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Parents in Pakistan Could Be Jailed for Polio Vaccine Refusal + More
Parents in Pakistan Could Be Jailed for Polio Vaccine Refusal
Parents in Pakistan who refuse to get their children vaccinated against infectious diseases could be jailed or fined under a new law introduced in Sindh province.
The introduction of the legislation is an attempt to eradicate polio, which is endemic in Pakistan, but will cover vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis), measles, mumps and rubella.
Parents who do not allow their children to be vaccinated could be sentenced to a month in prison and fined 50,000 Pakistani rupees (£130). The law, the first of its kind in the country, was signed last week and will come into force this month.
More than 62,000 parents, most of them in Sindh province, refused polio vaccinations for their children during the countrywide polio vaccination campaign in January this year.
Facebook Files: White House Peddled Obvious Foreign Lies About ‘Disinformation Dozen’
A U.K.-based, government-linked dark money nonprofit operated by a far-left British Labour Party operative fabricated statistics about the so-called ‘disinformation dozen’ — people with large social media footprints that expressed vaccine or lockdown skepticism, according to the latest Facebook Files released on Tuesday by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) run by a man named Imran Ahmed claimed that Robert Kennedy Jr. and 11 other people were responsible for 65% of “anti-vaccine content circulating on social media.”
That claim itself was disinformation, according to Jordan — who notes that Facebook employees were highly skeptical of the CCDH’s claims, which they said were just Americans expressing “vaccine hesitancy,” which is often “not misinfo” even under Facebook’s policies.
What’s more, the Biden White House repeatedly peddled the 65% lie as Facebook employees were preparing to draft a memo to CEO Mark Zuckerberg to complain about “pressure from … the White House” to remove the so-called Disinfo Dozen, even though they did “not believe we currently have a clear path for removal.”
According to the internal emails, Facebook continued to monitor the so-called disinformation dozen to justify censorship, only to find that the “majority” of them weren’t spreading misinformation.
The Supreme Court’s Next Target: Government Coercion on Social Media
The Supreme Court Justices will hear argument this fall in two cases that ask whether public officials violate the First Amendment when they block people on social media using accounts that issue communications on job-related matters. (The Second Circuit had previously ruled against President Donald Trump‘s blocking people on Twitter, but the Supreme Court vacated the decision and mooted the case when Trump left office.)
And the Court will almost certainly grant petitions arising from a split in the lower courts over Florida and Texas laws that treat tech companies as common carriers, preventing them from engaging in viewpoint discrimination. But this summer, a new social media issue emerged that may well swamp these in public importance: jawboning.
Two examples gripped the news cycle recently: the censorship of posts relating to COVID policy, election integrity, and Hunter Biden‘s laptop as detailed in Missouri v. Biden, where a federal judge enjoined officials from meeting and coordinating with social media companies; and revelations that have come out of the House Subcommittee on Government Weaponization.
Connected Cars Are a ‘Privacy Nightmare,’ Mozilla Foundation Says
Today, the Mozilla Foundation published its analysis of how well automakers handle the privacy of data collected by their connected cars, and the results will be unlikely to surprise any regular reader of Ars Technica. The researchers were horrified by their findings, stating that “cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy.”
Mozilla looked at 25 car brands and found that all of them collected too much personal data, and from multiple sources — monitoring not just which buttons you push or what you do in any of the infotainment system’s apps but also data from other sources like satellite radio or third-party maps. Or even when you connect your phone — remember that prompt asking you if you wanted to share all your contacts and notes with your car when you connected it via Bluetooth?
While some gathered data seems innocuous or even helpful — feedback to improve cabin ergonomics and UIs, for example — some data is decidedly not.
Mozilla found plenty more to worry about. Eighty-four percent of the brands they analyzed said they can share your data, and 76% said they can sell it. And more than half say they’ll share data with the government and law enforcement by request. Users have very little control over what those brands do with their data. Only two of the 25 brands (Renault and Dacia) tell users they have the right to have their data deleted, and neither sell cars in the United States.
Huntington Beach City Council Approves Banning Mask and Vaccine Mandates
CBS News Los Angeles reported:
The Huntington Beach City Council narrowly voted to approve a declaration to ban universal mask and COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the city. The declaration passed with a 4-3 vote. The meeting adjourned at 2:48 a.m. on Wednesday, September 6.
