Login
There’s No ‘Reset Password’ for Your DNA
The battle over reproductive rights thrust the importance of our fundamental right to privacy back into the center of everyday life. From menstrual cycle tracking apps to Google searches for abortion services, our relationship with the privacy of our personal information shifted underneath our feet. That’s why our fight for genetic privacy is so vital.
Think about it. When a consumer signs up to do a genetic test, she may do so to discover her ethnic heritage, find a distant family member, or learn the chances she may one day be at risk for a hereditary disease.
What she likely does not expect is that data may be accessible by some of the world’s most repressive regimes, used in warrantless law enforcement searches, or commercialized by pharmaceutical companies. Unfortunately, that is exactly what can happen to consumers’ genetic data today.
Unlike other unique identifiers, such as a Social Security number or login credentials, our genome cannot be changed — even if it’s compromised. The consequences of this information landing in the wrong hands are profound, from employment and insurance discrimination to social surveillance and political targeting.
Musk Sells $6.9 Billion in Tesla Shares Ahead of Twitter Trial
Elon Musk has sold millions of Tesla shares in recent days, raising nearly $7 billion, to prepare for the possibility he might be forced to buy a company he no longer wants.
A count of Securities and Exchange Commission filings shows Musk sold 7,924,107 shares of his electric vehicle company Friday through Tuesday for $6.9 billion.
The sales come as Musk is preparing for a contentious court battle with Twitter, which is suing the world’s richest man to prevent him from backing out of the $44 billion acquisition announced in April. Much of Musk’s wealth is tied up in his companies and other investments, and he has been using his Tesla shares toward some of the purchase costs.
Dozens of Whole Foods Stores Will Soon Let You Pay With Just a Scan of Your Palm
Amazon’s palm-scanning technology is expanding to 65 Whole Foods locations across California. The checkout devices were introduced in 2020 as part of the Amazon One payment service, allowing customers to pay with a scan of their palm. This is the biggest rollout by the company yet, with the first new Whole Foods locations adding support today in Malibu, Montana Avenue and Santa Monica.
Customers can set up Amazon One by registering their palm print using a kiosk or at a point-of-sale station at participating stores. To register, you need to provide a payment card and phone number, agree to Amazon’s terms of service, and share an image of your palms. Once completed, you can take items to checkout and not have to take out your wallet — or even your phone. A hover of your hand over the device is all that’s needed to pay and leave.
Several Whole Foods locations have already been testing the palm-scanning tech in the LA area as well in Austin, Seattle and New York. It’s also been available at the company’s Amazon Style store in Glendale and at select Amazon Go and Fresh stores.
DOJ Is Preparing to Sue Google Over Ad Market as Soon as September
The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to sue Google as soon as next month, according to people familiar with the matter, capping years of work to build a case that the Alphabet Inc. unit illegally dominates the digital advertising market.
An ad tech complaint, which Bloomberg had reported was in the works last year, would mark the DOJ’s second case against Google following the government’s 2020 lawsuit alleging the tech titan dominates the online search market in violation of antitrust laws.
The DOJ’s ad tech probe is an example of the federal government’s push to rein in the largest U.S. technology platforms after nearly a decade during which regulators took little to no action.
The Federal Trade Commission has sued Meta Platforms Inc. seeking to force it to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp and is investigating Amazon.com Inc. over its control of online retail.
Anti-Big Bang Theory Scientists Face Censorship by International Journals
The New Indian Express reported:
Scientists from across the globe, including India, who are refuting the Big Bang theory on cosmology are facing resistance and censorship from journals and archives of international repute where they get their research papers published for peer review.
Twenty-four astronomers and physicists from 10 countries including reputed astrophysicist Jayant V Narlikar of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics ®, Prof Sisir Roy of National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) and Prof Amitabha Ghosh of Indian National Science Academy (INSA) ® from India are among the scientists protesting the censorship of papers that are critical of the Big Bang hypothesis by the open pre-print website arXiv.
“As scientists engaged in the study of the cosmos and the relation of phenomena in space to those here on Earth, we strongly protest arXiv’s censorship of controversial papers on cosmology and specifically on the Big Bang hypothesis.
“Run by Cornell University, arXiv is supposed to provide an open public forum for researchers to exchange pre-publication papers, without undertaking to peer-review them. But in June 2022, arXiv was rejected for publication in three papers that are critical of the validity of the Big Bang Hypothesis. No specific reason was given for these rejections,” the scientists wrote.
