TSA is testing facial recognition at more airports, elevating privacy worries

June 6, 2023 Floo

BALTIMORE (AP) — A passenger walks up to an airport safety checkpoint, slips an ID card into a slot and looks into a camera atop a small screen. The screen flashes “Photo Complete” and the man or woman walks by — all without having to hand over their identification to the TSA officer sitting down driving the monitor.

It’s all section of a pilot project by the Transportation Stability Administration to evaluate the use of facial recognition know-how at a quantity of airports across the country.

“What we are making an attempt to do with this is assist the officers to basically decide that you are who you say who you are,” stated Jason Lim, identity management abilities manager, during a demonstration of the know-how to reporters at Baltimore-Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The effort and hard work arrives at a time when the use of many kinds of technological innovation to improve protection and streamline processes is only expanding. TSA states the pilot is voluntary and correct, but critics have raised problems about issues of bias in facial recognition technology and doable repercussions for passengers who want to decide out.

The technological innovation is currently in 16 airports. In addition to Baltimore, it’s becoming made use of at Reagan Nationwide in the vicinity of Washington, D.C., airports in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake Town, San Jose, and Gulfport-Biloxi and Jackson in Mississippi. Nonetheless, it is not at just about every TSA checkpoint so not each traveler heading by individuals airports would automatically experience it.

Tourists place their driver’s license into a slot that reads the card or spot their passport image from a card reader. Then they glimpse at a camera on a monitor about the dimension of an iPad, which captures their picture and compares it to their ID. The technologies is each checking to make guaranteed the people today at the airport match the ID they existing and that the identification is in point authentic. A TSA officer is even now there and symptoms off on the screening.

A tiny sign alerts vacationers that their photograph will be taken as aspect of the pilot and that they can decide out if they’d like. It also involves a QR code for them to get additional data.

Due to the fact it’s occur out the pilot has occur less than scrutiny by some elected officers and privacy advocates. In a February letter to TSA, five senators — four Democrats and an Independent who is part of the Democratic caucus — demanded the agency quit the plan, expressing: “Increasing biometric surveillance of Us citizens by the governing administration represents a hazard to civil liberties and privacy rights.”

As numerous forms of technologies that use biometric information like experience IDs, retina scans or fingerprint matches have come to be a lot more pervasive in both the personal sector and the federal government, it’s lifted problems among privateness advocates about how this knowledge

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Governments race to control artificial intelligence applications | Technological know-how Information

June 3, 2023 Floo

Swift developments in synthetic intelligence (AI) these types of as Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT are complicating governments’ initiatives to agree to laws governing the use of the know-how.

In this article are the most up-to-date actions national and international governing bodies are using to regulate AI instruments:

Australia: Looking for input on polices

The authorities is consulting Australia’s main science advisory body and is considering the following ways, a spokesperson for the industry and science minister reported in April.

Britain: Setting up laws

The Monetary Carry out Authority, a single of various condition regulators tasked with drawing up new suggestions covering AI, is consulting with the Alan Turing Institute and other lawful and educational institutions to strengthen its comprehending of the technology, a spokesperson claimed.

Britain’s competition regulator reported on May possibly 4 it would start inspecting the outcome of AI on customers, organizations and the financial state, and regardless of whether new controls have been required.

Britain claimed in March it prepared to split obligation for governing AI concerning its regulators for human rights, wellbeing and protection, and competitors, somewhat than developing a new human body.

China: Scheduling rules

China’s cyberspace regulator in April unveiled draft measures to control generative AI expert services, expressing it required companies to submit safety assessments to authorities just before they launch choices to the general public.

Beijing will guidance primary enterprises in making AI products that can challenge ChatGPT, its economic system and facts technology bureau explained in February.

European Union: Organizing polices

Key EU lawmakers on May possibly 11 agreed on tougher draft guidelines to rein in generative AI and proposed a ban on facial surveillance. The European Parliament will vote on the draft of the EU’s AI Act subsequent month.

EU politicians experienced reached a preliminary offer in April on the draft that could pave the way for the world’s initial detailed legal guidelines governing the engineering. Copyright protection is central to the bloc’s effort and hard work to keep AI in check out.

The European Details Security Board, which unites Europe’s countrywide privacy watchdogs, set up a task force on ChatGPT in April.

The European Buyer Organisation (BEUC) has joined in the worry about ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, calling on EU shopper protection companies to investigate the technologies and the prospective hurt to folks.

France: Investigating achievable breaches

France’s privacy watchdog CNIL reported in April it was investigating several grievances about ChatGPT soon after the chatbox was temporarily banned in Italy more than a suspected breach of privacy policies.

France’s Countrywide Assembly accredited in March the use of AI online video surveillance during the 2024 Paris Olympics, overlooking warnings from civil legal rights groups.

G7: Seeking input on laws

Group of 7 leaders meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, acknowledged on Might 20 the want for governance of AI and immersive technologies and agreed to have ministers examine the know-how as the “Hiroshima AI process” and report results by the conclude of 2023.