Mayor Pro Tem Gracey Van Der Mark introduced the motion at the Huntington Beach City Council meeting on Tuesday night. The approval of the declaration essentially makes Huntington Beach a no mask and no vaccine city.
In the declaration, Van Der Mark said in regard to mask mandates imposed at City Hall and other parts of the city in 2020 and 2021 “unnecessarily limited the freedoms of the citizens of Huntington Beach, even those who were not around anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 or at risk of any exposure.”
Republicans Declare War on Mask Mandates
Mask mandates might be a relic of the past. The federal government eliminated them at the close of the national health emergency declared around COVID-19, citing high levels of vaccinations that made the need to slow the spread of the virus even less prudent.
Many businesses followed suit, with voluntary masking requirements in most stores dissipating as more and more people received the vaccine.
But as some schools and medical facilities have begun reinstating them amid a surge of a new strain of COVID-19, Republican lawmakers want them to stay a thing of the past, launching bills aimed at restricting the federal government’s ability to impose similar mandates in the future.
Citing arguments that masks didn’t work to slow the spread of the virus during COVID — which most studies contest — Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance announced plans September 5 to introduce the Freedom to Breathe Act, which would permanently prevent the federal government from reimposing federal mask mandates in the United States.
Class Required to Wear Masks After COVID Outbreak in Montgomery Co. School
Students and staff in one class at a public school in Montgomery County, Maryland, are being told that they must wear masks for the next 10 days after three “or more” people tested positive for COVID-19.
In a letter sent home to parents on Tuesday, Rosemary Hills Elementary School principal Rebecca Irwin Kennedy wrote that KN95 masks would be distributed and students and staff in “identified classes or activities” will be required to mask up while in school for the next 10 days “except when eating or drinking.”
The letter states that after a 10-day period, “masks will become optional again.”
Norway Court Rules Against Facebook Owner Meta in Privacy Case
Meta Platforms (META.O) can be fined for breaching users’ privacy, a Norwegian court ruled on Wednesday, stopping an attempt by the owner of Facebook and Instagram to halt a fine imposed by the country’s data regulator.
Meta has been fined one million crowns ($93,200) per day since Aug. 14 for harvesting user data and using it to target advertising at them. So-called behavioural advertising is a business model common to Big Tech.
The owner of Facebook and Instagram had sought a temporary injunction against the order from the Norwegian data regulator, Datatilsynet, which imposed a daily fine for three months.
“This is a big victory for privacy,” Datatilsynet said in a statement.
Britain Admits Defeat in Controversial Fight to Break Encryption
Tech companies and privacy, activists are claiming victory after an eleventh-hour concession by the British government in a long-running battle over end-to-end encryption.
The so-called “spy clause” in the U.K.’s Online Safety Bill, which experts argued would have made end-to-end encryption all but impossible in the country, will no longer be enforced after the government admitted the technology to securely scan encrypted messages for signs of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, without compromising users’ privacy, doesn’t yet exist. Secure messaging services, including WhatsApp and Signal, had threatened to pull out of the U.K. if the bill was passed.
Opponents of the bill say that putting backdoors into people’s devices to search for CSAM images would almost certainly pave the way for wider surveillance by governments.
“You make mass surveillance become almost an inevitability by putting [these tools] in their hands,” Alan Woodward, a visiting professor in cybersecurity at the University of Surrey, says. “There will always be some ‘exceptional circumstances’ that [security forces] think of that warrants them searching for something else.”
Prosecutors Ask Congress for Help in ‘Race Against Time’ to Protect Children From AI Dangers + More
Prosecutors Ask Congress for Help in ‘Race Against Time’ to Protect Children From AI Dangers
The attorneys general in all 50 states are calling on Congress to look into how artificial intelligence (AI) can exploit children through pornography and put forward legislation to address it.
“We are engaged in a race against time to protect the children of our country from the dangers of AI,” the prosecutors wrote in a Tuesday letter to Congressional leadership. “Indeed, the proverbial walls of the city have already been breached. Now is the time to act.”
