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Meta’s VR Headset Harvests Personal Data Right off Your Face
In November 2021, Facebook announced it would delete face recognition data extracted from images of more than 1 billion people and stop offering to automatically tag people in photos and videos.
Luke Stark, an assistant professor at Western University, in Canada, told WIRED at the time that he considered the policy change a PR tactic because the company’s VR push would likely lead to the expanded collection of physiological data and raise new privacy concerns.
This week, Stark’s prediction proved right. Meta, as the company that built Facebook is now called, introduced its latest VR headset, the Quest Pro. The new model adds a set of five inward-facing cameras that watch a person’s face to track eye movements and facial expressions, allowing an avatar to reflect their expressions, smiling, winking or raising an eyebrow in real-time. The headset also has five exterior cameras that will in the future help give avatars legs that copy a person’s movements in the real world.
After Meta’s presentation, Stark said the outcome was predictable. And he suspects that the default “off” setting for face tracking won’t last long. “It’s been clear for some years that animated avatars are acting as privacy loss leaders,” he said. “This data is far more granular and far more personal than an image of a face in the photograph.”
Federal Appeals Court Pauses Texas Social Media Law’s Enforcement Amid Looming Supreme Court Petition
A federal appeals court has agreed to suspend enforcement of Texas’ social media law restricting content moderation, in the face of a looming request by tech industry groups for the Supreme Court to review the case. In an order on Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of its earlier mandate that had paved the way for the Texas law, known as HB 20, to take effect.
HB 20 aims to expose social media platforms including Meta, YouTube and Twitter to new private lawsuits, as well as suits by the state’s attorney general, over the companies’ decisions to remove or reduce the visibility of user content they deem objectionable. The law is viewed as a challenge to decades of First Amendment precedent, which holds the government may not compel private entities to host speech.
In a filing leading up to Wednesday’s order, the technology groups challenging the Texas law said they planned to ask for the Supreme Court to rule on HB 20 and that Texas did not oppose the motion for a stay.
The Supreme Court has already indicated it is open to regulating social media platforms, agreeing this month to hear two cases that could indirectly narrow the scope of the tech industry’s all-important liability shield, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
King County Judge Rejects Injunction for Seattle Firefighters Terminated Over Vaccine Mandate
A King County judge rejected an injunction filed by Seattle firefighters terminated for not getting the COVID vaccine.
Judge Matthew Williams denied a motion for an injunction, which would have protected the firefighters from being fired for refusing to get vaccinated. According to the judge, the firefighters failed to prove irreparable injury from their termination and argued that “public interest” is greater than their desire for injunctive relief.
Seattle‘s COVID-19 Civil Emergency Proclamation ends Oct. 31, with several pandemic safety policies rolling back at the start of November. However, the city’s vaccine mandate remains in effect until further notice.
Sen. Lankford Calls for End to Vaccine Mandates for Federal Employees, Military
Oklahoma Senator James Lankford has introduced a resolution in the Senate to end federal vaccine mandates. The resolution is in response to a statement from President Biden on Sept. 18 in which he said the pandemic is over.
“Biden has declared that the pandemic is over — so his overreaching vaccine mandate on federal workers, service members and government contractors should be over as well,” said Lankford. “Each individual American should be able to make their own health decisions and not fear they will lose their job if they do not agree with the President’s vaccine mandate.”
In the resolution, Lankford called for all “vaccine, testing, masking and social distancing requirements to be removed” for federal employees, contractors and service members.
It also calls for all members of the Armed Forces who chose not to receive the COVID vaccine and were discharged or relieved to be reinstated and allowed back to their previous duties.
Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to NYC’s Vaccine Mandate for City Workers … Again
The U.S. Supreme Court decided on Tuesday to deny an emergency challenge to New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees.
The case centers around NYPD Detective Anthony Marciano, whose legal team requested in late August that the nation’s highest court intervene on his behalf and that of any other city employee who has refused the requirement. This mandate is nearly a year old and was issued during the final months of the de Blasio administration.
Marciano’s initial petition to the Supreme Court stated he would be put on paid leave by Sept. 7 and potentially terminated without the emergency injunction. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Bronx native, individually denied the application, meaning the case wouldn’t be considered by the court. But less than a month later, Marciano’s lawyer refiled with Justice Clarence Thomas, who opted to move the request before the full court. That hearing happened last Friday.
Attorney Patricia Finn, who is representing Marciano in the case, said via email on Tuesday that she assumed the Supreme Court denied the injunction due to a similar lawsuit that is now moving through New York courts.
The Police Benevolent Association, a union representing rank-and-file officers, won a temporary motion two weeks ago from a state Supreme Court that reinstated members who had been fired or put on leave for refusing the vaccine mandate. A full decision on that case is still pending.
Babies Born During the Pandemic May Have Delayed Communication Skills
Babies born into COVID-related lockdowns have taken longer to reach certain developmental milestones than babies born pre-pandemic, a study found. Before COVID hit, parents commonly observed infants pointing at objects by 9 months old. By 1 year, many babies were saying their first words.