G7 nations should really undertake “risk-based” regulation on AI,

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China tells tech suppliers to prevent using Micron chips, stepping up feud with United States

May 30, 2023 Floo

BEIJING (AP) — Stepping up a feud with Washington above technological innovation and stability, China’s authorities on Sunday informed end users of laptop gear deemed delicate to halt buying solutions from the greatest U.S. memory chipmaker, Micron Technologies Inc.

Micron merchandise have unspecified “serious community protection risks” that pose dangers to China’s facts infrastructure and have an impact on nationwide safety, the Cyberspace Administration of China claimed on its internet site. Its 6-sentence statement gave no specifics.

“Operators of critical details infrastructure in China should really prevent paying for items from Micron Co.,” the agency claimed.

The United States, Europe and Japan are minimizing Chinese entry to highly developed chipmaking and other technology they say could be used in weapons at a time when President Xi Jinping’s government has threatened to attack Taiwan and is increasingly assertive towards Japan and other neighbors.

Chinese officials have warned of unspecified consequences but show up to be struggling to come across strategies to retaliate without hurting China’s smartphone producers and other industries and initiatives to develop its have processor chip suppliers.

An official evaluation of Micron less than China’s progressively stringent details protection laws was declared April 4, several hours right after Japan joined Washington in imposing limitations on Chinese obtain to technology to make processor chips on stability grounds.

Overseas organizations have been rattled by law enforcement raids on two consulting corporations, Bain & Co. and Capvision, and a owing diligence firm, Mintz Group. Chinese authorities have declined to clarify the raids but explained foreign companies are obliged to obey the law.

Business teams and the U.S. government have appealed to authorities to reveal recently expanded lawful restrictions on details and how they will be enforced.

Sunday’s announcement appeared to consider to reassure international providers.

“China firmly promotes large-amount opening up to the outside world and, as extensive as it complies with Chinese legal guidelines and regulations, welcomes enterprises and various system products and companies from several international locations to enter the Chinese market,” the cyberspace company mentioned.

Xi accused Washington in March of seeking to block China’s development. He referred to as on the general public to “dare to battle.”

Even with that, Beijing has been gradual to retaliate, quite possibly to keep away from disrupting Chinese industries that assemble most of the world’s smartphones, pill personal computers and other consumer electronics. They import much more than $300 billion really worth of international chips every year.

Beijing is pouring billions of pounds into making an attempt to speed up chip advancement and reduce the will need for overseas technological innovation. Chinese foundries can offer reduced-conclusion chips made use of in autos and house appliances but can’t guidance smartphones, synthetic intelligence and other superior apps.

The conflict has prompted warnings the entire world might decouple, or break up into independent spheres with incompatible technologies standards that suggest computer systems, smartphones and other goods from just one area would not work in other folks. That would increase expenses and could slow innovation.

U.S.-Chinese

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Bank accounts of New York ‘roofie murder’ victims drained via facial recognition technology

May 24, 2023 Floo

Facial recognition technology makes unlocking your smartphone a breeze.

But with the convenience, comes a disturbing new crime trend for bandits. It involves “drug-facilitated robbery” schemers who knock their victims out with date rape drugs, unlock the victims’ phones with their unconscious faces and drain their bank accounts of tens of thousands of dollars.

While robberies involving incapacitated victims are nothing new, the technology offers thieves quick and easy access to incapacitated victims.

Investigators in New York City have linked at least 43 incidents to two separate groups of suspects, according to a law enforcement source. Several of the druggings resulted in fatal overdoses, and victims have included a business traveler, a local social worker and a fashion designer.

NEW YORK CITY ‘ROOFIE’ SUSPECT INDICTED ON CHARGES OF GRAND LARCENY AND IDENTITY THEFT

Fashion designer Katie Gallagher, shown in 2011, was found dead in New York City on July 24, 2022, and police now say her death was a homicide, part of the rash of a “drug-facilitated robberies.” (Joe Corrigan/Getty Images)

While some of the crimes involved gay male victims, a law enforcement source tells Fox News Digital that the motive is believed to be financial gain and not a hate crime.

The two groups of suspects have slightly different patterns, both involve offering drugs to the victim, swiping their phones – and then wiping out cash from their accounts after unlocking them with facial recognition and accessing their mobile banking apps. The thieves are also accused of stealing credit cards and other valuables from some of the victims.

John Kelly, a criminal profiler and psychotherapist, told Fox News Digital that the robbery rings could be considered serial killers.

“In serial killing, there is a subtype called the comfort serial killer,” he said.

It’s all about them seeking creature comforts. They don’t kill for sex. They don’t kill for power. It’s all about money.

— John Kelly / Criminal profiler

The subset includes people like hit men and people who kill repeatedly in the course of robberies, he said.

“These guys are really sophisticated and pretty ruthless,” he added. “They don’t push it on you, they’ll seduce you.”

Victim John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant based in Washington, D.C., was found dead in an Upper East Side townhouse after leaving a Hell’s Kitchen bar with two men in May 2022. Pathologists found fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, cocaine, lidocaine, and ethanol in his system, the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said.