The top prosecutors sent the letter to ask lawmakers to “establish an expert commission to study the means and methods of AI that can be used to exploit children specifically.” The letter notes AI can be used to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and deepfakes that can exploit abused children.
“AI brings the potential for a lot of good but also kicks open the door for a lot of wrongdoing. We need to make sure children aren’t harmed as this technology becomes more widespread, and when Congress comes back from recess, we want this request to be one of the first things they see on their desks,” said South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) who spearheaded the effort.
#Novaxdjokovic: Aaron Rodgers Praises Novak Djokovic’s Position on COVID Vaccine
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers spent Sunday taking in action at the U.S. Open and saw Novak Djokovic topple Borna Gojo in the round of 16. Later that day, in his story on Instagram, Rodgers appeared to praise Djokovic’s refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The post contains an image of Djokovic behind the baseline, preparing to serve. The caption reads: “Bucket list being able to witness the greatness of @djokernole in person at #arthurashestadium.” But Rodgers also used the hashtag #novaxdjokovic and crossed out the logo of a Moderna ad that appeared on a side panel along the width of the court with a red line striking through it. Moderna is one of the major pharmaceutical companies that manufactured one of the widely-administered COVID-19 vaccines.
Djokovic defeated Gojo in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals.
Aside from being the men’s record holder for most grand slam championships, Djokovic became well known for his personal stance against taking the COVID-19 vaccine. He missed last year’s U.S. Open due to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mandate that required non-U.S. citizens to be vaccinated to enter the country; earlier in 2022, Djokovic received a medical exemption to play at the Australian Open but was deported when he lost a court battle after his visa was canceled.
Freedom Convoy Truckers Trial Sparks Calls for ‘Uprising’
The trial for organizers of the Canadian Freedom Convoy trucker protests is set to begin on Tuesday, prompting calls online for an uprising from users sympathetic to their situation.
The protests took place across Canada and culminated in the capital city of Ottawa last year, with truckers using their vehicles to block key traffic corridors in opposition to the country’s COVID-19 safety protocols. The blockades lasted several days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the country’s Emergencies Act for the first time in 50 years, granting government authorities greater power to restore order.
In the weeks after, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two of the organizers who helped bring together the protests, were arrested and each charged with counts of mischief, obstructing police, counseling others to commit mischief and intimidation. Speaking with BBC News, Joao Velloso, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, said that the mischief charges, in particular, given the allegations, are “quite ordinary,” but likely to take on a greater significance due to the political tensions surrounding the situation.
The trial is set to take place over the next 13 days, with another six days set aside in October. Another protest organizer, Pat King, will face a separate trial in November. Lich and Barber, along with other organizers, are also facing a civil suit from Ottawa residents over the disruptions the convoy caused in the city.
The U.S. Government Is Investing $22 Million Into Developing Surveillance Clothing That Includes Shirts, Pants, and Underwear That Can Record Video and Audio
The federal government is reportedly funneling $22 million into developing ready-to-wear clothing that can record audio, video, and geolocation data through something it’s calling The Smart Electrically Powered and Networked Textile Systems program, or SMART ePANTS, for short, according to The Intercept.
Garments slated for production include shirts, pants, socks, and underwear, all of which are intended to be washable, The Intercept reported.
Some are worried, though, that the SMART ePANTS program could lay the groundwork for more invasive forms of surveillance.
These 9 Stadiums Are Already Using Facial Recognition at Games
When the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team introduced its new “Go-Ahead Entry” facial recognition authentication method last week, it was intended to decrease wait times and increase efficiency. In reality, according to Axios, it did just the opposite.
Glitches in the system accidentally picked up the faces of others waiting in lines, forcing security to create an impromptu “buffer zone” for the cameras. Glitches or not, the Phillies aren’t alone. Other sports stadiums in the U.S. have already implemented, or are testing some form of facial recognition authentication.
The growing popularity of facial recognition at stadiums and music venues like Madison Square Garden has drawn criticism from privacy advocates who say the technology doesn’t work as well for women or non-white people.
A coalition of more than 100 artists, including rock band Rage Against the Machine, recently signed a pledge earlier this year to boycott performing in stadiums that use the technology. Artists succeeded in preventing facial recognition from being implemented at some of the world’s largest music festivals, but preventing the expansion of the tech in sports is proving to be a more difficult task. The players aren’t mounting the same offensive as the artists did; there aren’t any exhibition games meant to highlight potential privacy incursions.
