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Supreme Court Ends Unvaccinated Canadian Woman’s Fight for Organ Transplant + More
Supreme Court Ends Unvaccinated Canadian Woman’s Fight for Organ Transplant
The legal battle waged by a Canadian woman who refused to get the COVID vaccine required for organ transplant recipients came to an end after the Supreme Court of Canada decided against hearing her appeal.
On Thursday, the high court announced it would decline to hear Alberta woman Sheila Annette Lewis’ case challenging the Alberta Health Services, an Alberta hospital and six doctors who removed her from a priority organ transplant waiting list because she was unwilling to get the shot. The doctors, hospital, city of the transplant program and organ that Lewis needs have not been released as the case is subject to a publication ban.
She refused to get the vaccine, saying it violated her conscience, and was moved to the bottom of the list last November. In an affidavit that she “ought to have the choice about what goes into [her] body” and that requiring her to be vaccinated would violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Her efforts were unsuccessful at both the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, which said the Charter did not apply to clinical treatment decisions, and the Alberta Court of Appeal, which upheld the lower court’s decision. Lewis sought to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which dismissed the case on Thursday.
Louisiana Law Would Require Parental Permission to Use Social Media
Kids and teens under 18 years old in Louisiana may soon need their parents’ permission to sign up for online accounts, including for social media, gaming and more, under a newly passed bill in the state.
The measure, which still needs to be signed by the state’s governor to take effect, follows a trend of laws in conservative states such as Utah and Arkansas that seek to limit adolescents’ unrestricted access to social media. Liberal states such as California as well as some Democratic lawmakers in Congress have also been working on new regulations to protect kids from some of the harmful effects of social media.
The unanimous vote in both chambers of the Louisiana state legislature underscores the popularity of legislation aimed at protecting kids from online harms.
If Children’s Privacy Bills Are Going to Make Surveillance Worse Maybe We Should Just Ban Smartphones Altogether
What kids are experiencing today on social media is unlike anything prior generations have had to contend with. The influence of social media on youth mental health is shaped by many complex factors, including, but not limited to, the number of time children and adolescents spend on platforms, the type of content they consume or are otherwise exposed to, the activities and interactions social media affords, and the degree to which it disrupts activities that are essential for health like sleep and physical activity.
According to the Surgeon General’s advisory note, over 95% of teens have access to smartphones, exposing them to a digital world saturated with potentially harmful content.
We’ve reached a point at which tech companies are no longer capable of denying the negative impact they’re having on our children. This isn’t one study, it’s multiple studies over time. Two weeks ago the United States Surgeon General, Vivek Murth, joined in with an official Advisory Note representing the dangers at hand.
The problem with most of the laws being proposed is that even with the best intentions they’ve mostly increased surveillance and they’re making it a legal requirement to profile children. I’ve been in the room for the drafting of a couple of these bills and I can safely say that nobody in the room wants to make the situation worse but creating a bill that is 1) meaningful enough to make an impact and 2) is simple enough for other legislators to understand and support is no small task.
Why We Should Ban Smartphones in Schools
On Tuesday, Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published “Get Phones Out of Schools Now” for the Atlantic, cross-posted from his “After Babel” Substack. If you haven’t made up your mind about the advisability of young people taking smartphones to school, Haidt’s careful, well-documented argument will likely move you into the “do not allow” camp.
Comparing today with just four years ago, Haidt writes, “The case for phone-free schools is much stronger now.” Evidence has lately become clear that phones are addling young minds and that there is a causal link between their use and skyrocketing mental health issues among the young. (As if that weren’t enough to make you want to grab children’s phones away from them, the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published a horrifying article, “Instagram Connects Vast Pedophile Network.”)
Haidt succinctly summarizes his findings: “So the time is right for parents and educators to ask: Should we make the school day phone-free? Would that reduce rates of depression, anxiety, and self-harm? Would it improve educational outcomes? I believe that the answer to all of these questions is yes.”
Commonplace but feckless school rules about not using phones during class aren’t sufficient (and are ignored anyway). He’s talking about barring students from physically possessing a phone at school anywhere, anytime. Phones should be essentially locked up in the morning and returned at the end of the school day, Haidt says.
Banks’ Growing Reliance on Chatbots to Handle Customer Service Tasks Worries Consumer Watchdog
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has warned about banks’ growing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to handle routine customer service requests.
The CFPB is worried that banks or loan-servicing companies may cut back on human customer service employees and push increasing routine tasks to AI.