HIPAA Faces Test in New Abortion Reality
Doctors are weighing the legal risks of turning over ultrasounds and other personal health records if prosecutors or law enforcement demand the information to enforce state abortion bans.
The new post-Roe landscape is testing the suitability of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. The landmark federal privacy law restricts how health providers share medical information, but it doesn’t prevent them from sharing it with law enforcement.
In Texas, anti-abortion lawyers have started filing pre-lawsuit petitions to depose abortion providers in order to gain information about abortions, the Texas Tribune reported.
President Biden recently directed the Department of Health and Human Services to consider actions “to strengthen the protection of sensitive information related to reproductive healthcare services and bolster patient-provider confidentiality.”
COVID Vaccine Mandate for Canadian Military Will Be ‘Tweaked,’ Says Defense Chief
Canada’s top military commander said he will “tweak” the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the Armed Forces in the next few weeks but defended vaccine requirements as necessary to keep the military ready to respond to any emergency.
The public service vaccine mandate was suspended in June but the military one persists, a fact that has heightened criticism of the military’s policy.
Chief of the defense staff Gen. Wayne Eyre’s comments appear to contradict a draft copy of a revised vaccine policy obtained by the Ottawa Citizen last month, which suggested vaccine requirements for military personnel would be lifted.
The draft document, which officials say has not been approved by Eyre, said military personnel, as well as new recruits, would no longer have to attest to their vaccination status.
One of 5G’s Biggest Features Is a Security Minefield
True 5G Wireless data, with its ultrafast speeds and enhanced security protections, has been slow to roll out around the world. As the mobile technology proliferates — combining expanded speed and bandwidth with low-latency connections — one of its most touted features is starting to come into focus. But the upgrade comes with its own raft of potential security exposures.
A massive new population of 5G-capable devices, from smart-city sensors to agriculture robots and beyond, are gaining the ability to connect to the internet in places where Wi-Fi isn’t practical or available. Individuals may even elect to trade their fiber-optic internet connection for a home 5G receiver.
But the interfaces that carriers have set up to manage internet-of-things data are riddled with security vulnerabilities, according to research that will be presented on Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. And those vulnerabilities could dog the industry long-term.
There Are Two Factions Working to Prevent AI Dangers. Here’s Why They’re Deeply Divided.
There are teams of researchers in academia and at major AI labs these days working on the problem of artificial intelligence (AI) ethics, or the moral concerns raised by AI systems.
These efforts tend to be especially focused on data privacy concerns and on what is known as AI bias — AI systems that, using training data with bias often built in, produce racist or sexist results, such as refusing women credit card limits they’d grant a man with identical qualifications.
Today, that often means that AI ethicists and those in AI alignment are working on similar problems. Improving the understanding of the internal workings of today’s AI systems is one approach to solving AI alignment, and is crucial for understanding when and where models are being misleading or discriminatory.
Australia’s Central Bank Working With BIS to Launch Digital Currency System
Australia’s Reserve Bank is launching a pilot program over the course of the next year in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank of central banks) to test the “benefits” of a blockchain ledger-based digital currency system. The central bank is added to a long list of participants in BIS efforts to introduce CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) with the target goal of launching them globally by 2025-2030.
It’s important to note that substantial economic changes would have to occur within the next few years in order to make CBDC a viable option for the general public. Though many people use electronic transactions as a matter of convenience, a large portion of the population still prefers cash.
In the U.S., surveys within the last few years show that at least 37% of Americans still choose cash over other methods of payment like credit and debit cards. In Australia, the number stands at around 32%.
CBDCs, much like all blockchain-based currency mechanisms, are inherently devoid of privacy. By its very design, blockchain tech requires a ledger of transactions than can be tracked by governments if they so choose. Physical cash, though fiat in nature, is at least anonymous.
Europe Staves off Facebook Blackout — for Now
Europeans have been saved from a summer shutdown of social media sites Facebook and Instagram by … European Union bureaucracy. An Irish draft decision to block the social media sites’ parent company Meta’s data transfers from Europe to the U.S. is stuck in the process, as regulators from across the EU butt heads over the details.
In July, POLITICO reported that Ireland’s privacy regulator had decided to block Facebook’s owner Meta from using a last legal mechanism called standard contractual clauses (SCCs) to transfer large chunks of data like family pictures and direct messages across the Atlantic.
The Irish decision followed a 2020 European Court of Justice ruling that deemed major flows of data between Europe and the U.S. illegal because they expose Europeans to U.S. government surveillance risks.
Meta has repeatedly said that a decision blocking its transfers would force it to shutter its Facebook and Instagram offerings in Europe.
