The American Civil Liberties Union-California is offering misleading information about accuracy of facial recognition technology, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro Wednesday. The ACLU scanned 26 California legislators, and claimed about one in five incorrectly matched with criminal mugshots. Independent federal government testing shows the top face-scanning technology is more accurate than humans at identifying faces, Castro said. This is the second time the ACLU used questionable testing methods (see 1807260037 and 1807300045), he said: “Claims that are not observable, testable, repeatable, and falsifiable are not science.” The ACLU didn't comment.
Rising demand for home automation and smart hubs is expected to boost demand for smart digital photo frames, a category forecast to grow by $47 million 2018-2023, said Technavio Tuesday. Artificial intelligence-enabled smart home controllers and smart hubs use Wi-Fi and near-field communication to control smart digital photo frames remotely, it said, citing voice-controllable connected smart digital photo frames from Nixplay that are Alexa-compatible. With rising popularity of smart homes, demand for smart home decor products, such as digital photo frames, will also grow, it said.
U.S. leadership in developing artificial intelligence depends on federal government “playing an active and purpose-driven role” in standards, the National Institute of Standards and Technology reported Saturday. In response to President Donald Trump’s February executive order for an AI strategy, NIST offered guidance to stakeholders. The report recommends: bolstering AI standards-related knowledge, leadership and coordination across agencies; promoting research to advance and accelerate “broader exploration and understanding of how aspects of trustworthiness can be practically incorporated within standards and standards related tools”; expanding public-private partnerships “to develop and use AI standards and related tools to advance reliable, robust, and trustworthy AI”; and engaging internationally “to advance AI standards for U.S. economic and national security needs.”
Facebook plans to launch a news tab this fall to draw attention to higher-quality journalism, a company spokesperson said Friday. Reports that it’s contemplating licensing journalism content from publishers are welcome news, said News Media Alliance CEO David Chavern. But questions remain about the terms and which publishers would be included, he said, citing the platform’s negotiating power compared with even the largest publishers: “Facebook is already a de facto regulator of the news publishing industry and simply can’t be trusted to determine the future of our free press.” Facebook News Partnerships Head Campbell Brown tweeted: “Working with news industry to get Facebook’s News Tab right is our goal and focus this year. Still early days but we are getting tremendous partner feedback on the product.”
Social media companies should continue addressing violent online extremism and helping at-risk individuals without compromising free speech, a White House spokesperson said Friday. The comments came after a White House staff-led meeting between senior administration officials and company representatives (see 1908080051). The conversation focused on “how technology can be leveraged to identify potential threats, to provide help to individuals exhibiting potentially violent behavior, and to combat domestic terror,” the official said. “We urge internet and social media companies to continue their efforts in addressing violent extremism and helping individuals at risk, and to do so without compromising free speech.” Meanwhile, industry advocates blasted a summary of a draft executive order reported by CNN that apparently envisions directing the FCC and the FTC to address political censorship on social media. President Donald Trump in July directed his administration to explore all regulatory and legislative methods “to protect free speech” and constitutional rights (see 1907110066). The White House in May solicited evidence of anti-conservative bias by tech platforms (see 1905200036). The contemplated executive order “would transform the FCC and FTC from consumer protection agencies into regulators of online speech,” said TechFreedom President Berin Szoka. “Ironically, the same people screaming about ‘censorship’ by private companies would empower regulators to decide what kinds of online speech should and shouldn’t be taken down.” The White House shouldn’t hamstring efforts to curb online extremism “with politically motivated and likely unconstitutional executive orders about viewpoint neutrality,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association CEO Ed Black. The reported draft order is troubling on several levels, said Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis. He cited First Amendment violations, a disregard for the independence of federal agencies and an apparent attempt to unilaterally limit Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. “In the past we have had a bipartisan consensus from FTC and FCC commissioners that they are not interested in regulating speech or content on the internet,” he said. The president can’t unilaterally change Section 230, Center for Democracy & Technology Free Expression Project Director Emma Llanso said: “There is no legal requirement that social media companies apply any sort of ‘neutrality’ when they decide to remove content.”
Salesforce is acquiring ClickSoftware for $1.35 billion, said the buyer Wednesday. The deal is expected to close by Oct. 31, it said. “Our acquisition of ClickSoftware will not only accelerate the growth of Service Cloud, but drive further innovation with Field Service Lightning to better meet the needs of our customers,” said Bill Patterson, executive vice president-Salesforce Service Cloud.
An email management company falsely told consumers it wouldn’t “touch” their personal messages but shared email receipts with its parent company, the FTC said Thursday, announcing a nonmonetary settlement. Unroll.me is required to delete the personal data it collected from consumers and faces penalties up to $42,530 for future violations. Enhancing consumer privacy can come at the price of limiting consumer choice and competition, Commissioner Noah Phillips said in a statement on the 5-0 decision, citing separate action from Google. Unroll.me will update its policies and continue allowing consumers the option to grant access to their data, he said. But Google in response to privacy concerns in 2018 decided to limit third-party apps from using Gmail data for marketing and ad purposes, Phillips said. The decision enhances consumer privacy but limits choice and competition by imperiling the business models of third-party email extensions, he said.
Facebook users can sue the platform over alleged facial recognition technology abuses, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in case 3:15-cv-03747-JD. Facebook users in Illinois claim the platform’s use of face-scanning technology to identify users through their uploaded images without consent violated the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. “We plan to seek further review of the decision,” a company spokesperson said. “We have always disclosed our use of face recognition technology” that users can turn on and off. “Both corporations and the government are now on notice that this technology poses unique risks to people's privacy and safety,” said American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Nathan Freed Wessler. Meanwhile, reports suggest Hyp3r, a Facebook third-party marketing partner, collected public user data from Instagram users for a year without consent, despite its being meant to expire in 24 hours. Data included geolocation, bios, followers, metadata and photos. “So long as any company can operate in the U.S. as it does now, free of any strong consumer privacy and security laws to hold it accountable, companies will continue to turn a blind eye to user privacy and security violations,” said Public Knowledge Policy Fellow Dylan Gilbert.
The National Association of Attorneys General urged streaming services to protect young viewers from tobacco imagery in video content. In a letter released Wednesday, 43 state and territory AGs said the companies should eliminate or exclude tobacco imagery in future original streamed content for young viewers; designate as such tobacco-free content for all ages; allow controls to restrict access to content with tobacco imagery, regardless of rating; and stream “strong anti-smoking and/or anti-vaping Public Service Announcements, as appropriate, before all content with tobacco imagery.” The letters were sent to 13 companies, including Amazon.com, Comcast, Discovery, Google and Viacom, NAAG said. The companies didn't comment.
Twitter should ban white supremacists from its platform, Change the Terms said Wednesday, days before the two-year anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Joining the petition is Susan Bro, whose daughter, Heather Heyer, was killed during the rally. “Social-media companies must enforce their terms of service against hate in ways that safeguard public safety and our right to free speech,” said Bro. A Twitter spokesperson cited vigorous enforcement of key policy tenets regarding extremism and hateful conduct. In its most recent reporting period, the platform suspended 166,513 unique accounts for violations related to promotion of terrorism.