Submit! Prove your innocence to our satisfaction.

https://reason.com/2025/11/03/dont-want-ice-to-scan-your-face-too-bad-you-might-not-have-a-choice/

Don't Want ICE To Scan Your Face? Too Bad, You Might Not Have A Choice.

The Trump administration's immigration crackdown has put more federal immigration officers in public view and equipped them with new facial recognition technology. One of these tools is Mobile Fortify, an app that lets agents collect photos and biometric data like fingerprints on the spot—and people have no chance to refuse. With Mobile Fortify, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers can photograph anyone they encounter and run the image through Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases, including Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Traveler Verification Service, which stores photos of people entering the United States. Mobile Fortify performs an instant match and returns identifying details—such as name, nationality, and any deportation orders—while the photo remains in government files for 15 years, even for U.S. citizens.

While the quiet expansion of the surveillance state is troubling enough, a February DHS document recently obtained by 404 Media through a Freedom of Information Act request reveals that federal immigration agents don't allow individuals to consent before collecting this sensitive data. "ICE does not provide the opportunity for individuals to decline or consent to the collection and use of biometric data," the document states.

Does the quest for security make this inevitable?

https://www.bespacific.com/the-legal-case-against-rings-face-recognition-feature/

The Legal Case Against Ring’s Face Recognition Feature

EFF: “Amazon Ring’s upcoming face recognition tool has the potential to violate the privacy rights of millions of people and could result in Amazon breaking state biometric privacy laws. Ring plans to introduce a feature to its home surveillance cameras called “Familiar Faces,” to identify specific people who come into view of the camera. When turned on, the feature will scan the faces of all people who approach the camera to try and find a match with a list of pre-saved faces. This will include many people who have not consented to a face scan, including friends and family, political canvassers, postal workers, delivery drivers, children selling cookies, or maybe even some people passing on the sidewalk.  When turned on, the feature will scan the faces of all people who approach the camera. Many biometric privacy laws across the country are clear: Companies need your affirmative consent before running face recognition on you. In at least one state, ordinary people with the help of attorneys can challenge Amazon’s data collection. Where not possible, state privacy regulators should step in. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has already called on Amazon to abandon its plans and sent the company a list of questions. Ring spokesperson Emma Daniels answered written questions posed by EFF, which can be viewed here …”

In case you missed it.

https://www.bespacific.com/are-we-losing-our-democracy/

Are We Losing Our Democracy?

Opinion, The Editorial Board, The New York Times, October 31, 2025. Gift Article  – Countries that slide from democracy toward autocracy tend to follow similar patterns. To measure what is happening in the United States, the Times editorial board has compiled a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion, with help from scholars who have studied this phenomenon. The sobering reality is that the United States has regressed, to different degrees, on all 12. Our country is still not close to being a true autocracy, in the mold of Russia or China. But once countries begin taking steps away from democracy, the march often continues. We offer these 12 markers as a warning of how much Americans have already lost and how much more we still could lose.

No. 1: Authoritarian takeovers in the modern era often do not start with a military coup. They instead involve an elected leader who uses the powers of the office to consolidate authority and make political opposition more difficult, if not impossible. Think of Vladimir Putin in Russia, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and, to lesser degrees, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India. These leaders have repressed dissent and speech in heavy-handed ways. Over the past year, President Trump and his allies have impinged on free speech to a degree that the federal government has not since perhaps the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s. His administration pressured television stations to stop airing Jimmy Kimmel’s talk show when Mr. Kimmel criticized Trump supporters after the murder of Charlie Kirk; revoked the visas of foreign students for their views on the war in Gaza; and ordered investigations of liberal nonprofit groups. Mr. Trump so harshly criticizes people who disagree with him, including federal judges, that they become targets of harassment from his supporters…

Get your AI to chat about this…

https://fpf.org/blog/understanding-the-new-wave-of-chatbot-legislation-california-sb-243-and-beyond/

Understanding the New Wave of Chatbot Legislation: California SB 243 and Beyond

As more states consider how to govern AI-powered chatbots, California’s SB 243 joins New York’s S-3008C as one of the first few enacted laws governing companion chatbots and stands out as the first to include protections tailored to minors. Signed by Governor Gavin Newsom this month, the law focuses on transparency and youth safety, requiring “companion chatbot” operators to adopt new disclosure and risk-mitigation measures. Notably, because SB 243 creates a private right of action for injured individuals, the law has drawn attention for its potential implications for significant damage claims.

The law’s passage comes amid a broader wave of state activity on chatbot legislation. As detailed in the Future of Privacy Forum’s State of State AI Report, 2025 was the first year multiple states introduced or enacted bills explicitly targeting chatbots, including Utah, New York, California, and Maine1. This growing attention reflects both the growing integration of chatbots into daily life–for instance, tools that personalize learning, travel, or writing–and increasing calls for transparency and user protection2.

Perspective.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/gartner-just-dropped-its-2026-tech-trends-and-its-not-all-ai-heres-the-list/

Gartner just dropped its 2026 tech trends - and it's not all AI: Here's the list

“Papers please” may be obsolete.

https://pogowasright.org/dhs-proposes-biometrics-expansion-for-immigrants-dropping-age-restrictions-and-requiring-biometrics-from-some-us-citizens/

DHS proposes biometrics expansion for immigrants, dropping age restrictions and requiring biometrics from some US citizens

Natalie Alms reports:

The Department of Homeland Security is looking to ratchet up its collection of biometrics in the immigration system.

