West Virginia House Health Committee Removes Religious, Philosophical Exemptions From Vaccine Bill
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel reported:
After weeks since its first hearing in the House Health and Human Services Committee, lawmakers removed a proposed religious and philosophical exemption from a bill dealing with West Virginia’s school-age immunization requirements.
The House Health Committee recommended an amended strike-and-insert amendment to Senate Bill 460, relating to vaccine requirements, to the full House Tuesday evening in a 18-7 vote.
SB 460, as it came over from the state Senate on Feb. 21, would have allowed parents and guardians to object to the requirements of the state’s program for compulsory immunization of public and private school children by citing a religious or philosophical belief. The bill passed the Senate in a 20-12 vote with two senators absent.
100 to 1 in Opposition to Illinois Homeschool Act Ahead of Hearing
Nearly 4,000 opposition slips have been filed against a measure in Illinois to regulate homeschooling. That’s 100 times more than the nearly 40 who have filed in support.
House Bill 2827 would create the Homeschool Act and require parents to inform their local school district if they decide to homeschool their children. If not, the children could be labeled truant.
Proponents argue the bill would ensure children are protected from potential harm, including making sure that they are receiving adequate schooling.
“Every child has the right to be safe, to learn, and to access resources. HB 2827 would protect those rights for children who are homeschooled in Illinois,” said Coalition for Responsible Home Education Executive Director Angela Grimberg. The coalition said the measure ensures every school-age child in Illinois is accounted for, has a record of their academic progress, learns from educated instructions and is protected from convicted sex offenders.
They also say the measure streamlines the process for homeschooled children to take part in public school activities. State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, said he has had many constituents say they don’t like the bill because it takes away parents’ autonomy over their children.
Facial Recognition Company Clearview Attempted to Buy Social Security Numbers and Mugshots for Its Database
Controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI attempted to purchase hundreds of millions of arrest records including social security numbers, mugshots, and even email addresses to incorporate into its product, 404 Media has learned.
For years, Clearview AI has collected billions of photos from social media websites including Facebook, LinkedIn and others and sold access to its facial recognition tool to law enforcement. The collection and sale of user-generated photos by a private surveillance company to police without that person’s knowledge or consent sparked international outcry when it was first revealed by the New York Times in 2020.
New documents obtained by 404 Media reveal that Clearview AI spent nearly a million dollars in a bid to purchase “690 million arrest records and 390 million arrest photos” from all 50 states from an intelligence firm. The contract further describes the records as including current and former home addresses, dates of birth, arrest photos, social security and cell phone numbers, and email addresses.
Clearview attempted to purchase this data from Investigative Consultant, Inc. which billed itself as an intelligence company with access to tens of thousands of databases and the ability to create unique data streams for its clients. The contract was signed in mid-2019, at a time when Clearview AI was quietly collecting billions of photos off the internet and was relatively unknown at the time.
Amazon Will Listen to All Your Voice Recordings if You Use Alexa+
Amazon’s AI-enhanced Alexa assistant is going to need all your voice recordings, and there’s nothing you can do about it. An email sent to Alexa users notes the online retail giant is ending one of its few privacy provisions about recorded voice data in the lead up to Alexa+. The only way to make sure Amazon doesn’t get ahold of any of your vocals may be to quit using Alexa entirely.
You can find the full email on Reddit (as first reported by Ars Technica), which plainly states the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” setting on Alexa is being discontinued on March 28. Anybody who has the setting enabled will have it automatically revoked, and Amazon will then be able to process your voice recordings. Amazon claims it will delete the recordings once it’s done processing your request.
“As we continue to expand Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to no longer support this feature,” the email reads. “If you do not take action, your Alexa Settings will automatically be updated to ‘Don’t save recordings.’ This means that, starting on March 28, your voice recording will be sent to and processed in the cloud, and they will be deleted after Alexa processes your requests. any previously saved voice recordings will also be deleted.”
New York Times Pressured Scientists to Lie About Masks
The science is clear: masks don’t work. It was clear five years ago, when the collective hive mind of experts, media and politicians told the public that masks don’t work. Or in Anthony Fauci’s case, that masks could make things worse by providing a false sense of security and protection.
By now, we know what changed their minds in early-2020; not new scientific evidence, data, or research. It was a column from Zeynep Tufecki at The New York Times.
Tufecki, who is a sociologist, somehow avoided the extreme credentialism that was to become a consistent feature of COVID-19 discourse throughout the pandemic. Tufecki, who has little record of academic publishing in her own field, and only one misinformation-riddled paper on masks co-authored by a software engineer, had outsized influence on science. Because the Times remains highly influential in left-wing political circles. The same circles frequented by employees at the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other influential public health institutions.
But in 2023, the Cochrane Library published an updated review of the evidence on masks and found, just as they always have, that there’s no scientific evidence demonstrating that masks are effective at preventing the transmission of respiratory viruses, including COVID-19.
Facial Recognition Set to Replace Passports for Britons Travelling From France
Plans to expand facial recognition technology at U.K. border entry points should allow Britons returning home to avoid passport queues and greatly reduce the time spent traversing the U.K. border.
The technology is currently on trial at four British ports and is later set to expand to the Eurostar and eventually to U.K. airports. It sees high-powered cameras take a photo of a traveller’s face and match it to their passport — and when driving through a border point at a port, their vehicle’s number plate. Under the current trial, this allows vehicles to remain in ‘contactless corridors’ where they do not need to exit their vehicle.
Biometric information of U.K. and Irish passports are stored on a U.K. government database the cameras are linked to. This information is handed over during a passport application, meaning the government already has this data.
