Biometric Checkpoints in Trump's America (The Atlantic, Feb 14, 2017)
President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban called for, among other things, the speedy completion of a “biometric entry-exit tracking system” for all travelers to the United States. If this sounds familiar, it’s because the idea has been debated in Washington for more than a decade. The implementation of such a system was one of the recommendations from the sprawling document known as the 9/11 Report, published 13 years ago by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
 

Four More States Propose Biometrics Legislation (National Law Review, Feb 13, 2017)
Last year National Law Review reported on a new wave of potentially high-exposure litigation under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. That wave has included putative class actions against corporate defendants ranging from some of the largest social media and technology companies to a video game manufacturer and even a daycare center. Notably, since January 1, 2017, the Connecticut, New Hampshire, Washington, and Alaska legislatures have also proposed bills that would regulate the collection, retention, and use of biometric data.
 

McCaul describes a bleak cyber landscape (FCW, Feb 14, 2017)
America's adversaries are turning "digital breakthroughs into digital bombs" and launching them against increasingly overmatched defenses, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee warned on Feb. 14. During a keynote address at the 2017 RSA conference in San Francisco, Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said that from nation-states to terrorists to faceless hackers, "the combatants are everywhere, and the phones in your pockets are the battlespace."
 

Apple patent shows a fingerprint reader built right into an iPhone screen (The Verge, Feb 14, 2017)
If Apple follows through on one of its patents, the next iPhone might not have a dedicated sensor to read fingerprints. The patent, published today by the US Patent and Trademark office, details an “interactive display with IR diodes.” This would allow Apple devices to read fingerprints directly through the screen, instead of by relying on a dedicated fingerprint reader built into the home button.
 

Banks Look to Cellphones to Replace A.T.M. Cards (The New York Times, Feb 13, 2017)
Wallets can be lost, stolen or forgotten, but most people today wouldn’t be caught dead without their phones. Banks understand, and are grabbing on to that trend. Customers who don’t want to fumble around in their wallet for their A.T.M. card — or who have misplaced it for the umpteenth time — will soon be able to unlock cash dispensers’ coffers by using their phone. JPMorgan Chase, which has more A.T.M.s in the United States, has activated this technology on a few hundred machines in four test cities.
 

Source: Apple Will Fight 'Right to Repair' Legislation (Motherboard, Feb 15, 2017)
Apple is planning to fight proposed electronics "Right to Repair" legislation being considered by the Nebraska state legislature, according to a source within the legislature who is familiar with the bill's path through the statehouse. The legislation would require Apple and other electronics manufacturers to sell repair parts to consumers and independent repair shops, and would require manufacturers to make diagnostic and service manuals available to the public.
 

Missouri store using facial recognition to keep doors locked to masked robbers (CW39, Feb 15, 2017)
Overnight robberies can be terrifying, even deadly. But now some stores in Missouri are fighting back with a high tech crime fighter: facial recognition. Facial recognition technology is being used to help keep late night store clerks and customers safe. The way it works, is at night, clerks put up signs warning customers that facial recognition software is in use, and to please look at the above camera for entry. Only by showing your face will you get a green light to come inside.
 

McCaul and Katko on Indictment of 12 Former and Current TSA and Airport Officials in Puerto Rico (House Homeland Security Committee, Feb 15, 2017)
hairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Transportation and Protective Services Subcommittee Chairman John Katko (R-NY) issued the following statement in the wake of 12 current and former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and airport employees being indicted for smuggling approximately 20 tons of cocaine through TSA security systems at Puerto Rico’s Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport between 1998 and 2016.
 

Vision-Box implemented innovative ABC solution at the French border of St. Pancras International rail station (Vision-Box, Feb 15, 2017)
Eurostar is the first private transportation service provider to deploy an Automated Border Control solution within an international rail hub. Vision-Box was responsible for the implementation of a pioneering Automated Border Control at St Pancras International rail station, at the French border. This is the first time that such self-service technological solutions have been deployed by a private transportation service provider for optimizing passenger flow at a border within an international rail hub.
 

Love Is In the Air: Airports and Airlines Celebrate Valentine's Day (NBC News, Feb 14, 2017)
Air travel is usually more stressful than romantic, but on Valentine's Day many airports and airlines go out of their way to add a little love — or at least some chocolate — to the journey. This year, Delta Air Lines customers flying in the main cabin on select flights between JFK and SFO/LAX will receive mini bottles of La Marca Prosecco, along with a striped straw and two Vosges Haut-Chocolat chocolate truffles. Passengers in the business class cabins will get Prosecco and four pieces of Vosges chocolate.

 

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