Speed Read
Meta to Pay Texas $1.4 Billion in 'Historic Settlement' Over Biometric Data Allegations
(USA Today, Jul 30, 2024)
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, reached a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas over the technology conglomerate's use of biometric data, state officials announced on Tuesday. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the settlement with Meta the "largest ever obtained from an action brought by a single State," according to a news release from his office.
Civil Society Coalition Calls for Ban on Police Use of Biometric Surveillance
(UKAuthority, Jul 30, 2024)
A group of civil society organisations has written to the home secretary calling for safeguards in the use of AI systems in policing – including an outright ban on predictive policing and biometric surveillance systems.
Police Use of Facial Recognition Cameras Sparks Privacy Warning
(Daily Mail, Jul 28, 2024)
The Mail on Sunday last week told how officers in police vans will monitor the live scans and check the images against a database. But concerns have been raised that the ‘Orwellian’ technology will impinge on civil liberties. Now, an alliance of some of the world’s foremost privacy campaigners has written to Justice Secretary Angela Constance to demand the proposals are withdrawn.
India Expands Airport Facial Recognition Amid Surveillance Fears
(Financial Times, Jul 29, 2024)
The use of digital biometric systems doubled last month to 28 airports, covering about 90 per cent of India’s sky-bound travel volumes, according to Suresh Khadakbhavi, chief executive of the Digi Yatra Foundation, an industry-led initiative co-ordinated by the country’s civil aviation ministry. However, Digi Yatra’s growing reach has fed into wider concerns about the handling of passenger data amid fears that the world’s most populous country is transforming into a surveillance state. India’s government imposes the most internet shutdowns globally and has issued more than 1.3bn biometric identity cards linked to bank accounts and phones.
The Two Secrets of Facial Recognition Technology
(Daily Journal Corporation, Jul 30, 2024)
In the case of FRT, there are two secrets—practices that are not widely known—that lawyers handling cases involving FRT should be aware of. The first issue is potential editing of the probe image. The second issue is discarding of other potential matches that were returned at the same or higher confidence level as the selected match. These two topics are rarely affirmatively disclosed by the proponent of the FRT match. Indeed, many prosecutors are unaware of these issues because police agencies tend not to discuss them.
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