“To reduce costs, many financial institutions are integrating artificial intelligence technologies to steer people toward chatbots,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.
“Chatbots can also raise certain privacy and security risks. When chatbots are poorly designed, or when customers are unable to get support, there can be widespread harm and customer trust can be significantly undermined.”
Maine Considers Ending COVID Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers
The administration of Gov. Janet Mills is conducting a review that could lead to the state following the federal government and other Democratic-led states in ending a controversial COVID vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.
Roughly half of the states instituted vaccine mandates at some point during the pandemic, but Gov. Janet Mills put Maine’s 2021 requirement among the most rigid ones by allowing no testing alternative for workers who did not want to be vaccinated. Conservatives here rallied in opposition to it, turning the mandate into a wedge issue with the Democratic governor.
Maine still has not announced its plans, but the Mills administration is conducting “a review of the evidence base” for the rule and will consider proposing changes afterward, though there is no timeline for any changes, said Jackie Farwell, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services.
New York State Dept. of Health Clarifies COVID Vaccine Mandate Repeal Process
The New York State Department of Health released new information about the process of repealing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.
The department announced it had begun the process of repealing the mandate on May 24. On Thursday, it said the next step would be a 60-day public comment period. That would be followed by consideration and approval from the Public Health and Planning Council.
The department said it would not cite healthcare facilities for new violations of the mandate during the repeal process.
Dutch Ask TikTok for Access to Data as EU Scrutinizes Big Tech
The Dutch government asked ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok to allow researchers access to the functioning of the social media platform in a bid to protect users online.
Dutch Minister for Digitalization Alexandra van Huffelen made the request at a meeting with TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew in Singapore, she said in a tweet on Thursday.
Dutch researchers will use the access to analyze how TikTok’s algorithm functions, the minister’s spokesman, Thomas van Oortmerssen, said by phone.
Wisconsin Republicans Block Meningitis Vaccine Requirement for Students + More
Wisconsin Republicans Block Meningitis Vaccine Requirement for Students
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature on Wednesday voted to stop Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration from requiring seventh graders to be vaccinated against meningitis.
The state Senate and Assembly, with all Republicans in support and Democrats against, voted to block the proposal. There is no current meningitis vaccination requirement for Wisconsin students.
The Legislature’s vote also makes it easier for parents to get an exemption from a chicken pox vaccine requirement that is in place for all K-6 students. Evers’ administration wanted to require parents seeking a chicken pox vaccination exemption to provide proof that their child has previously been infected.
Families could still seek waivers from the meningitis vaccination and chickenpox proof requirements for medical, religious or philosophical reasons, just as they can for other vaccinations.
Google Cloud and Mayo Clinic Set to Disrupt Healthcare With Generative AI
Google Cloud is partnering with the Mayo Clinic to transform traditional healthcare by using generative AI, Google Cloud announced on Wednesday.
The collaboration will begin with Google Cloud’s Enterprise Search in Generative AI App Builder to improve the efficiency of clinical workflows, making it easier for clinicians and researchers to find information while helping improve patient outcomes.
“Mayo Clinic is a world leader in leveraging AI for good, and they are a critical partner as we identify responsible ways to bring this transformative technology to healthcare,” he added.
Also on Wednesday, Google Cloud announced the app builder is ready to support HIPAA compliance.
Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen Warns of Algorithmic Dangers
On one level, Frances Haugen’s new book, “The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook,” is as basic as the title makes it sound. In 2021, Haugen, who had worked at Facebook for two years, took 22,000 pages of documents from inside the company, leaking information that led to a string of devastating stories about the company’s inner workings and a number of congressional and parliamentary hearings.
“Facebook knew its platforms were causing harm,” Haugen writes. (The company has since been renamed Meta, but Haugen sticks with Facebook throughout.) “Its stock price continued to soar because nobody else knew.” Profits were contingent on “no one knowing how large the gap between Facebook’s and Instagram’s public narratives and the truth had grown.”
When the Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Horwitz began to break the stories that Haugen helped him document, the most damning one concerned Facebook’s horrifyingly disingenuous response to a congressional inquiry asking if the company had any research showing that its products were dangerous to teens.
Facebook said it wasn’t aware of any consensus indicating how much screen time was too much. What Facebook did have was a pile of research showing that kids were being harmed by its products. Allow a clever company a convenient deflection, and you get something awfully close to a lie.
Dropped, Revised or in Effect: Where COVID Vaccine Rules Stand at Systems Now
Becker’s Hospital Review reported:
As HHS finalizes the end of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees of CMS-certified healthcare facilities, hospitals and health systems have varied approaches to their own rules.
