health AI
In an article from Android Authority, Samsung users are seeing notices on the Samsung Health app, asking for consent to train AI using your health data. I saw the notice myself and opted out, but Samsung made sure to put a warning in the notice stating your health data would not sync to your Samsung account and the data would be deleted unless requested by law.
The Samsung Health page outlines what health data is captured for AI training and modeling:
- Health and wellness data– data related to body measurements, nutrition, step count and activity, and sleep
- Medication data– data related to medications, including prescriptions and dosages
- Health records– medical and clinical data, including diagnosis, prognosis, test results, past records, and treatments
- Cycle tracking data– data related to menstrual cycles, including physical conditions and physiological indicators (e.g. heart rate, cramps)
“The health data you have allowed us to collect and process will be used for AI training and modeling, including human review, to improve Samsung Health, including algorithms to analyze health conditions and our AI features,” reads another excerpt of the page.
Plenty of users have expressed concerns over this, making Samsung release a notice found in the Health app, stating that the Consent to use health data for AI training and modeling and separate from Samsung Health. Users can withdraw consent at any time. If users opt out of sharing their data, the data that was collected since the Samsung update in July 2026 will be deleted and no longer be used for AI training. The existing data used in Samsung Health services will not be deleted.
Samsung stated they are “currently improving the notice text so that customers can understand the information more clearly and accurately.”
Meta Rolls Back AI feature after Uproar
Speaking of concerns, Meta released a feature that would allow users to modify photos from public Instagram accounts using AI. Meta stated this rollout “missed the mark” and was no longer available.
The feature allow users to @-mention public Instagram accounts they referenced and did not send an alert to the user letting him know their photo was being used.
In a blog post from last Friday, Meta accounted it was removing the feature. The news was first shared by Puck News founding partner, Dylan Byers.
“Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way,” the company posted on its blog. “We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”
Since the addition of AI in social media, the feature has been abused. Its quite evident that if this feature gone forward, it would have been abused as well.
New York is the first state to ban AI data center
On Tuesday July 14, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order banning the construction of large-scale data centers that use 50megawatts or more or power for up to a year. Per the governor, “We’re in the midst of one of the most significant economic upheavals in generations … perhaps ever, “These hyperscale AI data centers consume enormous amounts of power, truly threatening to outpace our grid’s capacity. They drive up costs for local ratepayers, and I refuse to let those costs get passed down to New Yorkers,” she added.
Hochel’s statement echo the same concerns that many state residents and environmental leaders have regarding these large-scale data centers, expressing excessive consumption of power and natural resources, mainly fresh water.
In the governor’s announcement, it was shared that New York residents have seen their electric bills climb almost 68% since 2019.
Many leaders that oppose data centers agree with the govenor’s decision.
““This one-year moratorium is a huge step forward for New York communities fighting against an onslaught of massive data center proposals,” stated Laura Shindell, director of New York State’s Food & Water Watch, a high-profile environmental nonprofit. “It comes as the direct result of immense public pressure from people across the state demanding their elected leaders protect them from Big Tech’s assault, which threatens the state’s clean air and water and New Yorkers’ financial security.”
President Donald Trump has spoken out against Governor Hochel’s Executive Order. On Truth Social, he stated New York had made a terrible mistake and the policy should be scrapped immediately. “One of the biggest Driving Forces in the Future for Jobs, are Data Centers. They are big, strong, bold, and Money Machines for the State in which they are built,” Trump wrote.
Many states have considered moratoria. Seattle is the largest state to approve a one-year ban on datacenter development this past June. It’s highly likely there will be more states to follow suit.