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Epic removed police cars from 'Fortnite'
Epic has removed police cars from 'Fortnite' in an apparent bid to be sensitive to current events.
Nextdoor pulls 'Forward to Police' feature amid concerns over racist abuse
Nextdoor has removed its 'Forward to Police' feature after concerns of abuse and a lack of demand.
Microsoft won't sell facial recognition to police without federal regulation
Microsoft is joining Amazon in halting police access to facial recognition until there's regulation in place.
Amazon places 'moratorium' on police use of its facial recognition tech
Amazon will put a 'moratorium' on use of its Rekognition facial recognition tech to give Congress time to implement new ethics laws.
Microsoft employees ask the company to end contracts with Seattle police
Hundreds of Microsoft employees are calling on the company to cancel its contracts with the Seattle Police Department.
Police reform bill proposes mandatory body cameras for federal officers
Congressional Democrats have unveiled a sweeping police reform bill with the aim of overhauling law enforcement in the US.
The UK is cracking down on sales of fraudulent ‘anti-5G’ USB sticks
Police in the UK are attempting to stop the sale of a £283 USB key that claims to protect against the supposed dangers of 5G spectrum.
Ford disinfects police cruisers by 'roasting' them
Ford's software cranks the heat in police cruisers to disinfect them and slow the spread of COVID-19.
District judge rules FBI needs a warrant to access your lock screen
A Washington state judge ruled that the FBI needs a search warrant to look at a suspect's lock screen.
Sphero spins off a new company to make robots for police, military use
Robotic toy maker Sphero is spinning its public safety division into a new company focused on robots for first responders, government and defense.
Recommended Reading: What happens when bands don't tour
How coronavirus is destroying the livelihood of music's behind-the-scenes workforce Samantha Hissong, Rolling Stone By now, you've watched, or at least heard about, a musician who's cooped up at home turning to livestreams to connect with fans. While that does give the masses some form of entertainment to replace live events and tours, it doesn't help the behind-the-scenes crew who are out of work for the foreseeable future. Rolling Stone explains how stage crew, venue employees and more have been struggling since the all events came to a halt earlier this month.
San Diego police ban Clearview AI's facial recognition tool
The backlash to Clearview AI's facial recognition tool is extending beyond tech companies and civil liberties groups. San Diego's police department and district attorney's office have confirmed that they banned use of Clearview AI in recent weeks. However, that wasn't before they were used in free trials. Police Lieutenant Shawn Takeuchi said that two detectives used Clearview for investigating financial crimes in tandem with "partners in the banking industry," while the DA office's Steve Walker said that eight investigators tried the tech in cases that didn't lead to charges.
Google location data led police to investigate an innocent cyclist
Those concerns about police indiscriminately collecting Google location data have some grounding in the real world. NBC News has revealed that police inadvertently made a suspect of an innocent cyclist, Gainesville, Florida resident Zachary McCoy, after using a geofence warrant (collecting all location data around the scene of a crime) to look for leads in a March 2019 burglary. McCoy had been using RunKeeper to track his biking, and had passed by the victim's house three times in the space of an hour -- enough to raise eyebrows among investigators looking for suspicious info.
Ring footage might not be very useful for catching criminals
Ring has said that camera footage sent to police can help reduce burglaries and catch criminals, but how effective is it, really? It might not be as helpful as you might think. NBC News has conducted an investigation suggesting that Ring's video doorbells and security cameras haven't been of much use to at least some police forces. Of the 40 law enforcement agencies the news outlet reached, just 13 said they'd made arrests after reviewing Ring footage, while two offered rough estimates. The remainder either made zero arrests (13 agencies) or didn't know how effective Ring had been despite partnerships that had lasted more than a year.
NYPD will replace handwritten logs with an iPhone app later this month
After more than a century, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) is retiring the handwritten memo books carried by police officers and replacing them with an app, The New York Times reports. On February 17th, officers will begin recording their detailed activity logs in an iOS app on department-issued iPhones.
Google tells facial recognition startup Clearview AI to stop scraping photos
Following Twitter, Google and YouTube have become the latest companies to send a cease-and-desist letter to Clearview AI, the startup behind a controversial facial recognition program that more than 600 police departments across North American use. Clearview came under scrutiny earlier this year when The New York Times showed that the company had been scraping billions of images on the internet to build its database of faces. Google has demanded Clearview stop scraping YouTube videos for its database, as well as delete any photos it has already collected.
Ring update gives you more control over police video requests
Ring is acting on its promises to improve privacy and security in 2020. The Amazon brand has introduced a Control Center in the Ring mobile app that aims to deliver more control over access and sharing. Most notably, there's a toggle to opt out of law enforcement video requests -- you don't have to wait to receive one before making a decision. Ring is unsurprisingly encouraging customers to leave it on (it has police partnerships to maintain) in the name of neighborhood security, but it's at least acknowledging that some users are uncomfortable with serving as de facto eyes for police officers.
London police begin using live facial recognition tech across the capital
London's Metropolitan Police Service has begun using live facial recognition (LFR) technology. At key areas throughout the city, signposted cameras will scan the faces of passing people, alerting officers to potential matches with wanted criminals. According to the Met, "this will help tackle serious crime, including serious violence, gun and knife crime, child sexual exploitation and help protect the vulnerable".
The UK will fine technology companies who fail to protect children
Technology companies that have produced used by children will need to radically redesign their systems after the UK laid down new privacy standards. The Information Commissioner's Office's new code of conduct covers everyone from social media platforms to the makers of internet-connected toys. And failure to comply with the new rules, expected to come into force by 2021, will see hefty fines being meted out.
Law enforcement is using a facial recognition app with huge privacy issues
You may have good reason to be worried that police use of facial recognition might erode your privacy -- many departments are already using software with serious privacy concerns. The New York Times has learned that over 600 law enforcement agencies in the US and Canada have signed up in the past year to use software from little-known startup Clearview AI that can match uploaded photos (even those with imperfect angles) against over three billion images reportedly scraped from the web, including Facebook and YouTube. While it has apparently helped solve some cases, it also creates massive privacy concerns -- police could intimidate protesters, stalk people and otherwise abuse the system with few obstacles.
