facial recognition tech sucks
ICE uses its version to determine US and foreign iden ies in the field
Amazon’s face surveillance technology is the target of growing opposition nationwide, and today, there are 28 more causes for concern. In a test the ACLU recently conducted of the facial recognition tool, called “Rekognition,” the software incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress, identifying them as other people who have been arrested for a crime.
The members of Congress who were falsely matched with the mugshot database we used in the test include Republicans and Democrats, men and women, and legislators of all ages, from all across the country.
Our test used Amazon Rekognition to compare images of members of Congress with a database of mugshots. The results included 28 incorrect matches.
The false matches were disproportionately of people of color, including six members of the Congressional Black Caucus, among them civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). These results demonstrate why Congress should join the ACLU in calling for a moratorium on law enforcement use of face surveillance.
To conduct our test, we used the exact same facial recognition system that Amazon offers to the public, which anyone could use to scan for matches between images of faces. And running the entire test cost us $12.33 — less than a large pizza
.
Tell Amazon to get out of the surveillance business
Using Rekognition, we built a face database and search tool using 25,000 publicly available arrest photos. Then we searched that database against public photos of every current member of the House and Senate. We used the default match settings that Amazon sets for Rekognition.
Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) was falsely identified by Amazon Rekognition as someone who had been arrested for a crime.
Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a lawsuit by U.S. school districts against Meta and other social media platforms.
foreign troll bots influencing/scamming Americans were exposed too
foreign generated US right-wing rage bait on X
extreme free speech, like El0n promised
Amazon is screwing governments and schools with dynamic pricing
(to be fair, the localities bound themselves contractually to Amazon's depredations, bad on them)
the tone is inflammatory, but so is the Trump regime's tyrannical enforcement of immigration
https://futurism.com/future-society/...ng-cameras-iceAs US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wreak havoc on American communities, big tech companies have been making themselves indispensable to the increasingly tyrannical state.
Among them is Amazon subsidiary Ring, the company behind those AI doorbell cameras that have exploded in popularity over the last few years. Back in October, Ring announced that its devices would soon be looped into a network of Flock AI surveillance cameras. That network, an investigation by 404 Media found, has been available to local and federal police and enforcement agencies like ICE — leaving many worried that their Ring doorbell cams are now feeding into a government panopticon.
Wired with recipts
DHS determines immigration status and probable cause with a facial recognition tool that isn't designed to do that.
Reportedly, Americans are recorded for administrative purposes by DHS too.
https://www.wired.com/story/cbp-ice-...rify-iden y/The face-recognition appMobile Fortify, nowused by United States immigration agentsin towns and cities across the US, is not designed to reliably identify people in the streets and was deployed without the scrutiny that has historically governed the rollout of technologies that impact people’s privacy, according to records reviewed by WIRED.
it's kind of how police dogs are used to create probable cause with false positives
blast from the past
until training on the use of body cams got regularized, cops filmed themselves planting drugs on people
https://gizmodo.com/cops-planting-dr...ras-2000718559In Los Angeles, yet another incident happened in April 2017, where a police officer could be seen planting drugs.
CBS 2 in L.A. reported that the officer picked up some cocaine and placed it in a suspect’s wallet. The news outlet explained: “After allegedly putting the drugs in the wallet, it appears the LAPD officer activated the recording on his camera. But the previous 30 seconds is automatically saved.”
Amazon is screwing governments and schools with dynamic pricing
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/mary...lance-pricing/Maryland is set to become the first US state to ban surveillance pricing in retail grocery stores, after the legislature last week passed the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act.
Also known as dynamic or personalized pricing, surveillance pricing is when a store charges different shoppers different prices for the same item at the same time, based on something the store “knows” about them as an individual.
Governor Wes Moore said he will sign the bill into law, which stops large retailers from using personal data to change prices in real-time, while still allowing for promotional offers and loyalty program benefits.
Google Search prioritizes AI slop
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/...i-22279112.phpGoogle was already attempting to steer users toward stolen content by auto-populating the top of every search with an artificial intelligence overview, followed by sponsored links and sometimes a bunch of other unwanted crap. If you want purely web-based search results from Google, you now have to hunt around for the “Web” filter in one of Google’s submenus. Or you have to manually input code into your search so that the AI demon isn’t the first thing you see. And that’s if you actually care about what you’re searching for. Many people don’t; they’ll get a top-line answer from AI and deem it not worth the trouble to click or scroll any further.
This is why, when Google’s algorithm de-prioritized external links, it killed off traffic to all publishing sites, this one included,by about a quarter or more virtually overnight. Sites like SFGATE need traffic to survive, and writers like me need those sites to stay alive if we hope to remain gainfully employed by them. Now Google, which is set as the default search engine in nearly every piece of tech you consume, is poised to cut off their oxygen supply altogether. So if you’ve recently asked yourself, “How can they kill journalism even deader?” — this is how.
Changing IPO rules so SpaceX insiders can soak passive investors
https://prospect.org/2026/05/20/elon...cex-stock-ipo/The NASDAQ stock exchange used to require a company to have at least 10 percent of its stock publicly traded, and see it traded for at least three months, before being able to join. Those rules are now gone; SpaceX will be eligible after just 15 trading days and with less than 5 percent of its stock available to the public. The S&P 500 reform now under discussion is removing the requirement that companies be profitable (as SpaceX is not, as will be seen below)—but only for the largest 100 companies.
“Historically, the function of IPOs has been to allow insiders to cash out,” said economist J.W. Mason, co-author of the recent book Against Money (for which, full disclosure, I provided a blurb). Thanks to these rule changes, a large fraction of the bag holders will be passive investors—which is to say, basically everyone saving for retirement. “It will be impossible to not own them … This will be really helpful for demand,” one adviser to the deal told the Financial Times.
tough break for El0n, S&P didn't change the indexing rules for SpaceX's IPO
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