Login
Woman Found Guilty of Fatally Infecting Neighbor With COVID-19
A 54-year-old woman in Austria was found guilty of fatally infecting her neighbor with COVID-19 nearly three years ago, according to a Sept.13 report.
On Sept. 12, a judge sentenced the woman to four months’ suspended imprisonment and fined her $886.75 for grossly negligent homicide.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that local media said the punishment was the second time the woman has received a pandemic-related conviction in a year.
Due to Austrian privacy rules, the names of the deceased and the defendant have not been released.
Citing the Austria Press Agency (APA), the AP said the victim was a cancer patient and died of pneumonia that was caused by the coronavirus.
An expert reportedly told the court that tests showed that the virus DNA matched both the victim and the 54-year-old woman.
Google Announces Beta Test for Digital IDs Based on Biometrics and US Passports
A new type of digital ID based on U.S. passports in Google Wallet has been introduced ahead of beta testing. Users scan the chip in their electronic passport, and match their selfie biometrics with a short video.
Google Wallet VP and GM Jenny Cheng calls this type of digital ID an “ID pass” in a blog post on the pending beta program.
The biometric identity verification process is complete and the digital ID ready to use a few minutes after the verification data is submitted, according to the post.
TSA checkpoints that accept digital IDs will accept Google’s ID passes. TSA has posted a handy digital ID map that shows it is now accepting digital ID at 28 airports across 21 states and Puerto Rico.
Google also plans to expand the use cases for passport-based digital IDs, like account recovery, IDV and car rentals. Google Wallet has also introduced support for public transportation and “commuter benefits” cards in the U.S. public transit tickets in Germany, and will soon add equivalents in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
A separate blog post explains Google’s position on the advantages of digital identity over physical ID documents and building an ecosystem to support them broadly.
Are New-World-Order Elites Plotting to Use AI to ‘Deprogram’ so-Called Conspiracy Theorists?
Might the New World Order use biased, pre-manipulated artificial intelligence (AI) programs to try to “deprogram” those with unpopular opinions by persuading them that their logic does not compute?
A recent study on that subject underwritten by the John Templeton Foundation might give so-called conspiracy theorists one more thing to be paranoid about, according to Popular Science.
Critics have already sounded the alarm that leftist radicals in Silicon Valley and elsewhere were manipulating the algorithms used to train AI so that it automatically defaulted to anti-conservative biases.
The next step may be programming any verboten viewpoints into the realm of “conspiracy theory,” then having powerful computers challenge human users to a battle of logic that inevitably is stacked against them with cherrypicked data.
The study, titled “Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI,” attempted to counter the common view that some people will not change their minds, even when presented with facts and evidence.
Addressing the problem of “widespread belief in unsubstantiated conspiracy theories,” researchers postulated that conspiracy theories can, contrary to the scientific narrative, be countered by way of systematic fact-checking.
Threatened US Ban Against TikTok ‘Unconstitutional’, Platform Argues
TikTok took its case against a threatened U.S. ban to a federal court on Monday where it contended that a law targeting the video platform was “unconstitutional.”
TikTok argued its case to a three-judge panel at an appeals court in Washington D.C. on Monday.
An attorney for TikTok and ByteDance, Andrew Pincus, said TikTok was entitled to a right to freedom of speech: “The speech here that is being banned, we would say, or at a minimum burned, is the speech of the US speaker,” Pincus said.
In April, Joe Biden formally introduced a law that gives TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, until Jan. 19 to sell its stake in the platform to an approved buyer, due to concerns that the app poses a national security threat.
Omnipresent AI Cameras Will Ensure Good Behavior, Says Larry Ellison
On Thursday, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison shared his vision for an AI-powered surveillance future during a company financial meeting, reports Business Insider. During an investor Q&A, Ellison described a world where artificial intelligence systems would constantly monitor citizens through an extensive network of cameras and drones, stating this would ensure both police and citizens don’t break the law.
Ellison, who briefly became the world’s second-wealthiest person last week when his net worth surpassed Jeff Bezos’ for a short time, outlined a scenario where AI models would analyze footage from security cameras, police body cams, doorbell cameras, and vehicle dash cams.
“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on,” Ellison said, describing what he sees as the benefits from automated oversight from AI and automated alerts for when crime takes place.
“We’re going to have supervision,” he continued. “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report the problem and report it to the appropriate person.”
TSA Wants to Delay Full Enforcement of REAL ID Another Two Years
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has proposed to delay full enforcement of REAL ID for Americans until 2027, but will keep the May 2025 deadline for states to be compliant.
The REAL ID Act of 2005 — just one of the many legislative responses to the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation — established minimum security standards for driver’s licenses and identification cards (DL/ID) issued by U.S. states and territories.
Security standards include incorporating anti-counterfeiting technology, preventing insider fraud, and using documentary evidence and record checks to ensure a person is who they claim to be.
The act also prohibits federal agencies from accepting certain noncompliant forms of identification for official purposes.
Currently, beginning May 7, 2025, non-REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses and state IDs will not be accepted for boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, accessing federal government facilities, or entering nuclear power plants.
Enforcement of the law had already been pushed back several times, the last time in December 2022, when the deadline was set for May 7, 2025.
Now, TSA wants to push the deadline back again, until May 7, 2027. If the new deadline goes into effect, there will be a phased enforcement of REAL ID for two years.
Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok Launch the New Thrive Mental Health Initiative, and It’s About Time
Meta, Snapchat and TikTok are finally banding together to do something about the harmful effects of some of the content hosted on their platforms — and it’s about time.
In partnership with the Mental Health Coalition, the three brands are using a program called Thrive which is designed to flag and securely share information about harmful content, targeting content around suicide and self-harm.
A Meta blog post reads: “Like many other types of potentially problematic content, suicide and self-harm content is not limited to any one platform… That’s why we’ve worked with the Mental Health Coalition to establish Thrive, the first signal-sharing program to share signals about violating suicide and self-harm content.
23andMe Settles Data Breach Lawsuit for $30 Million
23andMe will pay $30 million and provide three years of security monitoring to settle a lawsuit accusing the genetics testing company of failing to protect the privacy of 6.9 million customers whose personal information was exposed in a data breach last year.
The accord also resolves accusations that 23andMe did not tell customers with Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry that the hacker appeared to have specifically targeted them, and posted their information for sale on the dark web.
A preliminary settlement of the proposed class action was filed late Thursday night in federal court in San Francisco, and requires a judge’s approval.
It includes cash payments for customers whose data was compromised, and lets customers enroll for three years in a program known as Privacy & Medical Shield + Genetic Monitoring.
In a Friday court filing, 23andMe called the settlement fair, adequate and reasonable.
What to Know About Facial Recognition Security Cameras in Arizona Schools
As the 2023-24 school year began, several school districts across Arizona were planning to begin using artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology in their security cameras, hoping it would improve school safety.
School leaders said they planned to use the technology to alert administrators to the presence of registered sex offenders and search for footage of specific students when investigating disciplinary incidents.
Privacy and free speech advocates, however, warned of the technology’s potential chilling effect on students and false positives.
Jay Stanley, a policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, said he is skeptical of the technology’s ability to make schools safer.
Ruben Diaz, the superintendent of Baboquivari Unified, said that from what the security camera company had told him so far, he hoped to use the technology to alert administrators to irregular behavior or student crowds and to help investigate incidents more quickly by creating timelines using facial recognition.
“When there’s an altercation between students, there’s always the question of who started it,” Diaz said. He said he thinks facial recognition will allow the district to search for and watch previous incidents between students “to determine who is a perpetrator and who is a victim.”
The technology could also be used to track students, he said.
