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The Creepy Secret Behind Online Therapy
How do you make money off people caught in a mental-health emergency? Loris, a startup that helps companies improve their customer-service conversations, found a way. Founded in 2018, Loris used data generated from text conversations with people in distress to make “empathetic” customer-service software. The source for the data? Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit suicide-prevention hotline and the parent company of Loris.
At the heart of the arrangement was what Crisis Text Line called the “largest mental health data set in the world” — 219 million messages from more than 6.7 million conversations over text, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Exploiting data for profit is par for the course in the modern technology business — search engines, social media platforms, and streaming apps all gather and monetize the data they gain from users. But commercializing the data from a crisis line is vastly different from mining data on the binge-watching or online-shopping habits of customers. The data used for Loris came from people who were at the lowest point of their lives, when they may not have been able to truly understand and consent to how it would then be used.
Despite being touted as the fix for the broken healthcare system, the mushrooming tech-based mental-health industry has a dark side. In the past year, a flurry of reports has found that some of the most recognizable names in the industry have repeatedly engaged in creepy and harmful data-sharing practices that treat people in need of help as prospective sources of profit instead of as patients.
Taken together, the reports reveal a dangerous cocktail of tech solutionism, abuse of consumer trust and regulatory failure that puts highly vulnerable people at risk. And they raise important questions about the future of mental health care and the role of technology in it.
RESTRICT Act Explained: Proposed TikTok Ban Is ‘a PATRIOT Act for the Digital Age,’ Some Lawmakers Say
Citing national security concerns over reports that the Chinese government could use the app to surveil American citizens or promote propaganda to its largely teenage user base, former President Trump and the current Biden administration have both supported legislation to ban TikTok.
Among the most sweeping proposals is a bill currently making its way through Congress. But the RESTRICT Act — touted as a way to ban TikTok nationwide — would do far more than prevent users from accessing an app known for its viral dance routines and conspiracy theory videos.
The bill, if passed, wouldn’t target TikTok specifically. Instead, it would authorize the Secretary of Commerce, under orders of the President, to restrict or ban digital products and services from countries it deems to be foreign adversaries: China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.
Should a U.S.-based person or company violate a restriction issued under the RESTRICT Act, they would be subject to civil penalties of up to $250,000 (or twice the value of the transaction that served as the basis of the order, whichever is greater) and criminal penalties of up to $1 million in fines and up to 20 years imprisonment.
Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute, told Insider the goal of the RESTRICT Act is to allow the government to veto software that allows people to talk to each other and poses a major threat to Americans’ First Amendment rights.
China Makes Major Push in Its Ambitious Digital Yuan Project
Public sector workers in an eastern Chinese city are set to be paid fully in digital yuan, as the country makes a significant push to popularize the currency. Changshu, located in the province of Jiangsu, will start the new payment process in May, according to an official document widely posted on government websites. This is the biggest rollout of the currency, also known as the e-CNY, in China so far, according to state media.
Changshu, a city of 1.7 million residents, was already experimenting with the digital yuan, a form of money that exists only online and is managed and backed by China’s central bank. Like cryptocurrency, the digital yuan incorporates some elements of blockchain technology: Every transaction is recorded and traceable in a digital ledger.
China is already on the verge of becoming a cashless society, but the vast majority of electronic transactions happen on privately owned apps (Alipay and WeChat Pay), outside of the immediate purview of the state. An official yuan would change that, giving Beijing an unprecedented amount of information about what people are spending their money on and where.
The world’s second-largest economy has been trialing the digital yuan in Chinese cities since 2020, as it prepares for a national rollout that could put China ahead of Europe and the United States in the global race to develop a state-backed digital currency, which is also known as central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Artificial Intelligence — Coming to a Government Near You Soon?
The recent blizzard of warnings about artificial intelligence and how it is transforming learning, upending legal, financial and organizational functions, and reshaping social and cultural interaction, have mostly left out the role it is already playing in governance.
Governments in the U.S. at every level are attempting the transition from a programmatic model of service delivery to a citizen-focused model.
Los Angeles, the U.S.’s second-largest city, is a pioneer in the field, unveiling technologies to help streamline bureaucratic functions from police recruitment to paying parking tickets to filling potholes or locating resources at the library.
For now, AI advances are limited to automation. When ChatGPT was asked recently about how it might change how people deal with the government, it responded that “the next generation of AI, which includes ChatGPT, has the potential to revolutionize the way governments interact with their citizens.”
Mother of 7 Denied Kidney Transplant for Refusing COVID Shot in Georgia
On dialysis and potentially facing death, a 41-year-old homeschooling mother of seven young children has been rejected as a candidate for a life-saving kidney transplant by Emory Healthcare Inc. of Atlanta.
The reason? The woman, who has already had COVID-19, refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on religious and medical grounds. To protect her privacy, the patient will be referred to in this article as Jane Doe.
Affiliated with Emory University, Emory Healthcare is one of the leading organ transplant centers in the South. According to Liberty Counsel (LC), a national non-profit legal organization helping Doe, she was referred to Emory by her nephrologist after suddenly coming down with end-stage kidney disease.
Emory Healthcare is one of 35% of the nation’s transplant centers that are still requiring their patients to be vaccinated for COVID-19, according to a Liberty Counsel analysis. This is despite the fact that on April 11, President Joe Biden declared the national emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic officially over.
Zombie School Rules Prove COVID Alarmism Was Always a Cult
Want proof COVID alarmism is a cult, pure and simple? Look no further than the Elizabeth Anne Clune Montessori school in Ithaca. There, as chronicled by David Zweig at the Free Press, children must be masked, including outdoors, and are actually forbidden from speaking during lunch.
