The US Federal Trade Commission has formally levied a historic $5 billion fine against Facebook for violating a 2012 FTC order related to user privacy, concluding a lengthy investigation that began in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The FTC determined that Facebook had been misleading its users and sharing personal information with third…
“For anyone with the Yoti app, their account will serve as sufficient proof of age, confirming that they are over 18 without revealing their date of birth.” Thanks to Yoti, UK adults are now able to look at pornography anonymously. The company is teaming up with the age verification system AgeID to allow people to…
Amazon is introducing a pair of new voice commands that will make it easier to delete Alexa recordings. From now on, saying “Alexa, delete everything I said today,” will wipe everything the smart speaker picked up on the day in question. Soon, the command “Alexa, delete what I just said,” will allow users to selectively…
“We encourage you to test the system for yourself by trying to restore your account with a picture or video of your face. It will fail, and you can rest assured those pictures of you on Facebook won’t unlock your ZenGo account.” – Tal Be’ery, Co-Founder, ZenGo A new cryptocurrency wallet called ZenGo has become…
Yoti has come out in support of the Biometrics Institute’s seven ethical principles for biometrics. The recently published principles are designed to guide companies in the biometrics space to ensure that they use the technology for the public good. For its part, Yoti discussed the seven ethical principles in a blog post that outlined the…
The NEC Corporation has established a set of human rights principles to guide its business decisions when using biometrics and artificial intelligence. The newly published “NEC Group AI and Human Rights Principles” reflect a commitment to privacy at every stage of development, and are also intended to ensure compliance with international rules and regulations. With…
People are more than happy to share their personal data, just as long as they’re getting something in return. That’s the main takeaway from Experian’s Global Identity and Fraud Report, which found that growing privacy concerns have not soured people on the overall potential of the digital experience. The vast majority (90 percent) of consumers are…
The inaugural MIT AI Policy Congress recently convened in Massachusetts, bringing together leading researchers, industry insiders, and policy experts for a series of discussions about the future of artificial intelligence. Hosted by MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative (IPRI) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the conversation stressed the importance of collaboration and…
The GSMA unveiled a Digital Declaration at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, announcing that 40 CEOs have already signed the new initiative. The Declaration was designed as a set of principles to encourage ethical behavior in a rapidly shifting digital landscape. “A new form of responsible leadership is needed to successfully navigate…
Tel Aviv-based D-ID has officially launched its facial recognition-jamming technology, after showcasing it to attendees of last week’s TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2018 event. The company’s image processing technology is designed to alter images in subtle ways that will disrupt scanning attempts by facial recognition software, while ensuring the images are still recognizable to human eyes.…
A new startup is looking to blockchain and biometrics to enable decentralized app development. Called iTrue Limited, the Hong Kong-based firm is taking the Nuggets approach to user data. Like the Nuggets platform, iTrue incentivizes users to share their personal data by rewarding them for doing so with its ITU cryptocurrency tokens. But they can…
As controversy over the public use of facial recognition continues, Microsoft is following Google’s lead in laying out its approach to the ethics of the technology in a new blog post by the company’s President, Brad Smith. It’s a far less concise and straightforward accounting than the one laid out by Google CEO Sundar Prichai,…
As is its wont, Apple previewed the next version of its iOS mobile operating system during this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and while it offers a number of new features and capabilities, a few in particular reflect broader trends in the mobile industry. Enhanced Augmented Reality The most eye-catching of those is probably its refined…
“…56 percent of respondents said they use duplicate passwords for multiple accounts, and 41 percent acknowledged that they don’t take advantage of two-factor authentication for their social media accounts.” Consumers are worried about data breaches and say they would stop doing business with a company that suffered one, but they aren’t taking security measures into…
Apple has pulled 250 iOS apps from iTunes due to concerns over their collection of users’ personal data. The root of the issue lies in the SDK (software development kit) used by the app developers. Called Youmi, the SDK included code that secretly collected private information like email addresses and uploaded it external servers. It’s possible…
A sleek new smart camera for the home is hitting stores in America and the UK. Called “Welcome”, the camera is by consumer electronics company Netatmo. Welcome uses facial recognition technology to identify the individuals recorded on screen. It works in conjunction with a mobile app available for iOS 8 and Android 4.3 and up,…
Photo-sharing service Shutterfly is facing a lawsuit over privacy law violations. The lawsuit stems from the company’s use of facial recognition technology. Brian Norberg is seeking $5 million in damages on behalf of himself and any others whose facial biometric data has been captured and used by Shutterfly. His lawsuit emerged from an incident in…
Twitter could play an important role in the Internet of Things, writes Michael Wolf in an article for Forbes. Wolf believes the social media platform could offer a transformative social aspect to IoT connectivity. Wolf notes that a growing number of connected machines are already using the Twitter API to interact with users, as in…
Samsung says it’s looking into FireEye’s claims; and it’s worth noting that the Android 5.0 Lollipop OS does not features this vulnerability. Numerous Android mobile devices including Samsung’s Galaxy S5 have major security vulnerabilities allowing hackers to copy users’ fingerprints, according to security firm FireEye. As reported by Thomas Fox-Brewster in a Forbes article, FireEye…