The federal mandate was initially enacted in November 2021. Hospitals and health systems subsequently continued to roll out requirements for their workers, with some firing workers for noncompliance.
In early May, HHS announced it would drop the federal COVID-19 vaccine rule, and the Biden administration recently issued an 82-page final rule formalizing the mandate’s end.
The new final rule moves to treat COVID-19, from an oversight standpoint, more like the flu. In the new final rule, the federal government notes that hospitals and health systems may still instate their own COVID-19 vaccination requirements for workers, consistent with other federal, state and local laws.
New Texas Law Bans COVID Mask, Vaccine and Shutdown Mandates, but Some Republicans Want More
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, Gov. Greg Abbott has faced nagging scrutiny from fellow Republicans over his response, from ordering business closures early on to managing vaccine mandates later.
This year, Abbott sought to quiet his critics once and for all by asking lawmakers to prioritize legislation to “end COVID restrictions forever.” He also asked for limits on his power to respond to a pandemic without legislative input. He got his way only partly.
On Friday, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 29, which prohibits local governments from requiring COVID-related masks, vaccines or business shutdowns. But some Republicans say it does not go far enough because it does not cover private entities.
State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, said he voted for SB 29, calling it “fine” but questioning how much it really matters. He pushed for a more sweeping ban on vaccine mandates during the regular session.
ChatGPT Shows One Dangerous Flaw When Responding to Health Crisis Questions, Study Finds
People are turning to ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI, for everything from meal plans to medical information — but experts say it falls short in some areas, including its responses to appeals for help with health crises.
A study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open found that when the large language model was asked for help with public health issues — such as addiction, domestic violence, sexual assault and suicidal tendencies — ChatGPT failed to provide referrals to the appropriate resources.
Led by John W. Ayers, Ph.D., from the Qualcomm Institute, a nonprofit research organization within the University of California San Diego, the study team asked ChatGPT 23 public health questions belonging to four categories: addiction, interpersonal violence, mental health and physical health.
Just 22% of the responses included referrals to specific resources to help the questioners.
EU Official to Confront Zuckerberg After Damning Report on Company’s Handling of Child Sexual Abuse Material
A top European Union official plans to confront Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an in-person meeting over reports this week that the company has failed to prevent the spread of child sexual abuse material on its platform.
Thierry Breton, a European commissioner who has led the charge on regulating digital platforms, will visit Meta’s California headquarters on June 23 and plans to raise the matter with Zuckerberg personally, he tweeted Thursday.
“#Meta’s voluntary code on child protection seems not to work,” Breton said. “Mark Zuckerberg must now explain & take immediate action.”
Breton added that Meta will be subject to the European Union’s sweeping content moderation law — known as the Digital Services Act — by the end of the summer and that violations could carry “heavy sanctions.” The law permits fines equaling up to 6% of a company’s global revenue.
Cardiologist Calls on Australia’s Medical Regulator to Suspend COVID Vaccine Mandates
Dr. Aseem Malhotra, Britain’s high-profile cardiologist and previous supporter of mRNA COVID vaccines, has called on Australia’s medical regulator to suspend COVID vaccine mandates, saying the evidence against their use has been “overwhelming.”
This comes as the secretary of the Australian Federal Department of Health, Professor Brendan Murphy, called the continuation of COVID vaccine mandates in Australia unjustified.
Instagram’s Recommendation Algorithms Are Promoting Pedophile Networks + More
Instagram’s Recommendation Algorithms Are Promoting Pedophile Networks
Instagram’s algorithms are actively promoting networks of pedophiles who commission and sell child sexual abuse content on Meta’s popular image-sharing app.
A joint investigation from The Wall Street Journal and academics at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst has revealed the extent to which Instagram’s recommendation systems “connects pedophiles and guides them to content sellers.”
Alex Stamos, head of Stanford’s Internet Observatory and former chief security officer for Meta, told the WSJ that the company can and should be doing more to tackle this issue. “That a team of three academics with limited access could find such a huge network should set off alarms at Meta,” said Stamos. “I hope the company reinvests in human investigators.”
In addition to problems with Instagram’s recommendation algorithms, the investigation also found that the site’s moderation practices frequently ignored or rejected reports of child abuse material.
