Group items tagged

"Reporters Without Borders"

"Google has expressed outrage following a report that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has hacked its data links."

"Facebook's photo-sharing app Moments will not be made available in Europe due to concerns about its use of facial recognition, it has been revealed. The app, which allows users to share mobile-phone photos with friends without posting them publicly, was launched in the US this week. The Irish data regulator said that users must be given a choice about whether they want it, with an opt-in. There is currently no timetable for such a feature, said Facebook. Richard Allen, Facebook's head of policy in Europe said: "We don't have an opt-in mechanism so it is turned off until we develop one." Moments arranges the photos on someone's mobile phone into groups, based on when they were taken. The facial recognition technology can identify Facebook friends to whom users can then forward the photos. Combining data The social network is taking facial recognition very seriously and announced earlier this year that its DeepFace AI system was powerful enough to identify users with a 97.25% level of accuracy. But the social network's use of the technology has not gone down well with European and Canadian regulators. In 2010, Facebook rolled out facial recognition technology to identify people in photos but, two years later, it was forced to withdraw the technology from Europe, after Ireland's data protection commission highlighted privacy issues. At the time, the privacy commissioner of Canada said: "Of significant privacy concern is the fact that Facebook has the ability to combine facial biometric data with extensive information about users, including biographic data, location data, and associations with friends." The system, which is increasingly used by technology and other firms, is the subject of debate in the US too. Recent talks between privacy organisations and government agencies aimed at creating a code of conduct around facial recognition technology broke down after they failed to reach agreement. "At a base minimum, people should be able to walk down a publ

"THE New South Wales Government is quietly compiling a mathematical map of almost every adult's face, sharing information that allows law enforcement to track people by CCTV. "

"The Internet affords anonymity to its users, but it is also behind the explosion of cybercrime that has swept across the Web."

Could foreign hackers get into the computer systems that run crucial elements of the world's infrastructure, such as the power grids, water works or even a nation's military arsenal, to create havoc? They already have. Steve Kroft reports."

Article about how the authorities in the Chinese province of Xinjiang cut off Internet and even SMS access in an attempt to curtail protest movements. Covers the way people were using the Internet as well as the effective the ban is having on local businesses and their customers.

Electronic Frontiers Australia present a paper to explain the failure of the Australian proposed Access to Health ID Card. This summary documents the issues and reasons for why it was abandoned.

RFID & Biometric Passports are supposed to increase security - but are they?