Better security?
Major web
browsers will support web-based fingerprint, facial authentication
“The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the entity
that maintains the standards used across the internet, said
on Monday, April 9, that Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla signed
on to support web-based technology for biometric authentication.
In other words, Chrome,
Edge, and Firefox will soon support signing
into online accounts using fingerprint scanners, voice
authentication, facial recognition, and so on without additional
software. The support for biometric logins stems from the
Web
Authentication (WebAuthn) standard submitted by the Fast Identity
Online (FIDO) Alliance, another consortium focused on security
solutions. It defines how browsers can utilize a component built
into web pages that can access biometric-based hardware without any
additional software or browser plugins installed on the user’s
machine. Moreover, WebAuthn supports FIDO’s Client
to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP). This specification enables an
external device, such as a security key or smartphone, to
authenticate an account or service through USB, Bluetooth, or NFC
connectivity. Thus, if your desktop or laptop doesn’t include a
fingerprint scanner or infrared camera, an external device could work
as a substitute...”
Tools for personal Privacy.
Latest
update to Privacy Badger brings a new onboarding process and other
improvements
“The
new onboarding process will make Privacy Badger easier to use and
understand. These latest changes are just some of the many
improvements EFF has made to the project, with more to come! Privacy
Badger was created with the objective of protecting users from
third-party tracking across the web—all users. To do this, Privacy
Badger needed a couple of key features:
-
The ability to catch sneaky trackers without completely breaking your browsing experience when possible.
-
Simple to use and understand.
Privacy Badger uses heuristics, meaning it
observes and learns who is tracking you rather than maintaining a
manual list of trackers. Even if there is a third-party tracker that
is rather unknown, or new, Privacy Badger will see that tracker. If
your Privacy Badger sees the tracker three times, it will block that
tracker so you don’t have to wait for someone to eventually update
that list. It’s also a matter of trust—Privacy Badger blocks by
behavior and not by a third-party controlled list that might
be sold to advertisers. Second, we try to make Privacy Badger
simple and informative. Your Privacy Badger learns on its own and
displays a badge showing how many trackers it has seen. If it breaks
a website’s functionality, you can quickly disable Privacy Badger
on that site…”
Are you keeping score?
Transcript
of Zuckerberg’s appearance before House committee
Perspective. If a disease is rare, doctors need a
tool like this to ensure they catch it. Doctors already rely on
experts for skills like reading x-rays, why not trust machines when
diagnosis relies on simple measurements?
AI software
that helps doctors diagnose like specialists is approved by FDA
For the first time, the US
Food and Drug Administration has approved
an artificial intelligence diagnostic device that doesn’t need
a specialized doctor to interpret the results. The software program,
called IDx-DR, can detect a form of eye disease by looking at photos
of the retina.
It works like this: A nurse
or doctor
uploads photos of the patient’s retina taken with a special retinal
camera. The IDx-DR software algorithm first indicates whether
the image uploaded is high-quality enough to get a result. Then, it
analyzes the images to determine whether the patient does or does not
have diabetic retinopathy, a form of eye disease where too much blood
sugar damages the blood vessels in the back of the eye. Diabetic
retinopathy is the most common vision complication for people with
diabetes, but is still fairly rare — there are about
200,00 cases per year.
Gee. It sounded like such a good idea.
Anti-Trafficking
Bill May Endanger The Lives of Sex Workers
On Wednesday, President Trump signed House
Resolution 1865, commonly known under the acronym FOSTA, or Fight
Online Sex Trafficking Act. The
bill makes websites liable for what users say and do on their
platforms, and gives federal and state prosecutors and
attorney generals greater power to prosecute, in criminal and civil
court, sites they believe are hosting sex trafficking ads.
Many advocacy groups have come forward to denounce
the bill for undermining
essential internet freedoms and endangering
the lives of consensual sex workers.
On Friday, before
the bill had gone into effect, Representative Mimi Walters
tweeted that, “Thanks to #FOSTA with my #SESTA Amendment the
Department of Justice has seized backpage.com and affiliated websites
that have knowingly facilitated the sale of underage minors for
commercial sex.”
Counter to this claim, however, is the indictment
that shows Backpage owners
and staff have not been charged with trafficking, but
rather with money laundering, and violation of the Travel
Act for facilitating prostitution.
For many advocates, the distinction between
trafficking and consensual sex work is conflated in this bill,
creating dangerous situations for those engaged in sexual labor. By
taking away relatively affordable advertising platforms for the sex
trade that allow participants the time and agency to vet clients, the
bill may, in fact, force sex workers to solicit unvetted clients on
the streets and rely on pimps for safety.
Better student presentations?
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