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Amazon accused of recording children without consent
Two US lawsuits filed against Amazon allege that the company's Alexa digital assistant technology “routinely records and voiceprints millions of children without their consent or the consent of their parents” (Gizmodo).
The cases highlight the fact that Amazon stores voice samples from every voice it hears – including users that have not been registered with Alexa – without gaining individual permission and refer to laws in nine US states that require all sides in any recorded interaction to grant explicit consent.
Earliest evidence of psychoactive cannabis use found in western China
A psychoactive strain of cannabis was burned 2,500 years ago in a Zoroastrian cemetery high in western China's Pamir Mountains (Science). Analysis of the residue found that, unlike some ancient hemp burning sites, the cannabis used had high levels of the psychoactive THC compound compared to wild strains, and mourners attending the tomb would have experienced its effects in the enclosed space.
Object recognition AI doesn't understand poorer countries and households
New research by Facebook's AI team has found that computer vision systems struggle to identify everyday household objects used in poorer countries and in poorer homes in wealthier nations (The Register).
In an excellent example of how training bias operates, five commercially available computer vision models all struggled to identify not only items for which there aren't common English-language names, but also simple objects such as ordinary bar soap – universally presumed by the AIs to be a foodstuff.
Bird-killing, cancer-causing 5G is the internet's new favourite conspiracy theory
On social media, forums and online blogs, anti-5G activists are attributing a bewildering range of maladies to 5G, including cancer, infertility, autism and Alzheimer’s (WIRED). In November 2018, a viral Facebook post blamed a 5G test mast for the mysterious death of 300 birds in the Netherlands (the test actually took place months earlier), while people in anti-5G groups share tips on how to smash down telephone masts. But how did an incremental upgrade in mobile networks turn into the internet’s favourite new conspiracy theory?
Football piracy detector app breached GDPR
Top Spanish football league LaLiga has been fined €250,000 (£222,584) for using the microphone and geolocation features of fans' smartphones to listen in on their surroundings in an attempt to locate bars that were showing matches without a licence (TechCrunch). Spain's AEPD data protection watchdog found this feature of LaLiga's official app to be in breach of GDPR, as it did not notify users when it was recording.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
