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Daily Archives: September 19, 2019

A facial recognition ban is coming to the US, says an AI policy advisor

MIT Technology Review: “San Francisco and Oakland, California, and Somerville, Massachusetts, have outlawed certain uses of facial recognition technology, with Portland,  Oregon, potentially soon to follow.  That’s just the beginning, according to Mutale Nkonde, a Harvard fellow and AI policy advisor. That trend will soon spread to states, and there will eventually be a federal ban on some uses of the technology, she said at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference. Which uses will face a ban, it’s not yet clear: while some cities have banned use by police departments, Portland’s focus is restricting use by the private sector. And the debate is not confined to the US. In the UK, there is growing concern over the use of live facial recognition after it emerged that a property developer had been collecting images of people’s faces in an area of London for two years without informing them. We still don’t know how that data was used, Daragh Murray, a human rights lawyer at the University of Essex, said on stage. “There will be legal challenges, and there will eventually be regulation,” he predicted…”

Why Americans Don’t Fully Trust Many Who Hold Positions of Power and Responsibility

Members of Congress and technology leaders are rated lower in empathy, transparency and ethics – “Public gives higher scores to military leaders, public school principals and police officers…” “People invest their trust in institutions and those who have power for a variety of reasons. Researchers have found that people’s confidence in others and organizations can… Continue Reading

Be Prepared: Find the ER You Want to Go to Before an Emergency Happens

ProPublica: “To be prepared in the event of an emergency, you can use our newly updated ER Inspector (formerly called ER Wait Watcher) to help you evaluate the emergency rooms near you. Using data from the federal government, our interactive database lets you compare ERs on both efficiency measures, including how long patients typically spend… Continue Reading

Facebook plans launch of its own “Supreme Court” for handling takedown appeals

ars technica – Surely this initiative will create meaningful change…”Facebook, which has managed to transcend geographic borders to draw in a population equal to roughly a third of all human life on Earth, has made its final charter for a “Supreme Court” of Facebook public. The company pledges to launch this initiative by November of… Continue Reading

Border fence construction could destroy archaeological sites, National Park Service finds

Washington Post : “Bulldozers and excavators rushing to install President Trump’s border barrier could damage or destroy up to 22 archaeological sites within Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in coming months, according to an internal National Park Service report obtained by The Washington Post. The administration’s plan to convert an existing five-foot-high vehicle barrier… Continue Reading

How to erase your personal information from the internet (it’s not impossible!)

Vox – Your shopping habits, your family members’ names, even your salary is out there for anyone to see. But you can take back control. “…Before you can get a handle on digital privacy, you first have to understand what is out there. Start by Googling yourself with your browser in private or “incognito” mode… Continue Reading