In the news...
- The Age-Gated Internet Is Sweeping the US. Activists Are Fighting Back [wired.com]
Last week, "members of Congress considered 19 online safety bills that may soon have a major impact on the future of the internet as age-verification laws have spread to half of the US and around the world."
"Many of the proposed bills include a clause for ID or age verification, which forces people to upload an ID, allow a face scan, or otherwise authenticate that they are not a minor before viewing adult content. Fight for the Future says the policies will lead to increased censorship and surveillance.” You can learn more about Fight for the Future's "Stop Online ID Checks" Week of Action here.
- Amazon's Ring Rolls Out Controversial, AI-Powered Facial-Recognition Feature to Video Doorbells [techcrunch.com]
"Amazon’s Ring doorbells will now be able to identify your visitors through a new AI-powered facial-recognition feature.” The rollout comes with serious privacy concerns.
"Given Amazon’s willingness to work with law enforcement and digital surveillance providers, combined with its poor security track record, we’d suggest Ring owners, at the very least, be careful about identifying anyone using their proper name; better yet, keep the feature disabled and just look to see who it is. Not everything needs an AI upgrade."
- How to Disable ACR on Your TV (and Why It Makes Such a Big Difference) [zdnet.com]
Cozying up at home with holiday movie marathons? That festive cheer is being surveilled by your Smart TV... but you can stop it.
"Most mainstream TVs use automatic content recognition (ACR), a type of ad-tracking technology that collects data on everything you watch and sends it to a central database. Manufacturers then use this information to understand your viewing habits and deliver highly targeted ads... But the most disturbing part is the potential for exploitation. In the wrong hands, sensitive information gathered through ACR could be exploited or misused, which may result in security risks or, at worst, identity theft."
Want to turn off ACR? The how-two guides in this article cover five major television brands.
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