University of Michigan Asking Students Who Test Positive for COVID to Leave Dorms, Isolate at Hotels
Students paying to live on campus at the University of Michigan may need to find a hotel room to isolate should they test positive for COVID-19, according to guidance on the school’s website.
Students who test positive for the virus will be required to leave their dorms during their isolation period, which could last for five days, university Chief Health Officer Robert D. Ernst said in a message to the school community Friday.
“This could include relocating to your permanent residence, staying with a nearby relative or friend, or finding a hotel space,” the guidance states. “Students in Michigan Housing must leave their residence halls during isolation, even if they are in a single room.”
It was unclear whether the university would cover the cost if students needed to find hotel accommodations for isolation periods.
Mask Mandate Update: California Officials Address Rising COVID Cases
Health officials in California recently spoke about the possible return of mask mandates in the state amid a slight uptick in COVID-19 cases. On Thursday, officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health held a press conference to speak about a rise in new COVID-19 cases, saying that over the past week, cases have doubled.
During the press conference, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer was asked about the potential return to mask mandates and if the county would ever make them mandatory again.
“‘Ever’ is not a word I’m comfortable with. There’s not that level of certainty with this pandemic. I’m never going to say there’s not going to be a time when we all need to put our masks back on. I am going to say we certainly don’t all need to put our masks back on now. We are at a place where people make their own assessment,” she said, Deadline reported.
Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare company headquartered in California, recently announced that it was returning to its mask mandate for visitors, staff members and patients.
Atlanta College at Center of COVID Backlash Confirms End of Mask Mandate
A college in Georgia has ended its mask mandate that was prompted by reports of positive COVID-19 cases among students, officials confirmed to Newsweek.
Morris Brown College in Atlanta sparked a backlash after announcing in August that it had reinstated its ruling that required masks to be worn on college property.
The mask mandate was scheduled to end on Sunday, James confirmed to Newsweek in an email. However, the college will “still have several safety protocols in place,” he said.
Students and employees are also obligated to undergo temperature checks on arrival at the campus and maintain physical distancing, the letter said. Those who test positive for COVID-19 must isolate for five days and undergo contact tracing. It was not immediately clear which of the protocols outlined in the letter remained in place.
COVID Testing to Be Scaled Up in England as Winter Pressure on NHS Draws Near
Coronavirus testing and monitoring are set to be scaled up for the winter, the U.K.’s public health agency has said, as pressures on the health service are expected to rise in the coming months.
Scientists warned last month that the U.K. was nearly “flying blind” when it comes to COVID because many of the surveillance programs that were in place at the height of the pandemic have been wound down.
Now the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed that it is planning to boost testing and surveillance as winter approaches.
Major AI Players Are Getting in Sync, but It’s What Comes Next That Really Matters
AI is here. It is transformational, and it is changing the world. As a result, Silicon Valley’s mojo is back.
On the other side of the country, in Washington, DC, an equally momentous sea change is taking place: The AI industry’s weightiest players are taking a public policy approach almost as unexpected as the technology itself.
Today’s leading AI companies are shrewdly engaging policymakers early. They are offering members of Congress and their staffs briefings to better understand the technology, and they have shown a willingness to appear before committees publicly and privately. Moreover, they are organizing multi-stakeholder forums and are even signing joint agreements with the White House.
Some argue that the AI industry’s public pronouncements are simply a facade. These companies know Congress moves at a glacial pace — if at all. They know the time required for Congress to establish a new regulatory and oversight agency, fund it, staff it, and arm it with the teeth needed for meaningful enforcement could take years. For context, social media companies remain almost entirely unregulated decades after first taking the world by storm.
Fauci Speaks Out Over COVID Variant as Mask Mandates Reintroduced + More
Fauci Speaks Out Over COVID Variant as Mask Mandates Reintroduced
Anthony Fauci has said that there is “not going to be the tsunami of cases that we’ve seen” during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, following the emergence of two new variants of the virus.
Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, the former chief medical advisor to the president, who was regularly the face of the government’s response to the pandemic, played down the seriousness of the new strains, stressing that the vast majority of the population had enough immunity to prevent infections requiring medical intervention.
His remarks come as some private institutions, hospital operators, and colleges in the U.S. have reintroduced the requirements for staff or visitors to wear masks while at their sites to limit the spread of the new variants — EG.5 and BA.2.86 — prompting speculation that fresh COVID restrictions could be on the horizon.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Newsweek on Thursday it currently has no intention to call for a return of mandated mask-wearing, but didn’t deny that this might change if cases of the new variants were to rise significantly.
New York Police Will Use Drones to Monitor Backyard Parties This Weekend, Spurring Privacy Concerns
Those attending outdoor parties or barbecues in New York City this weekend may notice an uninvited guest looming over their festivities: a police surveillance drone.
The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircraft in response to complaints about large gatherings, including private events, over Labor Day weekend, officials announced Thursday.
The plan drew immediate backlash from privacy and civil liberties advocates, raising questions about whether such drone use violated existing laws for police surveillance.
“It’s a troubling announcement and it flies in the face of the POST Act,” said Daniel Schwarz, a privacy and technology strategist at the New York Civil Liberties Union, referring to a 2020 city law that requires the NYPD to disclose its surveillance tactics. “Deploying drones in this way is a sci-fi-inspired scenario.”
Texas Bans Mask Mandates as COVID Restrictions Imposed in Other States
A ban on COVID-19 restrictions that impose a mandate to wear face masks in public spaces went into effect in Texas after a number of institutions across the U.S. reinstated the policy due to a rise in new infections fueled by the emergence of two new variants of the virus.
Senate Bill 29, which was passed by the state’s Legislature in May and signed by Governor Greg Abbott at the start of June, went into effect on Friday. It prohibits most government institutions from enforcing mask-wearing policies but places no restrictions on private entities.
Some private institutions, hospital operators and colleges have reintroduced the requirements for staff or visitors to wear masks while at their sites to limit the spread of the new variants — EG.5 and BA.2.86 — prompting speculation that fresh COVID restrictions may be on the horizon.
The bodies that have so far reinstituted mask mandates have been based in Georgia, California and New York.
Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas Social Media Age Verification Law to Have Gone Into Effect Friday
A U.S. District Judge has blocked an Arkansas social media age verification law that was set to go in effect Friday, according to a Thursday court filing.
The act was aimed at requiring “age verification for use of social media; and to clarify liability for failure to perform age verification for use of social media and illegal retention of data,” according to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office.
It’s believed this would have been the first law in the US requiring age verification from new social media users, and to require parental consent, to go into effect.
Judge Timothy L. Brooks said a motion filed by NetChoice — a group that represents a slew of social media companies like Facebook and Snapchat — “has standing to assert a constitutional challenge to Act 689 on behalf of its members and its members’ users.”
Online Marketplaces, Social Media Platforms Under Fire From Congress Over Recalled Products
Imagine that you ordered something online and found out later that it was recalled or even banned. How would you react? Would you ever buy from that online retailer again? Probably not. That is the scenario that the House Energy and Commerce Committee wants to prevent. The committee is worried that some of the largest online shopping companies are not doing enough to stop consumers from buying products that pose safety risks through their platforms, exposing them to potential harm. The committee has sent letters to 17 companies asking them about their efforts to prevent sales of dangerous products.
The letter was sent to the following companies: Meta, Amazon, Walmart, Target, Bikelist, eBay, Etsy, Goldin, Kidizen, Mercari, OfferUp, Poshmark, Reverb, TikTok, Pinduoduo, Alibaba and Shein. It was signed by Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr., Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Jan Schakowsky and Gus Bilirakis.
One particular concern the committee has is with Meta’s inability to prevent purchases of two children’s items — the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play sleeper and Boppy Newborn Lounger — that had both been recalled years ago. These recalls were not just out of caution. The Rock ’n Play has been linked to the deaths of over 100 infants. The committee said it is “unaware” of any “proactive measures” that Meta has taken to stop the sales of these clearly hazardous products.
