#CyberSecurity#DataBreach#Biometrics#FacialRecognition#DataProtection#Australia: "Police and federal agencies are responding to a massive breach of personal data linked to a facial recognition scheme that was implemented in bars and clubs across Australia. The incident highlights emerging privacy concerns as AI-powered facial recognition becomes more widely used everywhere from shopping malls to sporting events.
The affected company is Australia-based Outabox, which also has offices in the United States and the Philippines. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Outabox debuted a facial recognition kiosk that scans visitors and checks their temperature. The kiosks can also be used to identify problem gamblers who enrolled in a self-exclusion initiative. This week, a website called “Have I Been Outaboxed” emerged, claiming to be set up by former Outabox developers in the Philippines. The website asks visitors to enter their name to check whether their information had been included in a database of Outabox data, which the site alleges had lax internal controls and was shared in an unsecured spreadsheet. It claims to have more than 1 million records.
The incident has rankled privacy experts who have long set off alarm bells over the creep of facial recognition systems in public spaces such as clubs and casinos."
If Congress is going to give the FAA $105 billion, they need to bake in a ban on dangerous and discriminatory #FacialRecognition tech that the TSA is saying they're bringing to 400+ airports nationwide.
Our survey of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers with Positive Action in Housing found that most people worry about the UK government sharing their data with third-party organisations.
@sylkegruhnwald sprach mit Strafrechtsprofessorin Monika Simmler zu #Ethik und Gefahren von Open Source Intelligence, also der Nutzung öffentlicher Informationen für die Strafverfolgung. Dabei wird intensiv die Problematik der #Biometrie erläutert.
Simmler vertritt dabei die Ansicht, dass #Gesichtserkennung durch CH-Behörden aktuell verboten sei, da nicht explizit erlaubt.
"A Māori mum misidentified as a trespassed 'thief' at a Rotorua supermarket trialling facial recognition technology says she felt 'racially discriminated' against and embarrassed during the 'horrible' birthday incident."
In an exclusive interview with The Times, the Met’s director of intelligence, Lindsey Chiswick, said that the tool had been a “game-changer”, triggering an arrest every two hours of alleged criminals including rapists, burglars and robbers since it was introduced last April.
A Whitehall source said that it had been so successful that the government was planning to make a policy statement setting out its facial recognition strategy in May or June.
#EU#Biometrics#EURODAC#Surveillance#FacialRecognition#AsylumReform: "On Wednesday (10 April), the EU is set to vote on a new set of asylum and migration reforms. Among the many controversial changes proposed in the new migration pact, one went almost unnoticed — a seemingly innocent reform of the EU's asylum database, EURODAC.
Although framed as purely technical adjustments, the reality is far more malicious. The changes to EURODAC will massively exacerbate violence against people on the move.
Reform of this 20 year-old database will make it the technological sword of EU's hostile asylum and border policies. It will harness the most nefarious surveillance technologies that exist to date — namely the capture, processing and analysis of biometric data — and enable EU states to have full control over migrants' body and movements.
With the collection of biometrics, the body has already become a "passport" for many. Biometrics is the process of making data out of a person's biological or physiological characteristics. Fingerprints, facial images and iris scans are among the forms of biometrics most widely used by states to uniquely identify a person." https://euobserver.com/opinion/158292
FTC denies rating board's suggestion for age verification system
The Federal Trade Commission has denied a petition to allow companies to use facial age estimation (FAE) technology to obtain parental consent when collecting data from children under 13, a requirement for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
#UK#London#Surveillance#Biometrics#FacialRecognition: "The question of who, exactly, police want to talk to is what privacy watchdogs are concerned about. One 23-year-old man flagged by the system for possession of points and blades was later found to have six rounds of ammunition, stolen mobile phones, a large quantity of cannabis and a stolen Oyster card linked to a robbery in 2022. Other arrests were variously for assault, burglary, theft, pickpocketing, breaching court-imposed conditions, fraud, threatening behavior and obstructing a constable.
Calling these arrests “precision policing” is dubious at best, says Madeleine Stone, senior advocacy officer for Big Brother Watch.
“Rather than actively pursuing people who pose a risk to the public, police officers are relying on chance and hoping that wanted people happen to walk in front of a police camera.”
A news release on the Met police’s website says the facial recognition system “identifies people who are on a bespoke watchlist which can include those who are wanted, have outstanding arrest warrants as issued by the court, or to ensure a person is complying with their conditions.”
#Surveillance#Biometrics#FacialRecognition#Israel#Palestine#Gaza: "Israel is deploying a mass facial recognition program in Gaza, conducting surveillance of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, according to a new report from The New York Times.
As the publisher reports, speaking to Israeli intelligence officers, military officials, and soldiers, the facial recognition program is run by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)'s military Unit 8200, which is "collecting and cataloging the faces of Palestinians". The program reportedly uses technology from Corsight, an Israel facial recognition company that provides services for government agencies, law enforcement, and corporations, alongside Google Photos.
