04 February 2020

2 reports from Techdirt: Abusing The Public Trust For Financial Gain

Does that sound familiar or what ???
One from yesterday and one from today:
1. Late last week, legally and ethically-dubious facial recognition tech developer Clearview was sued for violating an Illinois law making certain collection and storage of biometric information illegal. I was very dismissive of the lawsuit, stating that scraping of publicly-posted photos couldn't possibly create an actionable violation of privacy. . . Author Tim Cushing now says the assessment he may be wrong.
This lawsuit dealt with yet another Facebook feature no one asked for: the nearly-automatic tagging of friends and acquaintances in uploaded photos.
Facebook Pays $550 Million Settlement In Illinois Facial Recognition Lawsuit, Which Could Pose Problems For Clearview
Mon, Feb 3rd 2020 12:04pm— Tim Cushing
2. It only took a year of stonewalling, feet dragging, and dodging journalists' questions, but the FCC has finally acknowledged that one or more wireless providers broke the law by collecting user location data--then selling access to that data to any nitwith with a nickel. . .
"I wish to inform you that the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has completed its extensive investigation and that it has concluded that one or more wireless carriers apparently violated federal law."
1 Year Later, FCC Finally Admits Wireless Carriers Broke The Law On Location DataTue, Feb 4th 2020 6:57am— Karl Bode

Le Monde Editorial: The End of An American World

The path on which Trump, strengthened for his second term by his party's success in the Senate, will take his country diverges fundament...