Instagram Starts Using Selfie Videos to Catch Bots
(Mobile World ID, Nov 23, 2021)
Instagram is trying to curtail bot activity on its eponymous social media platform. To that end, the company is starting to ask users to take video selfies to prove that they are human, and that their account does not belong to a social media bot. Instagram Starts Using Selfie Videos to Catch Bots According to Instagram, the video selfies are only used for liveness detection, and do not use any form of facial recognition. If true, that would mean that the videos are not being used for identity verification or authentication, though Instagram is asking people to take videos from multiple angles to confirm liveness. Either way, Instagram indicated that any video selfies collected through the program would be deleted 30 days after being recorded.
Clearview AI Does Well In Another Round Of Facial Recognition Accuracy Tests.
(NY Times, Nov 23, 2021)
After Clearview AI scraped billions of photos from the public web — from websites including Instagram, Venmo and LinkedIn — to create a facial recognition tool for law enforcement authorities, many concerns were raised about the company and its norm-breaking tool. Beyond the privacy implications and legality of what Clearview AI had done, there were questions about whether the tool worked as advertised: Could the company actually find one particular person’s face out of a database of billions?
McDonald’s Biometric Class Suit Should Proceed, Plaintiff Says
(Bloomberg Law, Nov 23, 2021)
Claims that McDonald’s Corp. violated customers’ biometric privacy rights were made in “exacting detail” and the case should thus proceed, the plaintiff is arguing in Illinois federal court. The Chicago-based hamburger chain collected drive-thru customers’ biometric voiceprints with its artificial intelligence ordering system, plaintiff Shannon Carpenter argued in a memorandum of law in opposition to McDonald’s motion t
Govt Committed To Protecting Privacy Of Individuals, PDP Bill To Strengthen Legal Framework: IT Min
(Devdiscourse, Nov 23, 2021)
The government is fully committed to protecting the privacy of individuals and the data protection bill will further strengthen the legal framework around privacy, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday. The concerns and doubts around Aadhaar have already been addressed ''meticulously'' and the biometric ID has led to inclusive development, bringing full benefit of government schemes to the poor and marginalised, the minister said.
Why CLEAR Airport Security Is The Service Experts Use For Stress-free Holiday Travel
(CNN, Nov 23, 2021)
The holiday season is upon us, which means airports across the country will soon be — or already are — jam-packed with travelers trying to reach family or friends to celebrate. Busy airports usually mean headaches for flyers, with long lines at check-in counters, baggage drop-offs and, worst of all, security lanes. Waiting in long lines for security is one of the biggest contributors to travel-related anxiety — especially during busy travel periods like Thanksgiving and the December holidays.
Research Finds US Adults Have Context-specific Views On Biometric Technology Use
(Tech Xplor, Nov 23, 2021)
As the application of facial recognition and DNA technologies increases across industries and domains, questions arise concerning the public's comfort with biometric modalities, the acceptability of using biometrics in various societal contexts, and the public's trust in public and private entities using biometric technologies. An international team of researchers set out to understand perspectives about biometric technologies held by a representative sample of adults across the United States.
Defining What’s Ethical In Artificial Intelligence Needs Input From Africans
(The Conversation, Nov 23, 2021)
Artificial intelligence (AI) was once the stuff of science fiction. But it’s becoming widespread. It is used in mobile phone technology and motor vehicles. It powers tools for agriculture and healthcare. But concerns have emerged about the accountability of AI and related technologies like machine learning. In December 2020 a computer scientist, Timnit Gebru, was fired from Google’s Ethical AI team. She had previously raised the alarm about the social effects of bias in AI technologies. For instance, in a 2018 paper Gebru and another researcher, Joy Buolamwini, had showed how facial recognition software was less accurate in identifying women and people of colour than white men. Biases in training data can have far-reaching and unintended effects.
