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Private Health Data Still Being Exposed to Big Tech, Report Says
Despite recent efforts to address the issue, medical-related websites continue to be mined for data including personal medical information, in an apparent violation of patients’ privacy rights, according to a new study.
Some of the most common tracking pixels were from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, according to a report by the cybersecurity company Feroot Security.
Feroot analyzed hundreds of healthcare and telehealth websites and found that more than 86% are collecting and transferring data without obtaining consent from the user. More than 73% of login and registration pages have trackers, exposing personal health information.
About 15% of the tracking pixels identified by Feroot read and collect a user’s keystrokes, meaning they could identify Social Security numbers, names, email addresses, appointment dates, IP addresses, billing information and even a medical diagnosis and treatment, according to the report.
If personal health information is collected through a tracker or third party without a user’s consent, it would represent a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, according to Feroot Chief Executive Officer Ivan Tsarynny. Personal health information can include everything from current mental or physical health conditions to billing information.
The Biden Administration Is Waging War on the First Amendment
This past Independence Day, a U.S. federal judge in Missouri v. Biden found that the Biden Administration violated Americans’ First Amendment rights in urging social media companies to censor opinions. It also found that the Administration had funded universities and non-governmental organizations to create a veritable hit list of censorship, which it used to tell social media companies which people and ideas to deboost and censor.
Citing the need to censor speech as the only way to protect the American public, the Biden Administration told the court that it is too dangerous to apply the First Amendment to social media posts, given the depredations of sorting through misinformation from foreign states, political actors, or cranks.
The court was not impressed and issued a preliminary injunction telling the Biden Administration it could no longer coerce Facebook, Twitter/X, and the like to censor users, because doing so violated the First Amendment. Under the order, the Administration also could not engage third parties to craft its censorship agenda. The court excoriated the Biden Administration for establishing an “Orwellian Ministry of Truth” in its zeal for censorship.
On appeal, a district court reinforced the first part of the injunction against the Administration — that it cannot coerce social media censorship — but failed to prohibit the second. As things stand, the Administration can still engage non-governmental actors to target people and ideas for censorship in the name of identifying “misinformation” online. The case currently sits at the Supreme Court, but more important than any judicial orders and opinions is the information unearthed during discovery.
ECB Starts Preparation for Digital Euro in Multi-Year Project
The European Central Bank took a further step on Wednesday towards launching a digital version of the euro that would let people in the 20 countries that share the single currency make electronic payments securely and free of charge.
The ECB said it would start a two-year “preparation phase” for the digital euro on November 1, in which it would finalize rules, choose its private-sector partners and do some “testing and experimentation.”
While Wednesday’s decision is a small step in a multi-year project, it sets the ECB ahead of the other central banks of the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations and it may constitute a blueprint for others to follow.
“So far, the ECB has not been able to clearly communicate the added value of the digital euro,” said Markus Ferber, a German member of the European Parliament for the conservative European People’s Party. One of the key complaints is that a digital currency may facilitate a run on commercial banks at times of crisis while providing little improvement compared to existing accounts.
Depression Among Tween Girls Deepens as Social Media Use Spikes: Survey
Preteen girls’ rates of depression are skyrocketing as social media use spikes among the younger generation, according to the most in-depth U.S. survey intended to examine the challenges facing girls in grades five through 12.
Girls as young as 10 are experiencing significant declines in self-confidence as they consume social media at unprecedented rates, according to The Girls’ Index 2023 report, conducted by the nonprofit Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX) and based on survey results from more than 17,000 girls.
While only 5% of fifth- and sixth-grade girls reported feeling sad or depressed every day in 2017, which was the first year of the survey, that number tripled to 15% in 2023. This decline in happiness occurs as fewer preteen girls describe themselves as confident, dipping from 86% to 68% during the same six-year span.
All of the mental health concerns pointed out in the survey come alongside a significant uptick in social media use by the generation. A whopping 95% of fifth-grade girls reported using social media this year, and 46% spend six or more hours per day.
‘We Are Being Lied to’: Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto Warns Civilization Depends on More AI, Not Less
Amidst the deafening anti-technology rhetoric, Marc Andreessen emerges as a champion for the power and potential of tech with his latest essay: ‘The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,’ which builds on claims Andreessen made in a June essay titled “Why AI Will Save the World.”
“We are being lied to,” Andreessen begins … “We are told that technology takes our jobs, reduces our wages, increases inequality, threatens our health, ruins the environment, degrades our society, corrupts our children, impairs our humanity, threatens our future, and is ever on the verge of ruining everything. We are told to be angry, bitter, and resentful about technology.”
Instead, with technology as humanity’s spearhead, the Silicon Valley legend foresees a future driven by growth, invention, and unstoppable progress. ” … we have the tools, systems, and ideas to advance to a far superior way of living and being.” And he calls on people to embrace technology and work together to create a better world.
In conclusion, Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto is a call to action for all those who believe in the power of technology’s ability to change the world for the better, and fight the techno-pessimist “enemies.”
One thing to bear in mind amid all this ‘almost utopia’ evocation, Andreessen and his partners stand to make cajillions more dollars from any continued growth in AI given their early investments in companies innovating in that area. Talking his book? Of course. But, unarguably, there are some good points.
Selfie-Scraper, Clearview AI, Wins Appeal Against U.K. Privacy Sanction
Controversial U.S. facial recognition company, Clearview AI, has won an appeal against a privacy sanction issued by the U.K. last year.
In May 2022, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a formal enforcement notice on Clearview — which included a fine of around £7.5 million (~$10M) — after concluding the self-scraping AI firm had committed a string of breaches of local privacy laws. It also ordered the company, which uses the scraped personal data to sell an identity-matching service to law enforcement and national security bodies, to delete information it held on U.K. citizens.
Clearview filed an appeal against the decision. And in a ruling issued yesterday its legal challenge to the ICO prevailed on jurisdiction grounds after the tribunal ruled the company’s activities fall outside the jurisdiction of U.K. data protection law owing to an exemption related to foreign law enforcement.
Republicans Want Schools to Block Social Media or Lose Internet Funds
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday are proposing legislation to block children from using social media in school, preventing access to the platforms on poorer schools’ networks that receive federal broadband subsidies, the latest in a growing crop of bills to bar younger users from sites such as TikTok and Instagram.|
The measure illustrates how policymakers are turning to a broadening and increasingly aggressive arsenal of tools to try to restrict children’s online activity amid concerns about their safety.
Led by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the bill would require that schools prohibit youths from using social media on their networks to be eligible for the E-Rate program, which provides lower prices for internet access.
U.S. House Committee Investigating University of Maryland COVID Policy
A U.S. House committee is now investigating a COVID-19 policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Starting in September, if a student tests positive, they have to quarantine off campus. For students who live on campus, this means having to either go back to their family’s home or book lodging off campus like a hotel. Its cost falls squarely on the student’s shoulders.
Even though it’s been a little more than a month since its implementation, some UMD students still aren’t aware of the policy. WJZ explained the policy to several students on campus Monday, and every single one we spoke to expressed concern over the cost.
The concern about this policy is now going off campus. The U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is investigating the policy. In a letter sent to UMD President Darryll Pines Friday, the committee questions how UMD’s $115 million in CARES Act funding has been spent. The committee also questioned how quarantining students are supported.
