Search results for "surveillance"

Facebook bans German accounts under new 'social harm' policy

Facebook removed almost 150 accounts and pages linked to anti-lockdown demonstrators in Germany, the company announced Thursday, under a new policy focused on groups that spread misinformation or incite violence but who don’t fit into the platform’s existing categories of bad actors. The accounts on Facebook and Instagram spread content linked to the so-called Querdenken […]

Apple fires senior manager for alleged workplace sexism complaints

Apple fired senior engineering program manager Ashley Gjøvik after allegations of leaking confidential information concerning statements of sexual harassment, surveillance, and the company’s hostile workplace environment. The Big Tech giant invited Gjøvik via email for a discussion at the company to address the nature of the allegations expressed by the senior engineer. However, when she […]

US-built databases a potential tool of Taliban repression

Over two decades, the United States and its allies spent hundreds of millions of dollars building databases for the Afghan people. The nobly stated goal: Promote law and order and government accountability and modernize a war-ravaged land. But in the Taliban’s lightning seizure of power, most of that digital apparatus — including biometrics for verifying […]

No cashiers, please: Futuristic supermarket opens in Mideast

The Middle East on Monday got its first completely automated cashier-less store, as retail giant Carrefour rolled out its vision for the future of the industry in a cavernous Dubai mall. Like Amazon’s breakthrough unmanned grocery stores that opened in 2018, the Carrefour mini-market looks like any ordinary convenience store, brimming with sodas and snacks, […]

Apple backtracks on child protection features

Following severe backlash targeting Apple’s child protection features announced last month, the smartphone giant decided to delay the update scheduled for roll out this year. “Last month we announced plans for features intended to help protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them, and limit the spread of Child Sexual […]

Congress asks tech companies for Jan. 6 records

A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection has requested that telecommunications and social media companies preserve the personal communications of hundreds of people who may have somehow been connected to the attack. It’s a sweeping public demand from Congress that is rare, if not unprecedented, in its breadth and could put the […]

Government launches nationwide antibody testing programme

The UK Health Security Agency will work alongside NHS Test and Trace testing services in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to monitor levels of antibodies in positive cases across the UK. The data collected will help estimate the proportion of those who got COVID-19 despite developing antibodies as a result of having a vaccine or […]

Moscow court fines Google for controversial material

A Moscow court penalized on Tuesday Alphabet Inc’s Google with a sum of $142,877 for violating the state’s rules on prohibited content, amidst the latest clash between Big Tech companies and the Russian state. The Tagansky District Court fined search engine titan Google with five independent fines of approximately $190,000 for not deleting content banned […]

Apple to scan U.S. iPhones for images of child sexual abuse

Apple unveiled plans to scan U.S. iPhones for images of child sexual abuse, drawing applause from child protection groups but raising concern among some security researchers that the system could be misused, including by governments looking to surveil their citizens. The tool designed to detected known images of child sexual abuse, called “neuralMatch,” will scan […]

Your palm print is worth $10 according to Amazon

The retail and cloud giant is offering $10 in credit if you enroll your palm print in its checkout-free stores and link it to back to your profile.   Amazon introduced its new biometric palm print scanners, Amazon One, last year. Customers were able to purchase their desired products in specific stores by waving their palm prints over one of these scanners.   By February, the company branched out its palm scanners […]