The Times says this mass surveillance is being rolled out in Israel to identify members of Hamas, following the Oct. 7 attacks. The Israeli military also set up checkpoints — along roads Palestinians are using to flee the war — with facial recognition cameras, and soldiers have used security camera footage, videos uploaded by Hamas on social media, and also asked Palestinian prisoners to identify anyone affiliated with Hamas." https://mashable.com/article/israel-palestine-gaza-facial-recognition-program
#Russia#Surveillance#Biometrics#FacialRecognition#GigEconomy: "Now TBIJ, in partnership with Follow The Money and Paper Trail Media, can reveal that the technology used to repress dissent against Putin’s authoritarian regime is powered by unwitting gig workers in the global south. A sprawling global network supporting Russia’s surveillance regime draws in US investment firms, one of Russia’s biggest tech companies and two companies sanctioned for their alleged role in Putin’s oppression.
At the heart of it all is Toloka, a little-known tech platform that recruits the gig workers and raises questions about the effectiveness of EU sanctions. Before a recent restructure, all of Toloka was ultimately owned by Yandex, a Russian tech giant with major shareholders in the west.
#Surveillance#Biometrics#FacialRecognition: "New York Times reporter Kashmir Hill has been writing about the intersection of privacy and technology for well over a decade; her book about Clearview AI’s rise and practices was published last fall. She speaks with EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelley about how face recognition technology’s rapid evolution may have outpaced ethics and regulations, and where we might go from here.
In this episode, you’ll learn about:
The difficulty of anticipating how information that you freely share might be used against you as technology advances.
How the all-consuming pursuit of “technical sweetness” — the alluring sensation of neatly and functionally solving a puzzle — can blind tech developers to the implications of that tech’s use.
The racial biases that were built into many face recognition technologies.
#Privacy#DigitalRights#Surveillance#FacialRecognition: "Over the past decade, there has been a steep rise globally in law enforcement using facial recognition technology. Data gathered by Steven Feldstein, a researcher with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, found that government agencies in 78 countries now use public facial recognition systems.
ByteDance shuts down its WhatsApp clone in Africa
The public is often supportive of the use of such tech: 59% of U.K. adults told a survey they “somewhat” or “strongly” support police use of facial recognition technology in public spaces, and a Pew Research study found 46% of U.S. adults said they thought it was a good idea for society. In China, one study found that 51% of respondents approved of facial recognition tech in the public sphere, while in India, 69% of people said in a 2023 report that they supported its use by the police.
But while authorities generally pitch facial recognition as a tool to capture terrorists or wanted murderers, the technology has also emerged as a critical instrument in a very particular context: punishing protesters."
3D illustration in an experimental style for an article in the Dutch ComputerTotaal magazine, about storing of personal data by companies and governments.
The New York Times reports the tech has mistakenly identified people as connected to Hamas. Israel has deployed a mass facial recognition program in the Gaza Strip, creating a database of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, The New York Times reports. The program, which was created after the October 7th attacks,...
Government agencies in 78 countries now use public facial recognition technology. It's commonly pitched as a tool to capture terrorists or dangerous criminals, but @restofworld says it has emerged as a critical instrument in identifying and punishing protesters. "In countries where demonstrating can come with physical or political risk, large-scale protests have historically offered a degree of anonymity, and, with it, a level of protection," Darren Loucaides writes. "But in the last decade, the spread of facial recognition technology has changed that equation: A lone face in a crowd is no longer anonymous; facial recognition allows authorities to capture people’s identities en masse."
In February, a court in the Argentinian capital ruled that the public surveillance system, known as the Fugitive Facial Recognition System (SNRP), will remain suspended as there is still no agreement on how to audit the technology. No date has been defined on when the system might be re-activated.
The court has instructed the city’s government and civil society groups ODIA, Vía Libre and CELS to come up with an institutional framework, a budget and a clear methodological plan for an audit of the system before its reintroduction. The two sides, however, have been clashing on how to proceed with auditing the software and re-activating the system.
Es gibt viele Beispiele die aufzeigen, wie die vielbeschworene Digitalisierung und "Smartifizierung der Welt" vor allem eine Transformation in eine noch autoritärere und repressivere Zukunft bedeuten kann.
Die biometrische Überwachung/Verfolgung von Frauen in Iran und von Kriegsdienstverweigernden in Russland sowie die Zero-Covid-Politik des chinesischen Staates sind aktuell offensichtliche Beispiele dafür. Und auch im Überwachungskapitalismus des "demokratischen Westens" werden solche Entwicklungen schon seit einer ganzen Weile auf hohen Ebenen herbeigesehnt, wie z.B. das Dokument "Smart City Charta" von Bundesinstituten und dem Bundesumweltministerium aus dem Jahr 2017 zeigt.
Eine schön deutliche Einordnung dieses Dokuments (im Rahmen einer vergangenen Veranstaltung) findet sich hier:
"But while authorities generally pitch facial recognition as a tool to capture terrorists or wanted murderers, the technology has also emerged as a critical instrument in a very particular context: punishing protesters.
(...)
In countries where demonstrating can come with physical or political risk, large-scale protests have historically offered a degree of anonymity, and, with it, a level of protection. Mass protests are a way for citizens to express dissent as a collective — often under the assumption that “they can’t arrest us all.”
But in the last decade, the spread of facial recognition technology has changed that equation: A lone face in a crowd is no longer anonymous; facial recognition allows #authorities to capture people’s identities en masse."
Israel quietly rolled out a mass facial recognition program in the Gaza Strip (www.theverge.com)
The New York Times reports the tech has mistakenly identified people as connected to Hamas. Israel has deployed a mass facial recognition program in the Gaza Strip, creating a database of Palestinians without their knowledge or consent, The New York Times reports. The program, which was created after the October 7th attacks,...