Security News
In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, facial recognition technology is being adopted globally as a way to track the virus' spread. But privacy experts worry that, in the rush to implement COVID-19 tracking capabilities, important and deep rooted issues around data collection and storage, user consent, and surveillance will be brushed under the rug. "While facial recognition technology provides a fast and zero-contact method for identifying individuals, the technology is not without risks. Primarily, individuals scanned by facial recognition services need to be aware of how their data is being used."
In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, facial recognition technology is being adopted globally as a way to track the virus' spread. But privacy experts worry that, in the rush to implement COVID-19 tracking capabilities, important and deep rooted issues around data collection and storage, user consent, and surveillance will be brushed under the rug. "While facial recognition technology provides a fast and zero-contact method for identifying individuals, the technology is not without risks. Primarily, individuals scanned by facial recognition services need to be aware of how their data is being used."
Welcome to Hong Kong, traveler, and to the mandatory, Disney MagicBand-esque tracking wristband we're about to slap onto your potentially infectious arm. As the area undergoes a COVID-19 resurgence, mostly brought in by travelers coming from European, US and Asian countries, it's now enforcing the quarantine on all incoming travelers, with the wristbands helping to ensure that they adhere to movement restrictions.
Authorities in the United States and Israel are eyeing ways to use mobile-phone and other location-based data to help control the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19, raising serious privacy concerns about the practice of using and sharing people's personal data during the time of a global health crisis. The government is mulling this potential compiling of people's personal and location-specific data with the purpose of mapping the spread of infection and using this knowledge to provide solutions to the problem, according to the report.
43% of IT professionals report using spreadsheets as one of their resources for tracking assets, according to Ivanti. Another time-intensive process for IT professionals is dealing with out-of-warranty/out-of-support-policy assets, with 28% of respondents reporting they spend hours per week supporting these assets.
Last month, engineers at Google published a very curious privacy bug in Apple's Safari web browser. Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention, a feature designed to reduce user tracking, has vulnerabilities that themselves allow user tracking.
Australian courier company Toll has shut down several of its key systems after a "Security incident" last week, prompting a backlash from frustrated customers. A Reg reader who spoke to service reps over the phone told us Toll employees have been unable to provide information about their packages, or even to access their internal tracking database.
Semtech, a leading supplier of high performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms, announced the release of its Asset Tracking Reference Kit to accelerate the adoption of asset tracking solutions based on LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol, and facilitate the confirmation of the business value of such solutions. "For companies that need indoor presence detection and outdoor geolocation, the Semtech Asset Tracking Reference Kit illustrates how easily LoRaWAN private network coverage can be achieved in combination with geolocation," said Pierre Gelpí, Director of Vertical Marketing for Logistics Asset Tracking in Semtech's Wireless and Sensing Products Group.
Apple's latest security fixes, released Tuesday, tackle a wide range of bugs, including several patches for high-risk flaws that could allow for remote code execution. The fixes address vulnerabilities in Apple's Xcode, watchOS, Safari, iTunes for Windows, iOS, iPadOS, macOS and tvOS. The most severe of the bugs include four RCE flaws in Apple TV's operating system, tvOS - each rated high-severity.
To comply with California's new data privacy law, companies that collect information on consumers and users are forced to be more transparent about it. The form proceeds to state that, as part of signing up for a rewards card, Ralphs "May collect" information such as "Your level of education, type of employment, information about your health and information about insurance coverage you might carry."