I am running behind (again!) in keeping up with all the great stories Joe Cadillic submits to this site. So here’s a brief compilation of some of his recent suggestions for you with snippets from each:
National facial recognition database to use loyalty rewards to identify American shoppers. Joe writes:
For years, I have been warning people about facial recognition in retail stores, but this story might convince you to avoid retail stores altogether.
A recent article in Biometric Update. com (BU) reveals that retail stores have a master plan to convince Americans to accept facial biometrics.
BU interviewed four facial biometric company CEO’s and what they revealed is frightening.
The Pentagon is Spending Big on RFID Tech. Frank Konkel reports:
Last month, the Pentagon exercised a final-year option on its RFID contract, which has a total ceiling value of $102 million. Around the same time, the Virginia-based contractor operating the contract, Savi, announced two major orders totaling 48,000 active RFID tags to unnamed Defense agencies.
In response to questions from The Intercept about Cavoukian’s resignation, a spokesperson for Sidewalk Labs said, “Sidewalk Labs has committed to implement, as a company, the principles of Privacy by Design. Though that question is settled, the question of whether other companies involved in the Quayside project would be required to do so is unlikely to be worked out soon, and may be out of Sidewalk Labs’ hands.”
Now, in an effort to get ahead of Quayside’s development before it’s too late, a coalition of experts and residents have launched a Toronto Open Smart Cities Forum.
Shady Data Brokers Are Selling Online Dating Profiles by the Millions. Samantha Cole reports:
Berlin-based NGO Tactical Tech collaborated with artist and researcher Joana Moll to uncover these practices in the online dating world. In a recent project titled “The Dating Brokers: An autopsy of online love,” the team set up an online “auction” to visualize how our lives are auctioned away by shady brokers.
In May 2017, Moll and Tactical Tech purchased one million dating profiles from the data broker website USDate, for around $153.
What Constant Surveillance Does to Your Brain. Also at Motherboard, Kaleigh Rogers reports:
As technology and machine learning continue to advance, we’re integrating surveillance into our daily lives at an increasing rate, and the level of surveillance is becoming more sophisticated. It’s easy to overlook all the ways we’re being tracked, but as soon as you start to quantify it, it quickly becomes unsettling. And it may make you wonder: what effect does being watched all the time have on your behavior—and your brain? Turns out, it can be just as mentally taxing as mental disorders like depression, and can even cause symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Canadians strongly oppose Statscan’s plan to obtain the banking records of 500,000 households: poll. Bill Curry reports:
Canadians strongly oppose Statistics Canada’s plan to obtain personal banking records – and most would not consent to participating, according to a new Nanos Research survey.
The survey suggests the federal government is on the wrong side of public opinion in its defence of the plan, with 74 per cent of respondents either opposing, or somewhat opposing, Statscan accessing those records without permission. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet repeatedly defended it this month in the House of Commons in response to criticism from opposition MPs.
Thanks so much, Joe, for all you to do help increase public awareness of surveillance and privacy issues!