Sage Steele Blasts ESPN for Silencing Her: ‘The Opposite of Equity, Tolerance, Inclusion’
Former ESPN anchor Sage Steele slammed her former employer in interviews this week after exiting the company over how they silenced her for giving her opinions while allowing her colleagues to speak on controversial political issues.
Steele was sidelined by the left-wing organization in 2021 when she spoke out about how she had to get a COVID vaccine to keep her job.
“It’s insane, and it’s the opposite of what people preach with equity and tolerance and inclusion and acceptance and all those words that everybody throws around, especially in corporate America, but when it’s actually time to live it? That was my issue,” she added.
Steele said in a separate interview that the entire ordeal turned into a big controversy “because most importantly, I complied.”
Fired Pittsburgh Regional Transit Workers Weigh Options After COVID Vaccine Mandate Lifted
There are $10 million in lost wages calculated by Attorney James Welsh for the 75 fired Pittsburgh Regional Transit workers he represents. It’s a huge financial impact to each and every one.
“I can’t even put into words how hard it’s been,” said Jonathan Lutz. Lutz was fired from his job with the company on March 23, 2022. The decision was over his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine and PRT denying his filed exemption.
A united front as 75 of the 84 fired workers over the mandate are all part of a class action civil rights lawsuit filed against the Port Authority, now known as PRT.
The press release continues on and says all terminated workers will have the opportunity to return to work. Both Lutz and Welsh don’t believe it’s that easy, and the offer will come with stipulations. So, they plan to move forward with the lawsuit as the PRT has until next month to respond.
France Plans to Boost Internet Censorship to Combat Online Fraud
DNS providers and web browsers could be forced to block websites flagged by authorities in France under a new proposed law.
Currently pushed through parliament, the so-called SREN Bill comes as a way to regulate online content and tackle issues like digital fraud, online harassment, and minors’ access to pornography.
Despite being motivated by legitimate concerns, experts deemed the Bill as a “dangerous slippery slope.” Granting the French government greater website blocking powers will create further censorship technical capabilities, they warn, while setting up a worrying precedent that threatens the open internet.
Sen. Ron Johnson Accuses CDC of ‘Censorship’ of Own COVID Vaccine Info + More
Sen. Ron Johnson Accuses CDC of ‘Censorship’ of Own COVID Vaccine Info
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of coordinating with social media companies to suppress certain information about COVID-19 vaccines.
Citing one of his own social media posts about vaccines that got labeled misleading, Johnson claimed the agency had abused its authority and demanded it fork over key documents about the efforts in a Monday letter to CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen.
“Based on recent information I have received … it is clear that CDC abused its authority by engaging in a censorship campaign to suppress and discredit certain viewpoints it labeled as ‘misinformation,’” Johnson wrote in the letter, obtained by The Post.
As an example, Johnson highlighted a Jan. 3, 2022, post he made on Twitter, now known as X, that highlighted information from the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). In the post, Johnson claimed that VAERS data showed there had been over 1 million adverse effects from the COVID-19 jab. That post was labeled misleading on the platform with a note explaining that most public health officials had deemed the vaccines safe.
Johnson, the ranking member on the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is demanding records detailing interactions between all CDC employees and employees at X, Facebook, and YouTube regarding 10 individuals who expressed vaccine and lockdown-skeptical views beginning Dec. 1, 2019.
IBM Promised to Back Off Facial Recognition — Then It Signed a $69.8 Million Contract to Provide It
IBM has returned to the facial recognition market — just three years after announcing it was abandoning work on the technology due to concerns about racial profiling, mass surveillance, and other human rights violations.
In June 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests swept the U.S. after George Floyd’s murder, IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna wrote a letter to Congress announcing that the company would no longer offer “general purpose” facial recognition technology.
Later that year, the company redoubled its commitment, calling for U.S. export controls to address concerns that facial recognition could be used overseas “to suppress dissent, to infringe on the rights of minorities, or to erase basic expectations of privacy.”
Despite these announcements, last month, IBM signed a $69.8 million (£54.7 million) contract with the British government to develop a national biometrics platform that will offer a facial recognition function to immigration and law enforcement officials, according to documents reviewed by The Verge and Liberty Investigates, an investigative journalism unit in the U.K.
