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6.9 Million Users of 23andMe Had Personal Information Stolen by Hackers
An estimated 6.9 million users of the genetic testing company 23andMe had their personal information stolen by hackers in a recent data breach, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Hill on Monday.
A spokesperson for 23andMe told The Hill an estimated 5.5 million users had their data accessed from the company’s DNA Relatives feature, which helps users find and connect with family relatives who also have the feature enabled.
Hackers also breached the data of an additional 1.4 million people’s family tree profiles, which includes a variety of identifying information about the user, the spokesperson said.
AI Is Driving Google’s Healthcare Business. Washington Doesn’t Know What to Do About It.
Google wants to make your cell phone a “doctor in your pocket” that relies on the company’s artificial intelligence.
But first, the tech giant will need to convince skeptical lawmakers and the Biden administration that its health AI isn’t a risk to patient privacy and safety — or a threat to its smaller competitors.
Google has assembled a potent lobbying team to influence the rules governing AI just as regulators start writing them. But members of Congress say they’re concerned that the company is using its advanced AI in healthcare before the government has had a chance to draw up guardrails. Competitors worry Google is moving to corner the market. Both fear what could happen to patient privacy given Google’s history of vacuuming personal data.
Google’s AI scours medical records, research papers, imaging, and clinical guidelines to help doctors diagnose diseases and evaluate treatment options. The tech giant’s already selling these tools to hospitals. It’s inked a deal with the Mayo Clinic, for one — and it foresees much more, including direct-to-consumer applications.
The UN Is Threatening Privacy Under Pretense of New Cybercrime Treaty
The U.S. digital rights group EFF is describing the latest UN Cybercrime Treaty draft as “a significant step backward” and a case of “perilously broadening its scope beyond the cybercrimes specifically defined in the convention, encompassing a long list of non-cybercrimes.”
This “dance” — with some reported progress, for things to then again get worse — is not exactly new in the now lengthy process of negotiating the document, amid criticism not only from observers among the involved rights non-profits but also UN member countries.
When it all started, the Treaty was presented as a “standardized” manner for the world to combat cybercrime.
What has been happening in the meanwhile, though, is a seemingly never-ending stream of additions and expansions of the document’s original powers, to the point where it has now, in the words of EFF, “morphed into an expansive surveillance treaty.”
School Districts Across the Country Are Turning to AI for Increased Safety Measures
School districts nationwide are looking for new ways to protect their staff and students. In Louisiana’s Iberville Parish, the district partnered with a software company to stop potential shootings before anyone gets hurt.
Superintendent of Iberville Parish School District Louis Voiron said the district has committed to installing ZeroEyes gun detection artificial intelligence software into the schools’ existing cameras.
Co-founder of ZeroEyes Sam Alaimo said the software, which does not store biometric data, is in more than 100 schools across 35 states.
Experts Predict Mind-Controlled Devices May Be Common by 2040s
Experts predict that by 2040, people will control smart devices with their thoughts due to advancements in ‘smart-brain’ technology. A smart brain, or Brain-Machine Interface (BMI), is a wearable or implanted device that directly links the human brain to smart devices like phones, computers, and robotic limbs.
It would allow people to navigate the internet, send texts, and adjust thermostats by merely thinking, blurring boundaries between humans and machines.
University of New South Wales (UNSW) biomedical engineering expert Mohit Shivdasani said scientists are “very close” to mind-controlled devices becoming an everyday reality rather than a science-fiction concept.
However, biomedical researcher Christina Maher likened smart brains to someone “speaking” for people, causing invasive ethical problems. “Brain data are arguably our most private data because of what can be inferred regarding our identity and mental state,” she said.
Santa Monica College Prevails Over Vaccine Mandate Lawsuit
Santa Monica Daily Press reported:
A Santa Monica College (SMC) freshman, Carter Sparks sued SMC last year claiming the school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for in-person learning infringed on his religious freedom and right to privacy. Sparks filed the lawsuit seeking court orders to declare the mandate unconstitutional and beyond the district’s powers, along with injunctive relief and compensatory damages.
The college argued that Sparks did not qualify for a religious exemption, stating that his application did not express a sincerely held religious opposition to vaccination. The college also said that being Catholic does not automatically entitle someone to a religious exemption given the church doesn’t have a prohibition on vaccination.
Sparks had submitted requests for religious and medical exemptions, citing natural immunity from a previous COVID-19 infection, but the college disputed the medical evidence presented in support of his claims.
The court rejected all of Spark’s claims saying he had not shown damages nor had he proven he was treated differently from other students on campus.
Chinese Censors Delete News Report Probing Return of COVID Tracking
Chinese censors have deleted a news report investigating claims that local governments had brought back a hated disease-tracking app that was used during the “zero-COVID” era to confine people to their homes, amid an ongoing wave of respiratory infections across the country, according to local media reports and residents.
The Dec. 1 Top News article cited social media posts across China as saying that local governments in Sichuan and Guangdong had both brought the app back online after retiring it following the lifting of three years of harsh COVID restrictions in December 2022, with users posting screenshots of their “green” health code from the app.
While the article remained visible in syndicated form on Sohu.com’s mobile website on Monday, it had disappeared from the Top News website.
The reports highlight public concerns that restrictive measures may make a comeback, as some suspect that the current pneumonia wave is being driven in the background by COVID-19, which affects people’s ability to fight off opportunistic infections like mycoplasma pneumonia, and has been associated with waves of other respiratory infections in children.
