Hackers have stolen the entire client database of facial recognition company Clearview AI. Clearview AI scraped over three million images from the internet to build its facial recognition database. The company sells facial recognition services to law enforcement agencies.
This week Facebook agreed to pay $550 million to settle a lawsuit about the use of facial recognition technology. The New York Times called the settlement “A Big Victory for Privacy Groups.”
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that Facebook users whose privacy was violated by Facebook’s tracking of web browsing can bring suit against the social media platform. The court held that consumers had the legal right, or “standing,” to sue Facebook and that most legal claims could go forward.
About half (52%) of U.S. adults said they decided recently not to use a product or service because they were worried about how much personal information would be collected about them.
Despite the exceptional privacy risks of biometric data collection and opaque, unproven algorithms, Amazon last week unveiled Halo, a wearable device that purports to measure “tone” and “emotional well-being” based on a user’s voice. According to Amazon, the device “uses machine learning to analyze energy and positivity in a customer’s voice so they can better understand how they may sound to others[.]” The device also monitors physical activity, assigns a sleep score, and can scan a user’s body to estimate body fat percentage and weight. In recent years, Amazon has come under fire for its development of biased and inaccurate facial surveillance tools, its marketing of home surveillance camera Ring, and its controversial partnerships with law enforcement agencies. Last year, EPIC filed a Federal Trade Commission complaint against Hirevue, an AI hiring tool that claims to evaluate “cognitive ability,” “psychological traits,” and “emotional intelligence” based on videos of job candidates. EPIC has long advocated for algorithmic transparency and the adoption of the Universal Guidelines for AI.
Like most internet of broken things products, we’ve noted how “smart” devices quite often aren’t all that smart. More than a few times we’ve written about smart lock consumers getting locked out of their own homes without much recourse. Other times we’ve noted how the devices simply aren’t that secure, with one study finding that 12 of 16 smart locks they tested could be relatively easily hacked thanks to flimsy security standards, something that’s the primary feature of many internet of broken things devices.
“Smart” doorbells aren’t much better. A new study by Consumer Reports studied 24 different popular smart doorbell brands, and found substantial security problems with at least five of the models. Many of these flaws exposed user account information, WiFi network information, or, even in some cases, user passwords. Consumer Reports avoids getting too specific as to avoid advertising the flaws while vendors try to fix them:
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Proskauer New Media and Technology Blog Jeffrey Neuburger August 31, 2020
Last week, a putative privacy-related class action was filed in California district court against financial analytics firm Envestnet, Inc. (“Envestnet”), which operates Yodlee, Inc. (“Yodlee”). (Wesch v. Yodlee Inc., No. 20-05991 (N.D. Cal. filed Aug. 25, 2020)). According to the complaint, Yodlee is one of the largest financial data aggregators in the world and through its software platforms, which are built into various fintech products offered by financial institutions, it aggregates financial data such as bank balances and credit card transaction histories from individuals in the United States. The crux of the suit is that Yodlee collects and then sells access to such anonymized financial data without meaningful notice to consumers, and stores or transmits such data without adequate security, all in violation of California and federal privacy laws.
Washington Post Geoffrey A. Fowler August 27, 2020
I couldn’t pick just one crazy thing to say about the Halo, Amazon’s new wearable health gadget. So here are three:
Mirror, mirror on the wall, Amazon thinks you’re fat.
The artificial intelligence would like you to stop sounding overwhelmed now.
That nagging voice inside your head is now on your wrist.
The Halo is a $100 wrist-worn device that, among other functions, listens to your conversations so you can understand how you sound to others. And it comes with a companion app that scans your body three-dimensionally to track your progress gaining your “quarantine 15.”
Amazon is upfront about these invasive functions, which users of the Halo have to opt into using. What’s revealing is that one of tech’s biggest companies thinks consumers in 2020 might want them.
Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the world’s largest billboard companies, will in coming days roll out technology across Europe capable of letting advertisers know where people go and what they do after seeing a particular billboard.
Sounds creepy, no?
Well, brace yourself. Clear Channel has been quietly using this technology in the United States for the last four years, including in Los Angeles.
“They’re spying on you in your own neighborhood,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.
“You don’t know it’s happening,” he told me. “You don’t know who they’re sharing the information with.”
Brooke Auxier Pew Research Center January 27, 2020
Americans prefer to keep certain information about themselves outside the purview of online searches, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2019. Given the option, 74% of U.S. adults say it is more important to be able to “keep things about themselves from being searchable online,” while 23% say it is more important to be able to “discover potentially useful information about others.”
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