That’s right: In 2023, long after the pandemic has receded, years after the data have established both that there is a near-zero risk to kids from the disease and that interventions like masking (and monastic silences) are next to useless.
Still, one tiny private school is clinging to hygiene theater with insane vigilance. Long after the pandemic has receded, years after the data have established both that there is a near-zero risk to kids from the disease and that interventions like masking (and monastic silences) are next to useless.
Zweig reports that the enforced silence at lunch drove the school’s children — like political prisoners in a Soviet gulag — to contrive secret hand signals as a way of communicating. The school kept these restrictions in place after the end of New York’s mask mandate at the request of teachers.
Hospitals and Healthcare Facilities Should Drop Mask Requirements, Medical Experts Say
Even after mask mandates were dropped across the country amid dwindling COVID-19 cases and deaths, face coverings have still been required in many doctors’ offices, hospitals and other healthcare settings.
Now, a group of esteemed medical experts is calling for a change. In an April 18 journal entry in the Annals of Internal Medicine, an academic medical journal, several physicians — including infectious disease specialists — wrote that it’s time to remove masking requirements in healthcare.
“While critically important in the earlier phases of the pandemic, we’ve entered a more stable phase, with substantial population-level immunity, durable protection against severe disease, a series of less virulent variants, and other important and favorable changes,” said the corresponding author Erica S. Shenoy, M.D., Ph.D., in a press release. She is the medical director of infection control for Mass General Brigham and an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Other contributing physicians came from Harvard Medical School, Washington University School of Medicine, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine and Trinity Health Michigan.
Bay Area Hospital Reinstitutes Face Mask Mandate After COVID Outbreak
Guess what happened within a few weeks of Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center lifting its face mask requirements. The answer rhymes with headache, as in a COVID-19 outbreak. And now, the Medical Center has reinstituted face mask requirements for now.
A statement from Kaiser Permanente Northern California described the outbreak: “Recently at our Santa Rosa Hospital, more than a dozen out of our approximately 3,500 staff members and some patients have tested positive for COVID-19.”
The statement continued with, “In response, effective immediately, physicians and staff are required to mask in the Santa Rosa Hospital and Emergency Department while providing direct patient care. We are requiring all visitors to mask upon entrance to the hospital and throughout their visit.”
Amazon Has Been Trying to Break Into Healthcare for Years. Here’s a Look at Everything It’s Done.
Amazon has big plans to disrupt healthcare. Last year, the retail and tech giant made waves when it announced plans to acquire the primary-care company One Medical. In January, Amazon released a subscription program allowing users to get generic prescriptions for $5 a month. The fee covers all eligible prescriptions for Prime members, in a program that rivals other retailers offering low-price generic medications.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has called Amazon a “significant disruptor” of the medical-care field, according to leaked audio obtained by Insider’s Eugene Kim and Blake Dodge. Jassy in an April letter said Amazon sees a “unique opportunity” in healthcare in 2023.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing for every healthcare project. Haven, Amazon’s joint venture with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway, shut down in early 2021 after three years of trying to improve care and lower healthcare costs for the three companies’ employees. In August, it shut down Amazon Care, a big homegrown primary-care bet.
Analysts think in 2023 Amazon will continue to build on its healthcare business through more acquisitions.
Big Tech Earnings Are on Deck This Week. Why That Matters
With Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta Platforms all slated to report earnings this coming week, investors are turning their attention away from bank earnings to Big Tech. That’s because just a handful of large-cap tech stocks powered the S&P 500’s gains during the first quarter despite banking turmoil, uncertainty about the Federal Reserve’s plan to stabilize prices and recession fears.
Companies including Facebook-parent Meta Platforms, Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google-parent Alphabet surged at the beginning of this year, with that trend accelerating last month when large-cap tech names became havens for investors. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up over 15% this year.
Another major theme for tech earnings is the race toward artificial intelligence. The pressure on tech companies to develop their AI units has grown rapidly since ChatGPT entered the market in November. Since then, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft have expressed their intent to strengthen their presence in the AI space. So have other tech firms like IBM, Amazon, Baidu and Tencent.
While some tech leaders, including Elon Musk, have warned of possible repercussions from AI, investments — including from the Tesla chief executive himself — have abounded.
Why Apple’s Partnership With Goldman Is the Future of Banking
Last week Apple effectively dropped the mic on the nation’s banking industry. While the average bank is paying less than half a percent on savings accounts, the $2.6 trillion technology company announced it would be offering 4.15% annual returns to savers — no minimums, no lockups and FDIC-insured. The new product rollout comes at a time when regional banks are scrambling in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank crisis to maintain their deposit bases, and cash-starved fintech startups are likewise struggling.
Technically Apple doesn’t have a banking license. It is fronting for Goldman Sachs Bank USA, otherwise known as Marcus, which has a state charter and is FDIC-insured. In Fintech parlance, Apple is a neobank like Chime, Revolut and Monzo — except its brand strength is unparalleled given that there are more than two billion iPhones globally, now serving as Goldman’s branch network.
The new high-yield savings account is only available to customers with Apple’s credit card, Apple Card. These users can have an account set up in minutes and their spend rewards called daily cash, are automatically funneled into the high-yield account. The account will be displayed on a dashboard in Apple’s digital wallet where users can track their balance and interest earned. The product allows Apple to offer yet another sticky iPhone benefit by strengthening its built-in digital wallet.
