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NY AG wants answers on Madison Square Garden's use of facial recognition against legal opponents
New York Attorney General Letitia James sent a letter to MSG Entertainment after the company denied entry to lawyers working for firms involved in active litigation against the company.
Microsoft patent aims to curb your enthusiasm in the office
You might think working for tech royalty out west is all beanbags and 20 percent time. And it might well be. But if your paychecks say Microsoft, you might want to be careful how you spend that extra down-time. A patent with the snappy title Organizational Behavior Monitoring Analysis and Influence describes a system devised by the company to monitor employee interactions. Everything from cutting people off in conversation, to the verbal phrases and mannerisms used over "multi-modal communications" (e-mail, phone and so on) is covered. The aim of the Orwellian system is "defining desired and undesired behaviors for enhancing organizational trust levels" and it's not the first time Microsoft has made such sinister sounding patent applications. OK, so there is nothing saying exactly what this might be for, or if this would ever be used to monitor its own employees. That said, if your parking space isn't there on Monday, you might want to backtrack through the previous week's water-cooler diatribes.
SoCal mall installs 'Find Your Car' kiosks in parking garage to help you find your car -- and others find you?
Big Brother's watching us on public streets and in our homes, and now he's fixed his gaze on shopping malls -- under the guise of helping us find our cars in a mall parking garage. Santa Monica Place has installed Park Assist's M3 Camera Vision system with "Find Your Car" kiosks that allow wayward shoppers to punch in their license plate number to receive a picture of their auto and its whereabouts. It utilizes a network of cameras to capture each car's location and read the plate, and has a central control system that can dole out firmware upgrades as more (nefarious?) needs arise. A similar system is used at Heathrow Airport, though the British version snaps a photo of your plates upon entry and tracks cars with infrared cameras -- as opposed to Park Assist's use of hi-res cameras to capture an image of your plate once you've parked. While helping people find their cars is an admirable goal, the system seems rife with opportunities for abuse because the footage is privately owned -- meaning the car location information could be sold to anyone, including that crazy ex-girlfriend of yours. As for us, we'd rather not exchange a walk-on part in the war to maintain our privacy for a lead role in another video cage. We're just fine remembering things the old-fashioned way, thanks.
England puts CCTVs in the homes of lousy parents
We love England, especially the way they use all these adorable names for things: "lorry," for truck, or "loo" for bathroom, or "sin bin" for an Orwellian program whereby "problem families" (currently numbering 2,000, but someday as many as 20,000) are placed under 24/7 CCTV surveillance in their own homes. Chris Grayling, something called the "Shadow Home Secretary," puts it thusly: "This Government has been in power for more than a decade during which time anti-social behavior, family breakdown and problems like alcohol abuse and truancy have just got worse and worse." Meaning, of course, that cameras must be moved from the streets of England into people's homes, where they'll be used to make sure that kids go to school, go to bed at a decent hour, and eat proper meals. If only they'd had programs like this when we were kids -- maybe things would have turned out differently.
The Shack: You have questions, we have propaganda
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/04/the-shack-you-have-questions-we-have-propaganda/'; tweetmeme_source = 'engadget'; Here are some of the memorable catchphrases you can expect from the retailer formerly known as Radio Shack's rebranding, as caught on camera from an anonymous tipster: "The Shack is fluent in mobile. The Shack is a big hug for your mobile life. The Shack is music to your ears. The Shack is your path to wireless wisdom. The Shack helps you get it right. The Shack is like a GPS to your GPS. The Shack knows what you want to hear. The Shack is not camera-shy." The Shack is not at war with Eastasia. The Shack has never been at war with Eastasia.
DSS surveillance tech from Japan makes George Orwell upset
We take a break from reporting on the impending doom of the human race to bring you news of the latest innovation designed specifically for making our pre-apocalypse lives miserable. Japanese firm DSS is now offering to snap video cameras and ankle sensors -- yes, the same kind that convicts under home arrest have to wear -- onto your employees for the ultimate in workplace surveillance. Sure, you might find out Bob in accounting takes a really long lunch, but do you really need to spend $20,000 and piss off your entire workforce to prove that? Just stalk his Tweets and Facebook status updates like a good old-fashioned employer would do.