WHO Plots to Use EU Vaccine Passport Tech to Form Global Digital Health Certificates
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced it will adopt the European Union’s digital COVID vaccine passport framework to create a global network of digital health certificates. What was long maligned as a conspiracy theory is coming to pass. The new initiative will be called the Global Digital Health Certification Network.
The WHO said it will “take up the European Union (EU) system of digital COVID-19 certification to establish a global system that will help facilitate global mobility and protect citizens across the world from ongoing and future health threats.”
The WHO’s new initiative comes at a time when the use of vaccine passports has reduced and after the global public health organization said that COVID was no longer a public health emergency.
Critics of vaccine passports argue that they could be used to discriminate and deny people access to public services. Others view them as an invasion of privacy by equipping governments with the power to spy on people’s health, as well as create a checkpoint society.
Ernst Bill Would Defund EcoHealth Alliance, Other Orgs That ‘Disregard the Law’
Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa aims to strip taxpayer funding from EcoHealth Alliance and other nonprofits that “disregard the law.”
Ernst will introduce the Stop the Outlay of Payments (STOP) Act Tuesday, which would cut off all federal funding to any organization that has had a federal award suspended or terminated by an agency of the federal government. Her office said the legislation targets EcoHealth, a controversial New York City-based nonprofit with ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
“Like China, EcoHealth will not cooperate with scientific investigations into the origins of COVID-19, and, as a result, we may never know what was happening inside the Wuhan Institute and the possible connection to the pandemic. It makes me sick that Iowa taxpayers have been forced to foot the bill for organizations like EcoHealth that refuse to be accountable and transparent,” Ernst told Fox News Digital.
EcoHealth, an environmental group that works to prevent the outbreak of emerging diseases, is under intense scrutiny from Republican lawmakers for its relationship to WIV in Wuhan, China, which was the recipient of $600,000 in federal tax dollars sub awarded by EcoHealth to research coronaviruses in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Price We’ll Pay for Our AI Future: More Loneliness
Americans are trapped in a loneliness epidemic. Across the country, people are having fewer social interactions, spending more time alone, and reporting fewer close friends. These trends aren’t just a symptom of the COVID-19 pandemic — while the last few years may have accelerated the loneliness crisis, the shift toward a more solitary life has been happening for years.
A new report from the U.S. surgeon general finds that social activities of all kinds have declined, and it compared the health impact of this increasing loneliness to smoking 12 cigarettes a day. My own research found that Americans are in the throes of a “friendship recession” with people reporting smaller social circles and fewer close friends.
This rising tide of isolation is particularly acute among young people: The time that Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 spend with friends has declined considerably over the past two decades, according to the surgeon general’s report, from an average of 2.5 hours a day to just 40 minutes.
It seems as if everything in modern life is conspiring to perpetuate the loneliness problem — from the design of our technology to where we build our homes. We already know how addictive social media can be: Nearly one in three Americans reports being online “almost constantly,” according to the Pew Research Center, while a 2018 study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania showed that social media helps fuel feelings of loneliness.
DeSantis Signs Digital Bill of Rights for Florida
Seeking to give Floridians control over their own data, freedom from web censorship, and protection for their children online, Gov. Ron DeSantis on June 6 signed a bill creating a Digital Bill of Rights for the state.
“If a multibillion-dollar company is conspiring to take your data and sell it or use it against you, it is your right to be able to protect that data,” DeSantis said in a statement released by his office. “No longer will the Big Tech oligarchs be able to commandeer your personal information and deprive you of the right to access, confirm, or delete that data as you wish.”
The bill, Senate Bill 262, gives residents of the third most populous state several rights. They can confirm, access, and delete their data on a social media platform. They have the right to know their data won’t be used against them in buying a home, obtaining health insurance, or being hired. They have the right to opt out of having their personal data sold. They have the right to protect their children from personal data collection.
The bill adds biometric data and geolocation information to the definition of personal data, the governor’s office said, “ensuring that Big Tech companies are not collecting your personal identifying information or tracking your day-to-day movements.” The bill bans state or local government employees from coordinating with a Big Tech company to police or censor protected speech.
Like, Totally Orwellian: Nearly a Third of GenZ Favors ‘Government Surveillance Cameras in Every Household’
Nearly one-third of Generation Z says they’d be just fine with government-installed surveillance cameras in every household under the guise of reducing domestic violence and other illegal activity.
“Would you favor or oppose the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity?” asks a new survey from the Cato Institute. Of the responses, 29% of those aged 18-29 said yes.
The question was asked as part of the Cato Institute’s survey on American attitudes toward the prospect of a ‘central bank digital currency.’ What’s interesting about that is that 53% of Americans who support a CBDC also support in-home surveillance cameras.
