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Why Facial Recognition Software Is Stoking Privacy Fears
Facial recognition technology unlocks our smartphones, speeds passengers through airports and finds missing children. But the technology’s increasing use by law enforcement agencies and big corporations has prompted concerns from civil liberties advocates, who worry about the loss of privacy and the chilling of dissent.
Big Tech has even sounded the alarm, with Amazon Inc. founder Jeff Bezos calling facial recognition “a perfect example of where regulation is needed.”
Facial recognition technology scans features on the human face and analyzes them — for instance, measuring the distances between the eyes, nose and mouth, and the shape of the cheeks, lips and ears. Each person’s features are combined to form a kind of digital “faceprint” that is unique to them.
The technology can identify a person by comparing images of their face with existing photographs published online or in government or police databases, such as mugshots or passport photos.
Social Media Giants Must Face Child Safety Lawsuits, Judge Rules
Meta, ByteDance, Alphabet, and Snap must proceed with a lawsuit alleging their social platforms have adverse mental health effects on children, a federal court ruled on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected the social media giants’ motion to dismiss the dozens of lawsuits accusing the companies of running platforms “addictive” to kids.
School districts across the U.S. have filed suit against Meta, ByteDance, Alphabet, and Snap, alleging the companies cause physical and emotional harm to children. Meanwhile, 42 states sued Meta last month over claims Facebook and Instagram “profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans.” This order addresses the individual suits and “over 140 actions” taken against the companies.
Tuesday’s ruling states that the First Amendment and Section 230, which says online platforms shouldn’t be treated as the publishers of third-party content, don’t shield Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat from all liability in this case.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers notes many of the claims laid out by the plaintiffs don’t “constitute free speech or expression,” as they have to do with alleged “defects” on the platforms themselves. That includes having insufficient parental controls, no “robust” age verification systems, and a difficult account deletion process.
YouTube Boasts About Elevating ‘Quality’ Content, Collaborating With the WHO, and Suppressing ‘Misinformation’
YouTube (Google) is yet another in a series of tech behemoths that feel the need to declare their stance on content, including its effective algorithmic manipulation, just as U.S. primaries are ushering the country into another year of presidential elections.
Beating around that bush — Google representatives now talk about processes, procedures, and tools of censorship of health-related information that, unfortunately, can easily be “repurposed” to serve other, for example, political ends.
Much of the conversation rests on what Google wants to portray as its laurels from “the previous epidemic” — which too many people and creators see from a diametrically opposed point of view, as a dark time of nearly unbridled censorship and suppression of free speech.
A video now published by Yahoo Finance reveals not only that Google has a “chief clinical officer,” but also how that officer, Michael Howell, sees the role of this super-powerful tech corporation in determining what users are likely to see, see first, or see at all on a platform like YouTube.
Howell, naturally, sees nothing wrong with this and even, to all intents and purposes, brags that YouTube is working to make sure legacy media have an advantage over independent creators, and that the latter may easily face censorship.
Meta Calls for Legislation to Require Parental Approval for Teens’ App Downloads
Meta has called for legislation that would require app stores to get parental approval before their teens download any app. That would effectively put more onus on parents, as well as Google and Apple, to protect younger users from apps that have the potential to cause harm.
“Parents should approve their teen’s app downloads, and we support federal legislation that requires app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps,” Antigone Davis, Meta’s global head of safety, wrote. The company is proposing a plan that would see app stores notifying parents when their teen wants to download an app, in a similar way to how they are alerted when a kid wants to make an in-app purchase. The parent would then approve or deny the request.
Meta says its approach would let parents verify their teen’s age when they set up a phone, rather than requiring everyone to verify their age multiple times across various apps. The company suggests legislation is needed to make sure all apps that teens use are held to the same standard.
Under current proposals, Meta argues that parents would need to navigate different signup methods and provide “potentially sensitive identification information” for themselves and their teens “to apps with inconsistent security and privacy practices.” Indeed, experts say that such age verification practices threaten the privacy of all users.
TikTok Continues to Dominate the World’s Most Downloaded Apps
In a digital age where most people interact with the world through digital apps residing on smartphones, it’s helpful to break down the global addiction.