But the new study, published Tuesday by researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, found that Irish infants born from March to May 2020 had a harder time communicating at one year of age than those born between 2008 and 2011.
For most of the time between March 2020 and April 2021, Ireland had a strict lockdown that required people to stay home except for essential activities. Residents weren’t allowed to dine inside restaurants, and people who could work at home were told to do so. Those who did not follow the rules could be fined.
Dr. Susan Byrne, the study’s author, and a pediatric neurologist at the Royal College of Surgeons said one-quarter of the babies in her study had never met another child their own age by their first birthday. When the babies were 6 months old, their families were only seeing four other people outside the home, on average, and each infant had only been kissed by three adults, including their parents.
ACT College Admission Test Scores Drop to 30-Year Low as Effects of COVID-Era Online Learning Play out
High school students’ ACT college admission test scores fell to a three-decade low in 2022, according to a new report released Wednesday, falling for the fifth straight year as educators grapple with ongoing learning loss made worse by remote classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students in the graduating high school class of 2022 averaged a score of 19.8 out of 36, the lowest score since 1991 on the admissions test, which colleges use to gauge students’ English, reading, math and science skills.
ACT CEO Janet Godwin said the decline can’t be blamed exclusively on learning disruptions from online learning and missed classes when schools were shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic but by “longtime systemic failures” that were “exacerbated by the pandemic.”
Boris Johnson’s COVID Laws Took Away Our Rights With Flick of a Pen. Don’t Let That Happen Again
It is almost three years since the first case of a novel coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, China. It’s just over two and a half years since Boris Johnson gave us a “very simple instruction,” that we “must stay at home,” followed — three days later — by a law that for the first time in our history would impose a 24-hour curfew on almost the entire population.
The years, months, weeks and days since have been so relentless — and at times almost beyond belief — that it is difficult to begin to process them. Many of us have experienced personal bereavement, and everyone has been touched in some way. But as tempting as it is to move on, to focus on other important issues vexing our society, there are some aspects of the past three years we must face up to.
There are a hundred lenses through which to view this important period in modern history, but as a barrister, I have looked at the more than 100 laws that placed England in lockdown, imposed hotel quarantine, international travel restrictions, self-isolation, face coverings and business closures.
These were probably the strangest and most extraordinary laws in England’s history, imposing previously unimaginable restrictions on our social lives, bringing into the realm of the criminal law areas of life — where we could worship, when we could leave home, even who we could hug — that had previously been purely a matter of personal choice.
‘Make DMs Safe’ Campaign Pressing Tech Giants on Encryption Grows Post-Roe
Over 50 abortion rights and privacy groups are upping the pressure on tech companies to make their messaging services more secure, citing growing concern that users’ private communications could be used to prosecute abortions post-Roe v. Wade.
The “Make DMs Safe” campaign calls on Facebook, Twitter, Google and other companies that control popular messaging apps to offer full encryption automatically to consumers, among other protections.
Activist group Fight for the Future first launched the push in September but unveiled dozens of new backers Thursday. Much of the coalition has long urged Silicon Valley giants to boost privacy protections for consumers, but they say the Supreme Court decision revoking the federal right to abortion has raised the stakes for millions, particularly when it comes to safeguarding private and direct messages, or DMs.
In an open letter and online petition, the groups call out a slew of major tech companies for declining to partially or fully offer encryption by default and demand they do so by the end of the year.
Incognito Mode’s Name Is Wrong, and Even Google Employees Know It
Even Google employees know that Chrome’s Incognito Mode isn’t as private as the name implies. The Google Chrome feature allows users to hide their browsing history from other people using the same device, however, it doesn’t hide their data from the websites they visit or Google itself.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Incognito Mode is more private than it really is though; the company is facing a $5 billion lawsuit over the confusion, and even its own Marketing Chief knew the flaws of the name it has been revealed.
Other documents that have been revealed as part of the court filings show Google employees criticizing the name back in 2018 as well as the use of the “Spy Guy” icon. The same employee linked to a study that showed 56.3% of 460 participants believed that their information was being kept private if they were using Incognito Mode.
If you’re looking for something that will do what many people think Incognito Mode can, you need to use one of the best VPN services out there.
JBS, Tyson Foods Invest in Smartwatch App That Monitors Workers
Two of America’s largest meat companies — JBS and Tyson Foods — have invested in a smartwatch application that allows managers to monitor workers’ movements.
The startup behind the application, Mentore, claims to improve worker productivity while reducing injuries. The repetitive, fast and taxing work of cutting and packing protein makes meat processing plants some of the most dangerous workplaces in the country. Despite workers’ pleas, meat companies have fought to increase the pace of work.
The investments signal that the big meat companies could follow in the footsteps of other industries that have increased surveillance in an attempt to improve worker productivity. Amazon, in particular, has come under fire for using tracking technology to speed production so much so that, in at least some cases, its delivery drivers have not had time for bathroom breaks.
Experts said the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence to manage workers can have negative effects, such as increased stress and injuries, particularly when companies use the technology to make disciplinary decisions.