Former ByteDance Exec Counters TikTok CEO’s Testimony, CCP Has ‘Backdoor’ Access to User Data Stored in U.S.
A former ByteDance executive is alleging in a California court filing that a “backdoor channel” in TikTok’s code allows the Chinese Community Party (CCP) access to user data, even if stored by a U.S. company.
In a May filing in San Francisco Superior Court, Yintao “Roger” Yu, who was the head of engineering of the U.S. offices of ByteDance, Inc. from August 2017 until he was fired in November 2018, said he was astounded by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s “misdirection” while testifying before Congress in March.
“The Committee maintained supreme access to all the company data, even data stored in the United States. Any engineer in Beijing could access U.S. user data located in the U.S. After receiving criticism about access from abroad, individual engineers in China were restricted from accessing U.S. user data, but the Committee continued to have access,” the lawsuit says.
Apple Could Be a $4 Trillion Company by the End of 2025 as the Tech Giant Is ‘Playing Chess While Others Play Checkers,’ Wedbush Says
Apple could become a $4 trillion company by the end of 2025, as the tech giant is “playing chess” with its next iPhone cycle and Vision Pro developments, according to Wedbush.
In a note on Wednesday, the research firm raised its 12-month price target on Apple stock to $220 from $205, implying 23% upside within the next year.
Apple dipped 0.2% early Wednesday, putting its market cap at about $2.8 trillion. Shares are up 43% for the year.
As part of its bullish view, Wedbush pointed to the expected launch of Apple’s iPhone 15 in September, which could boost profits as there are around 250 million iPhones that haven’t been upgraded in the past four years. Total iPhone unit sales in 2023 could notch 235 million, Wedbush estimated.
Microsoft to Pay $20 Million to Settle U.S. Charges for Violating Children’s Privacy + More
Microsoft to Pay $20 Million to Settle U.S. Charges for Violating Children’s Privacy
Microsoft (MSFT.O) will pay $20 million to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that the tech company illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent, the FTC said on Monday.
The company had been charged with violating the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up for its Xbox gaming system without notifying their parents or obtaining their parents’ consent, and by retaining children’s personal information, the FTC said in a statement.
The order requires Microsoft to take steps to improve privacy protections for child users of its Xbox system. It will extend COPPA protections to third-party gaming publishers with whom Microsoft shares children’s data, the FTC said.
Facebook Receipts Project Exposes the Company’s Efforts to Influence Government and Define Regulation
For years Facebook was the hottest platform on Earth and in the best of ways. Everyone wanted to be on Facebook. The company grew to 1.7 billion users by 2016 with relatively little money spent on ads or traditional methods of growth. When I moved to Silicon Valley to consult with Google in 2016 I spent my time with friends who worked at Facebook and were head over heels for the purpose it brought to their life.
Not shortly after, that narrative would change and the real Facebook would be exposed for the world to see. In a short period of time, we would come to realize that Facebook is not here to connect people, as it claims, it is here to connect data scientists to data that can systematically manipulate the world.
In December 2015 it was exposed that data was being shared with a company called Cambridge Analytica. It wouldn’t be until years later that the public would truly understand what this meant. But according to a recent report called The Facebook Receipts from The Citizens, a not-for-profit journalism organization with a focus on democracy, data rights, and disinformation, it was clear years before this public awareness that Facebook knew it was in for a major change to its reputation. Facebook knew that the public was about to realize what its real purpose was, and that it was not the friendly app about connecting people that everyone thought.
The Facebook Receipts is the first publicly available, open-source research tool that tracks Facebook court hearings, harms, money, and FOIA filings. From the lobbying dollars in congressional halls to the political donations on parliamentary floors, The Facebook Receipts project is the only comprehensive collection of original data and visualizations that pull back the curtain of Facebook’s influence operations worldwide.
U.S., Canada and France Express Full Support for WHO Pandemic Treaty
Since the start of the COVID pandemic, powerful institutions have been using it as an opportunity to usher in more surveillance and speech control.
One of these institutions, the WHO, an unelected global health agency, has spent more than a year pushing to expand its powers via two instruments — a pandemic treaty/accord and amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005).
These instruments will collectively give the WHO, an unelected health agency, new powers to target “misinformation,” grow its surveillance tools, and push a framework for global vaccine passports.
