Friday Tech Tip: Keep the Cops off Your Phone
Imagine what would happen if cops got hold of your phone and were able to read anything on it – and take steps to stop them!
“Over 2,400 Police Agencies” use Intrusive Clearview AI Facial Recognition System
First of all, I need to get this out of the way: Shame on you, Jason Calacanis. According to The Verge: The interview was taped in May, but Calacanis didn’t release it until today. That’s because it took place the morning after George Floyd was killed by police. “Once the protests started in America, and …
Congress Introduces Bill to Ban Federal Agencies From Using Facial Recognition
Via Vice Last week, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Pramila Jayapal and Ayanna Pressley introduced the “Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2020”. The Act would forbid the Federal government from using facial recognition systems, with room for exceptions that must be passed an Act of Congress. Importantly, it also states that any local …
Amazon suspends Rekognition use by police for 1 year
Amazon announced that they are ending use of their Rekognition facial recognition technology for one year, effective immediately. Amazon says that they will still allow use of the system by “organizations like Thorn, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Marinus Analytics.” Rekognition allows users to upload a series of photos of known …
Oppose the EARN IT Act
A new bi-partisan effort to attack speech online has been introduced in Congress. If passed, the EARN IT Act could change how we interact with online services in a very negative way. The ability of platforms like Facebook, reddit, Twitter and so many others to provide places for us to create content hinges on a …
Bodycams + Facial Recognition: A Bad Combination
As the Black Lives Matter movement took to the streets over brutal killing of Black people by police in the US, a common call for change was to force all police to wear bodycams. Still today much video of police terror comes from cellphone video footage that a bystander or Copwatcher takes. It’s possible that …