According to a treemap from Truman Du, TikTok took the crown in 2022, beating out notable contenders from social media giants, Visual Capitalist reports.
With a staggering 672 million downloads in just one year and its revenue doubling to an eye-watering $9.4 billion speaks volumes of its commercial success from the foreign app — a feat made even more remarkable considering the geopolitical hurdles it faces; being a rare Chinese export that has captivated international markets. Yet, despite its unprecedented global appeal, it remains barred in significant markets like India and has even faced temporary bans in places like Pakistan — a testament to its disruptive impact in the tightly contested digital arena.
Meanwhile, the other contenders in the top five most-downloaded apps of 2022 are dominated by the social media juggernauts of Meta, with Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp showing that old guards still hold significant sway in the digital domain. This dominance of social media platforms reflects a society ever-hungry for connectivity and digital interaction, a craving only intensified by the isolating clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baltimore City Council Discusses Proposed Facial Recognition Technology Bill
Just about everywhere you go, there’s a camera that’s recognizing your face. New legislation is being proposed to limit the use of facial recognition technology in Baltimore City.
City Council Bill 23-0379, which was introduced in May, outlines regulations for the use of facial recognition technology. Baltimore’s moratorium on facial recognition expired last year.
Under the proposed bill, any person in possession of facial recognition data would be required to permanently destroy it within three years of the date it was obtained, or within 30 days of receiving a signed request to destroy the data from the individual or a legal representative.
The bill also mandates that anyone who collects facial recognition data can not distribute the data without consent, a valid warrant or subpoena — unless the data is being used to prevent fraud. However, collecting facial recognition data would be allowed in situations where a written notice of the collection is posted at the entrance to an area.
Generative AI Will Create a ‘Tsunami of Disinformation’ During the 2024 Election
With the 2024 U.S. presidential election just under a year away, AI experts are sounding a warning about the potential for a massive upswing in disinformation and misinformation campaigns using newly available generative AI technologies.
“There’s going to be a tsunami of disinformation in the upcoming election,” Darrell West, senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institute, told Yahoo Finance.
Generative AI technologies exploded in popularity with the launch of ChatGPT in Nov. 2022.
Since then, major tech companies ranging from Microsoft (MSFT), which invested billions in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, and Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Meta (META), and Adobe (ADBE) have debuted or announced they’re working on their own AI platforms.
Forward Health Launches CarePods, a Self-Contained, AI-Powered Doctor’s Office
Adrian Aoun, CEO and co-founder of Forward Health, aims to scale healthcare. It started in 2017 with the launch of tech-forward doctor’s offices that eschewed traditional medical staffing for technology solutions like body scanners, smart sensors, and algorithms that can diagnose ailments. Now, in 2023, he’s still on the same mission and rolled up all the learnings and technology found in the doctor’s office into a self-contained, standalone medical station called the CarePod.
The CarePod pitch is easy to understand. Why spend hours in a doctor’s office to get your throat swabbed for strep throat? Walk into the CarePod, soon to be located in malls and office buildings, and answer some questions to determine the appropriate test. CarePod users can get their blood drawn, throat swabbed, and blood pressure read — most of the frontline clinical work performed in primary care offices, all without a doctor or nurse. Custom AI powers the diagnosis, and behind the scenes, doctors write the appropriate prescription, which is available nearly immediately.
The cost? It’s $99 a month, which gives users access to all of the CarePods tests and features. As Aoun told me, this solution enables healthcare to scale like never before.
Norway’s Privacy Battle With Meta Is Just Getting Started
Norway is doubling down in its long-running fight against Meta over users’ data. The country’s privacy watchdog, Datatilsynet, says it is already investigating the company’s new ad-free subscription model, less than a week after the service was launched across Europe.
Meta started rolling out its new model last week, giving Facebook and Instagram users who live in the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland the option to opt out of seeing ads in exchange for €9.99 ($10.50) a month.
Meta has said that subscribers’ personal information will not be used for ads on Facebook and Instagram. But Line Coll, director of Norway’s data protection regulator, argues the new model is not a win for privacy. Subscribers might not see ads anymore, she adds. “But Meta will still track you, they will still collect the data. From a data protection perspective, that blows my mind.”