And last month, during a roundtable at the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA), the annual meeting of the WHO’s decision-making body, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Service Xavier Becerra (an unelected bureaucrat who was appointed by President Joe Biden with the consent of the U.S. Senate), Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam (an unelected bureaucrat who was appointed by former-Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott), and others gave the instruments their full backing.
Big Tech Rolls Back Misinformation Measures Ahead of 2024
Ahead of the 2024 election cycle, the world’s largest tech companies are walking back policies meant to curb misinformation around COVID-19 and the 2020 election.
Why it matters: Social media platforms are arguing that the risk of harm no longer outweighs the benefits of political dialogue, drawing concerns from lawmakers and consumer advocacy leaders.
Driving the news: YouTube last week confirmed that it will reverse its election integrity policy to leave up content that says fraud, errors or glitches occurred in the 2020 presidential election.
The big picture: Since Musk bought Twitter and promised “free speech“-first policies, the service has become an attractive platform for politicians who feel disenfranchised by Big Tech.
States Haven’t Stopped Spying on Their Citizens, Post-Snowden — They’ve Just Got Sneakier
It’s been 10 years since Edward Snowden holed up in a Hong Kong hotel room and exposed Britain and America’s mass surveillance operations to a group of journalists. His bombshell revelations revealed how the U.S. and U.K. governments were spying on their citizens, intercepting, processing and storing their data, and sharing this information.
Since then, although neither state has lost its appetite for hoovering up huge amounts of personal data, new transparency and oversight constraints, together with the growth of encrypted technology, have tilted the balance towards privacy.
Snowden’s revelations sparked outrage and anger. Bulk interception was being done without a democratic mandate and with few real safeguards. When the scope of this surveillance came to light, officials claimed most of the information was not “read” and therefore its collection did not violate privacy. This was disingenuous; the data could reveal an intimate picture of someone’s life — a fact that was upheld in later legal challenges, which proved the surveillance violated privacy and human rights law.
The legacy of Snowden’s leaks is mixed. Bulk interception and surveillance haven’t stopped, despite there now being greater transparency and more oversight. “There are a few more safeguards, but mostly it continues,” Caroline Wilson Palow, the legal director at Privacy International (PI), told me.
The Police Surveillance Tool Too Dangerous to Ignore
In 2020 lawmakers in New York introduced legislation taking aim at one of the most chilling tools of modern government surveillance: geofence warrants. It would have been easy to see this as a New York phenomenon, unlikely replicated.
The state is often a legislative bastion for traditionally liberal causes, and at first glance, the fight against geofence warrants — a tool police officers use to, among other things, track protesters —might be slotted into that category. But somewhat surprisingly, New York’s proposal is being replicated across the country, including in traditionally conservative states like Missouri and Utah.
The unexpectedly bipartisan efforts against geofence warrants provide a rare glimmer of hope that perhaps the fight against invasive surveillance could be a more collaborative one. Conservatives and progressives alike both worry about the dangers of government overreach enabled by dragnet searches like those facilitated through geofence warrants.
And while protecting Americans from surveillance abuses has rarely been a legislative priority, geofence searches are so offensive to the Constitution that this campaign could provide a playbook for bringing both parties together on other privacy issues.
A similar threat is posed by keyword search warrants, a sort of sister to geofence warrants, which force search engines to identify every user who has made a search query. This can be a specific address, a phrase, or nearly anything else that a user might search for. The New York legislation would ban both geofence warrants and keyword search warrants.
Apple Rolls Out Mental Health Tracking, Vision Assessment as New Health App Features
Roughly half of American smartphone users with iPhones will notice new health and privacy features on their devices starting today.
In addition to iPhones being equipped with new health features, Apple’s update will give iPad and Apple Watch users access to new tools. All three platforms will gain features that encourage healthy behaviors, reduce the risk of myopia, or nearsightedness, and provide ways to assess and address depression, according to the company. The new features were announced as part of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2023 Monday.
The tech company finished the written announcement on its website by reiterating that the Health app never shares user data with third parties without explicit permission. When permission is granted, users maintain granular control of which data are shared with who and when, the company said.
Met Police Operation Secretly Monitors Children Online
Children as young as 13 have been secretly monitored online as part of a continuing surveillance operation run by the Metropolitan police, the Guardian has learned.
The project could also be gathering data on much younger children, as it is not compulsory for officers to document the ages of the individuals they are targeting.
Met police documents say it collects “children’s personal data” from social media sites.
The latest revelations have escalated concerns among human rights organizations about the Met potentially violating data laws and disproportionately targeting children from racial minorities.