Moore: COVID Lockdown Leaders Won’t Admit They Were Wrong
COVID mania just won’t go away. The deadly strains of the virus have been gone for two years now, and yet the recent outbreak of a mild flu-like variant is again stoking panic on the Left.
Nearly 100 universities are requiring masks this fall. Lionsgate movie studios in Los Angeles and Atlanta-based Morris Brown College this week stated they are reinstating not just mask mandates but social distancing measures and contact tracing.
CNN, which led the panic in 2020 and 2021 — causing manic school, restaurant and business shutdowns and vaccine mandates — recently put out a headline on its website that encouraged its readers not to go outside without a mask on. Really? The latest evidence finds this is less dangerous than a normal flu virus and tracking data suggest that the wave has already peaked.
It is one thing for well-meaning medical experts to have disagreed about how to best combat a once-in-a-half-century deadly virus. We didn’t know exactly what we were dealing with. But now we know with concrete scientific evidence that most mandates and lockdowns had a small impact on the spread of the virus and on fatalities. It turns out there was almost no difference in death rates in states with strict lockdowns and no lockdowns at all. The same is true of cross-country evidence.
Finland Is First to Test Digital Passports: How This Could Change Travel
What if we told you that the next time you jet off for your holiday or business trip, your mobile could act as your passport? Finland is trying something new and if it works, there’s a big chance that digital passports will become a reality and people will soon be able to bid adieu to the physical form of a passport.
Here’s what we know about the world’s first digital passports and what benefits they serve. On August 28, the Finnish Border Guard announced that it would be the first country across the globe to test digital travel documents.
The experiment, which will continue until February next year, is being carried out in partnership with Finnair, the Finnish police and airport company Finavia. As it is a trial, for now, it is only valid for Finnish people flying on Finnair to or from London, Manchester and Edinburgh.
While Finland is already testing its new digital passport, Poland and South Korea are also working on similar projects in their respective countries.
The United States and the United Kingdom are also working on something similar. Interestingly, it was Ukraine in 2021 that became the first country in the world to give the same legal status to digital passports as physical ones. Ukrainians have been able to use their digital passports in a range of situations such as confirming their identity at the post office, confirming their age or opening a bank account for a few years. But last year they were also recognized when traveling into the country by plane or train.
X Wants Permission to Start Collecting Your Biometric Data and Employment History
X, the platform previously known as Twitter, is expanding the amount of data it collects on users. The social network has updated its privacy policy to include carveouts for “biometric information” and “employment history,” as spotted by Bloomberg.
“Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes,” the privacy policy reads. It doesn’t include any details on what kind of biometric information this includes — or how X plans to collect it — but it typically involves fingerprints, iris patterns, or facial features.
X Corp. was named in a proposed class action lawsuit in July over claims that its data collection violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit alleges that X “has not adequately informed individuals” that it “collects and/or stores their biometric identifiers in every photograph containing a face” that’s uploaded to the platform.
One possibility for using biometric data is enabling passwordless sign-ins. According to findings from app developer Steve Moser, X plans on rolling out support for passkeys, which can use your device’s fingerprint, facial recognition, or PIN to log in to your account.
A New Facebook Setting Tells Meta Not to Use Your Data for AI
Meta, the maker of Facebook and Instagram, introduced a new privacy setting Thursday that lets you ask, pretty please, for the company not to use your data to train its AI models.
Buried in the nether regions of Facebook’s Help Center — a part of the website most people probably never visit — you’ll find an entry called Generative AI Data Subject Rights. “This form is where you can submit requests related to your third-party information being used for generative AI model training,” Facebook tells the weary travelers who’ve managed to stumble onto the page.
The leaders of the tech industry say that AI will soon destroy our world. But if you’re truly concerned about your data being swept up to train artificial intelligence, there are a lot of reasons to think this new Facebook form might be a waste of your time.
As Facebook explains, models like the ones Meta is building analyze pieces of data from a variety of sources. Some of that data comes from the things you type into Meta itself on Facebook, Instagram, and other apps. This form won’t help you with that. Did you think that was your data?
There are other ways to delete some of the data you’ve handed Meta, but there’s no way to object to the company using it for AI. Meta has built an untold number of algorithms and AI tools on your information, though the company says its LLaMA 2 language model wasn’t built on user data.