On Monday, forty organizations signed a letter calling on an independent government watchdog to recommend a ban on U.S. government use of facial recognition technology. The letter was drafted by the digital privacy advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and signed by organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Color of Change, Fight for the […]
How Photos of Your Kids Are Powering Surveillance Technology…
The pictures of Chloe and Jasper Papa as kids are typically goofy fare: grinning with their parents; sticking their tongues out; costumed for Halloween. Their mother, Dominique Allman Papa, uploaded them to Flickr after joining the photo-sharing site in 2005. None of them could have foreseen that 14 years later, those images would reside in […]
Forget Facial Recognition: DHS’s New Database, HART, Also Uses Scars, Tattoos, and Your VOICE to ID You. And Amazon Is Storing All the Data. …
These days, you can’t really go anywhere without encountering cameras. Going into a store? Chances are there are security cameras. Getting money at an ATM? More cameras. Driving through the streets of a city? More cameras still. Your neighbors may have those doorbells from Amazon that are surveilling the entire neighborhood. And many of these […]
Happy 70th Anniv of Commie Rule: Chinese Citizens Must Pass a Facial Recognition Test to Use the Internet…
China has stepped up its internet censorship by demanding its citizens pass a facial-recognition test to be able to use web services. People who want to have the internet installed at home or on their phones must have their faces scanned by the Chinese authority to prove their identities, according to a new regulation. The […]
Coalition Calls for Congress to Reject Ban on Facial Recognition Technology…
The tech community is urging Congress to steer clear of enacting a blanket ban on facial recognition technology, warning doing so could rid law enforcement of a crucial tool to keep communities safe. In a letter to lawmakers on Thursday, more than three dozen technology trade associations, companies, research organizations, and individuals said Congress should […]
There’s a Reason We Don’t Know Much About AI…
Last year, when the Food and Drug Administration approved an Apple Watch feature that notified users if they had an irregular heart rhythm, the information tech industry hailed it as a watershed moment in consumer-focused health care. Cardiologists, on the other hand, warned that the app could lead to privacy violations, unwarranted worrying and wasteful […]
Oh Goodie!: Google Collects Face Data Now. Here’s What It Means and How to Opt Out…
Google’s latest smart display brings with it a controversial new feature that’s always watching. Face Match, introduced on the Google Nest Hub Max, uses the smart display’s front-facing camera as a security feature and a way to participate in video calls. It also shows you your photos, texts, calendar details and so on when it […]
Social Credit System: Facial Recognition Cameras Monitor Chinese Students’ Behavior in Class…
A university in China has installed facial recognition cameras in classrooms that monitor students’ behavior such as nodding off or playing with their cellphones. China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu Province, is piloting the system in two classrooms and eventually plans to install it in every classroom. “The system can access every student’s […]
Facial Recognition Software Mistook 1 in 5 California Lawmakers for Criminals…
California Assemblyman Phil Ting has never been arrested, but he was recently mistaken for a criminal. He’s not surprised. Ting (D-San Francisco), who authored a bill to ban facial recognition software from being used on police body cameras, was one of 26 California legislators who was incorrectly matched with a mug shot in a recent […]
Viral Aging ‘FaceApp’ Gives Russia-Based Firm “Perpetual, Irrevocable” Rights to Personal Content…
FaceApp, the popular application that has become a viral trend for showing what people would look like after they age 30 years, isn’t well known to be a Russia-based piece of software. Its even lesser known that the terms and conditions of the app grant it ‘perpetual, irrevocable’ rights to your content, according to a […]