During the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine looks like the future of health care. Is it a future that we want? Read more (New Yorker)
Category Archives: privacy
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
We rushed to the internet expecting empowerment, the democratization of knowledge, and help with real problems, but surveillance capitalism really was just too lucrative to resist. This economic logic has now spread beyond the tech companies to new surveillance–based ecosystems in virtually every economic sector, from insurance to automobiles to health, education, finance, to every product described as “smart” and every service described as “personalized.” Read more (Harvard Gazette)
Biometric Checkout Comes to Hotel Convenience Store
Koyo Group teamed with checkout-free tech provider Zippin and Fujitsu in the development of the Green Leaves + store, which is located within the Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel. Shoppers can enter the store, which sells prepackaged food and beverages and fresh bento box meals, via a QR code in a smartphone app once they’ve entered their credit card information. The app also uses multi-biometric authentication technology and facial recognition to links their palm vein; once this has been registered, they can simply swipe their palm to enter the store and no longer need the phone. Read more (RIS)
A plan to redesign the internet could make apps that no one controls
Dfinity wants to allow the creation of apps that can run on the network itself rather than on servers owned by Facebook, Google or Amazon. Can it succeed where others have failed? Read more (Technology Review)
This is how we lost control of our faces
A new study shows just how much this enterprise has eroded our privacy. It hasn’t just fueled an increasingly powerful tool of surveillance. The latest generation of deep-learning-based facial recognition has completely disrupted our norms of consent. Read more (Technology Review)
Chinese-speaking Clubhouse users are creating “silent rooms”
Clubhouse is blowing up in China, but many Chinese-speaking users aren’t talking. Instead, they’re using it to network. One chatroom is named “Silent Room 2: No talking on the microphone, just checking bios and following each other” in traditional Chinese script. It’s attracted over 1,700 participants, including the famous Taiwanese singer and actor Aaron Yan. Even with over 80 people set as speakers or moderators, the room is dead quiet. Read more (Protocol)
Fake Famous doc turns random people into influencers
building on our discussion around Black Mirror’s Nosedive
The Coup We Are Not Talking About (Op Ed by Shoshana Zuboff author of “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”)
We can have democracy, or we can have a surveillance society, but we cannot have both. Read more (NY Times Op Ed)
AI technologies impact new ethical unknowns in the workplace
JOB HUNTERS MAY now need to impress not just prospective bosses but artificial intelligence algorithms too—as employers screen candidates by having them answer interview questions on a video that is then assessed by a machine. Read more (Wired)
Microsoft envisions ‘scoring’ meetings based on body language
This is just a patent application, and there’s no certainty that Microsoft will ever adopt the technology. GeekWire added that there aren’t any mentions of privacy protections, and that a Microsoft 365 “Productivity Score” feature introduced in October has drawn criticisms for allegedly enabling workplace surveillance. Microsoft would have to protect privacy and reassure workers that they won’t be fired for checking their text messages. Read more (Engadget)