NEW YORKERS ENDURE RANDOM ATTACKS AS TOP COP FOCUSES ON TRUMP INDICTMENT

John Umberger, of Washington, D.C., was robbed and left for dead in May 2022 after a night out in Manhattan. (Linda Clary/Fox 5)

His phone and credit cards were stolen and $25,000 vanished from his bank account.

In April 2022, another man named Julio Ramirez, 25, died under similar circumstances. Police found him in the back of a taxi after he’d left a bar with a group of men just blocks away from where Umberger had

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Southwest Airlines temporarily grounds all flights over technology problem

May 20, 2023 Floo

Southwest grounds fleet due to technical issue

00:13

Southwest Airlines has resumed flights after grounding all planes in the U.S. following a technology glitch.

In a statement at 11 a.m. Eastern time, the budget carrier said it had “resumed operations” after requesting a ground stop Tuesday morning “to work through data connection issues resulting from a firewall failure.”

“Early this morning, a vendor-supplied firewall went down and connection to some operational data was unexpectedly lost. Southwest teams worked quickly to minimize flight disruptions,” the airline said in a statement.

In earlier tweets replying to frustrated travelers who said they were stranded on airport runways, Southwest said it “had to implement a ground stop as a result of intermittent issues that were experienced.”

More than 2,000 Southwest flights were delayed Tuesday, according to airline tracker FlightAware.

In December, the airline had a multi-day meltdown when it canceled nearly 17,000 flights in a 10-day stretch around Christmas — wrecking holiday travel plans for well over 2 million people. A winter storm had shut down Southwest’s operations in Denver and Chicago and the airline’s system for rescheduling pilots and flight attendants was overwhelmed.

Those cancellations cost the airline more than $1 billion and led to an ongoing Transportation Department investigation.

The airline’s unions have said they warned management about problems with the crew-scheduling system after a previous meltdown in October 2021.

Southwest Airlines grilled over holiday meltdown

03:39

Rob Britton, a former American Airlines executive who teaches crisis management at Georgetown University, told the Associated Press that Southwest has underinvested in technology while growing rapidly, and that the carrier suffers from an “insular culture” that “keeps them from looking outside for solutions.”

CEO Robert Jordan has embarked on a campaign to repair the airline’s damaged reputation. Southwest said last month it would add deicing equipment and increase staffing during winter weather that is cold enough to limit the amount of time that ground workers can stay outside.

CBS News’ Kathryn Krupnik and Kris Van Cleave contributed reporting. With reporting by the Associated Press.

How aliens with ‘right technology’ could listen to us on Earth | Entire world Information

May 17, 2023 Floo

Superior aliens could hear humans on Earth irrespective of becoming gentle several years absent, experts have suggested – if extraterrestrial lifetime exists, that is.

Did you know that humans have been unintentionally transmitting alerts into place for approximately a century?

Specialists believe if there are intelligent aliens on close by stars with highly developed technologies, they could detect existence on Earth by leaked radio signals and other transmissions from our day-to-working day existence.

From radio and television to radars, these significant-frequency signals can get to area.

Most not too long ago, cellular telephones have also contributed to the leakage.

How was the research executed?

For the study, scientists from the College of Manchester made use of crowd-sourced details to simulate radio leakage from mobile towers.

Scientists required to establish what alien civilisations could possibly detect from various stars that were near to Earth – such as the Barnard’s star, which is six mild a long time away from Earth.

To conduct this study, styles ended up generated by Ramiro Saide, an intern at the Research for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institution’s Hat Creek Radio Observatory in the US.

The final results also showed the Earth’s cellular radio signature includes a substantial contribution from developing nations around the world this kind of as Africa.

The workforce reported this is remarkable because it highlights the countries’ achievement in moving directly into the digital age.

‘We could grow to be conveniently detectable’

Professor Mike Garrett, crew chief of the project at the University of Manchester, explained: “I’ve heard many colleagues counsel that the Earth has turn out to be increasingly radio quiet in current yrs – a declare that I usually contested.

“Whilst it is real we have fewer powerful Television and radio transmitters these days, the proliferation of cell communication units about the globe is profound.”

Professor Garrett explained though each and every technique signifies very low radio powers, the “spectrum of billions of these products is significant.”

He additional: “Existing estimates counsel we will have more than 100,000 satellites in small Earth orbit and further than prior to the end of the 10 years.

“The Earth is now anomalously vivid in the radio aspect of the spectrum if the craze carries on, we could grow to be easily detectable by any state-of-the-art civilisation with the appropriate technology.”

Go through a lot more from Sky News:
Strong AI techniques ‘can’t be controlled’ – pro

‘I feel that there is certainly each and every probability state-of-the-art civilisations are out there’

So, could this imply we are one phase closer to locating extraterrestrial Intelligence?

Dr Nalini Heeralall-Issur, associate professor at the University of Mauritius, said: “I believe that that you will find each individual probability state-of-the-art civilisations are out there and some may perhaps be capable of observing the human-manufactured radio leakage coming from planet Earth.”

What’s next?

Researchers will examine other resources of Earth’s radio leakage signature as they glance to construct on the results.

This contains armed forces radars, new

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