Under a rule proposed Monday, the department would set up a biometric identity system to track people throughout the immigration lifecycle. The new regulation would expand who DHS can require biometrics from — including U.S. citizens as well as children — and what types of biometrics it can collect.

Specifically, it centers on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which already collects some biometrics — like a face photo or fingerprint — when people apply for certain immigration benefits, like temporary resident status.

Now, DHS wants to set up a system to require biometrics from any person filing for an immigration benefit, as well as people “associated” with the application, a category DHS says could include U.S. citizens.

Read more at NextGov.

We wouldn’t want to offend anyone…

https://www.bespacific.com/60-minutes/

60 minutes

The New Republic – CBS Edits Out Trump Corruption Meltdown From 60 Minutes Interview: “One of the spiciest moments in Donald Trump’s interview with 60 Minutes never made it to air. CBS’s 60 Minutes aired an exclusive interview with Donald Trump on Sunday, but the news magazine cut out a contentious portion regarding the president’s pardon of a cryptocurrency billionaire. Trump’s televised interview was only 28 minutes long, with CBS also releasing a 73-minute extended cut online. But neither video contained Trump’s full answer after interviewer Norah O’Donnell asked the president about people he pardoned, specifically Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance. “I don’t know who he is,” Trump said about Zhao, despite the pardon coming just last month. “I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that, and I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.” O’Donnell pointed out that the Trump family had formed a cryptocurrency business with the Witkoff family, World Liberty Financial, and that after being pardoned, Binance struck a $2 billion deal with the Trump’s business. O’Donnell then asked Trump if he was “concerned about the appearance of corruption.” Trump’s full response was missing from video posted online but was in CBS’s published transcript.

See also TechDirt: 60 Minutes Edits Donald Trump Telling Them 60 Minutes Should Edit Donald Trump Talking About How 60 Minutes Paid Him For Editing Kamala Harris

Using or abusing AI?

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/11/ai-summarization-optimization.html

AI Summarization Optimization

These days, the most important meeting attendee isn’t a person: It’s the AI notetaker.

This system assigns action items and determines the importance of what is said. If it becomes necessary to revisit the facts of the meeting, its summary is treated as impartial evidence.

But clever meeting attendees can manipulate this system’s record by speaking more to what the underlying AI weights for summarization and importance than to their colleagues. As a result, you can expect some meeting attendees to use language more likely to be captured in summaries, timing their interventions strategically, repeating key points, and employing formulaic phrasing that AI models are more likely to pick up on. Welcome to the world of AI summarization optimization (AISO).

Perspective.

https://www.theverge.com/podcast/807136/lexisnexis-ceo-sean-fitzpatick-ai-lawyer-legal-chatgpt-interview

LexisNexis CEO says the AI law era is already here

Might be useful…

https://2025-aisola.isola-conference.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Its_Not_the_AI-Its_Us.pdf

It’s Not the AI – It’s Us!

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic idea - it is a daily companion embedded in and impacting our daily lives from education, work, to culture. Yet while AI appears to make life easier, its rise also initiates fundamental questions about who we are as humans. We believe that AI does not think, feel, or desire, but rather learns from our behavior, mirroring our collective values, biases, and aspirations. Thus, the issue is not what AI is becoming, but what we are becoming through AI. As the European Union’s Apply AI Strategy (2025) and the Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism (2019) emphasize, technology must serve human dignity, social well-being, and democratic accountability. We argue that the responsible use of AI begins not with code or law, but with conscient use - across individuals, families, and organizations. Here we propose the Ten Commandments for the Wise and Responsible Use of AI. This framework aligns closely with Floridi and Cowls (2019), who propose five guiding principles for AI in society - beneficence, non‑maleficence, autonomy, justice, and explicability - which underpin the ten commandments.

Rules? We don’t need no stinking rules!

https://www.cjr.org/analysis/how-ai-browsers-sneak-past-blockers-and-paywalls.php

How AI Browsers Sneak Past Blockers and Paywalls

Last week, OpenAI released Atlas, which joins a growing wave of AI browsers, including Perplexity’s Comet and Microsoft’s Copilot mode in Edge, that aim to transform how people interact with the Web. These AI browsers differ from Chrome or Safari in that they have “agentic capabilities,” or tools designed to execute complex, multistep tasks such as “look at my calendar and brief me for upcoming client meetings based on recent news.” 

AI browsers present new problems for media outlets, because agentic systems are making it even more difficult for publishers to know and control how their articles are being used. For instance, when we asked Atlas and Comet to retrieve the full text of a nine-thousand-word subscriber-exclusive article in the MIT Technology Review, the browsers were able to do it. When we issued the same prompt in ChatGPT’s and Perplexity’s standard interfaces, both responded that they could not access the article because the Review had blocked the companies’ crawlers.

Atlas and Comet were able to read the article for two reasons. The first is that, to a website, Atlas’s AI agent is indistinguishable from a person using a standard Chrome browser. When automated systems like crawlers and scrapers visit a website, they identify themselves using a digital ID that tells the site what kind of software is making the request and what its purpose is. Publishers can selectively block certain crawlers using the Robots Exclusion Protocol—and indeed many do. 

But as TollBit’s most recent State of the Bots report states, “The next wave of AI visitors [are] increasingly looking like humans.” Because AI browsers like Comet and Atlas appear in site logs as normal Chrome sessions, blocking them might also prevent legitimate human users from accessing a site. This makes it much more difficult for publishers to detect, block, or monitor these AI agents.