Login
Amazon Agrees to $25 Million Settlement Over Alexa Unlawfully Storing Children’s Voice Recordings, Location Data
Amazon has agreed to a $25 million settlement with the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission regarding allegations the company violated federal children’s privacy laws through its Alexa personal assistant platform.
In addition to the civil penalty, Amazon.com Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Amazon.com Services LLC (collectively Amazon), have agreed to a permanent injunction as part of that settlement to resolve alleged violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA Rule) and the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) relating to Amazon’s voice assistant, the DOJ and FTC said Wednesday.
The government had alleged that Amazon Alexa unlawfully stores children’s voice recordings and information about children’s locations — and sometimes even flouts requests from parents to have that data deleted.
Other alleged violations include making deceptive representations that Alexa app users could delete their or their children’s voice recordings, including audio files and transcripts and their geolocation information, when in fact Amazon on some occasions failed to delete all such information at users’ request. The complaint also alleges that Amazon engaged in unfair privacy practices with respect to Alexa users’ geolocation information and voice recordings, including — in some instances — failing to honor users’ deletion requests and failing to notify consumers that it had not done so.
Amazon’s Palm Payment Tech Is Coming to Every Whole Foods in the U.S.
Amazon‘s palm payment technology will be a common sight at every U.S. Whole Foods store by the end of the year. The tech giant will roll out Amazon One across over 500 Whole Foods stores by the end of 2023, it said in a blog post. Amazon One is already in about 200 Whole Foods locations, Amazon said.
“This means Whole Foods Market customers who choose to use Amazon One will no longer need their wallet or even a phone to pay—they can simply hover their palm over an Amazon One device,” Amazon said in the post. Customers who link their Amazon One account with their Prime details will also get discounts when they use the payment method, the company said.
The palm-scanning technology has received criticism from privacy advocates. They say that Amazon is collecting biometric data that could be misused. Amazon says that customers have to opt-in to using One, and the data from those who do is “securely collected.”
Amazon One is part of a variety of data-collecting initiatives that Amazon has. They range from healthcare ventures to iRobot, the company behind the Roomba vacuum, and many of them raise privacy concerns, Insider has reported.
Apple Warning It Could Shut FaceTime, iMessage in U.K. Over Gov’t Surveillance Policy Adds to Growing Tech Industry Discontent
The list of mainstream Internet services that could shut down in the U.K. over security risks attached to government policymaking just got longer: The BBC is reporting Apple has threatened to shutter local access to its end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) comms services, FaceTime and iMessage, if ministers don’t rethink a plan to further beef up existing (intrusive) surveillance powers.
In recent months we’ve heard similar warnings from Meta-owned WhatsApp, Signal Messenger and Wikipedia in relation to other components of the U.K.’s digital policy they view as harmful to their users’ interests — so it’s by no means the first warning that Brits could miss out on access to mainstream web services if ministers don’t rethink their approach to tech policy.
In the case of Apple’s latest warning, its target is government plans to further expand digital surveillance powers available to state intelligence agencies. Last month the Home Office announced a consultation on changes to a regime of notices that can be issued to comms providers to retain or intercept user data under the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act (IPA).
AirTag and Tile Stalking Remain a Thorny Problem
Personal tracking devices like AirTag and Tile were designed to help avoid mishaps such as lost keys, but they’re raising alarms about privacy and security.
Why it matters: Mounting accounts of the devices’ misuse have prompted Apple and Google to try helping users identify and thwart tracking without consent — as states pass legislation outlawing this intrusion.
Driving the news: Legislatures in Indiana and Kentucky passed laws earlier this year to prohibit non-consensual AirTag tracking. Similar legislation was under consideration in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Tile announced earlier this year it would impose a $1 million fine for criminal use of trackers, alongside law enforcement.
Trump COVID Shot Ad Boosted Vaccination in Red Counties — Study Authors Advocate for Using ‘Messengers Whose Voices Might Carry Special Weight’
A strategic public service announcement (PSA) with counter-stereotypical vaccine messaging using real Fox News clips led to an uptake in COVID-19 vaccination in red counties, according to a large-scale randomized controlled trial.
Across 1,014 counties, an estimated 104,036 people were vaccinated who otherwise wouldn’t have been had they not seen the PSA, for an average of 103 additional vaccines per treated county (P=0.097), reported Timothy J. Ryan, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues in Science Advances.
Ryan’s team created a 27-second PSA using footage of former President Donald Trump endorsing the COVID vaccine on Fox News. They then placed tactical ads on YouTube in counties lagging in vaccine uptake. The PSA was viewed 11.6 million times among 6 million unique viewers. On the Fox News YouTube channel alone, the PSA played 200,000 times before clips of Fox News personalities.
83 Republicans Vote Against Amendment to Reinstate Pilots Fired for Refusing COVID Vaccine
House lawmakers on Thursday rejected an amendment that would have required airlines to reinstate pilots who were fired or stepped down because of vaccine mandates.
The amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and offered on the floor by Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., failed 141-298 after 83 Republicans voted with Democrats against it. Only one House Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted for the measure.
Nearly all major U.S. airlines implemented vaccine mandates during the coronavirus pandemic in accordance with President Biden‘s 2021 executive order requiring federal contractors to get the shots. The policies were controversial and prompted legal challenges from pilots, including an unsuccessful attempt by the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) to block the mandate from taking effect.
King County Council to Consider Rehiring Employees Fired Over Vaccine Mandate
The King County Council is considering a proposal “fast-tracking” the re-hiring of employees who were fired for declining the COVID-19 vaccine.
The proposal is part of a push to fill hundreds of vacant positions across departments like King County Metro, the sheriff’s office and the parks department.
The proposal, sponsored by Council Member Reagan Dunn could potentially help fill those roles by prioritizing the rehiring of employees impacted by those mandates.
The county’s vaccine mandate expired on Feb. 6 after nearly two years. King County’s vaccine mandate was in place since mid-2021. All county and city employees, contractors and volunteers were required to show proof they received the initial COVID-19 vaccination series.
