A guide through terra incognita.
Roe v. Wade Repeal Prompts New Guidelines From HHS on Patient Privacy Under HIPAA
The overturn of Roe v. Wade has left thousands of patients seeking abortions in a tough spot across the United States, forced to travel to other states to seek care and concerned about facing criminal charges in their home state if they do. The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued new guidelines in response, laying out federal protections for patient privacy under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and providing guidance for individuals in protecting their personal phones and devices.
… The new OCR guidelines focus on two specific areas: what federal-level protections are offered under the umbrella of HIPAA’s patient privacy protections, and how patients can protect their phones and internet history from potential snooping and subpoenas. OCR has also said that patients who believe HIPAA has been violated can file complaints directly with the agency.
Every camera. Every where. All the time.
https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/11/san_francisco_police_private_security_cameras/
San Francisco cops want real-time access to private security cameras for surveillance
… The proposal [PDF] expands San Francisco's 2019 surveillance ordinance, which, among other things, requires the police to seek authorization from the public and elected officials before acquiring and deploying surveillance systems. So if it weren't for this law, the cops could monitor citizens without the public even knowing.
The 2019 law also limited the cops' access to and usage of real-time video footage from things like Internet-of-Things cameras and security CCTV, and the police department and mayor say this hamstrings their ability to fight crime.
The new proposal – championed by Mayor London Breed after November's wild weekend of orchestrated burglaries and theft in the San Francisco Bay Area – would authorize the police department to use non-city-owned security cameras and camera networks to live monitor "significant events with public safety concerns" and ongoing felony or misdemeanor violations.
Currently, the police can only request historical footage from private cameras related to specific times and locations, rather than blanket monitoring. Mayor Breed also complained the police can only use real-time feeds in emergencies involving "imminent danger of death or serious physical injury."
A can of worms…
Court temporarily blocks Arizona law granting ‘personhood’ to fetuses
A federal judge in Arizona on Monday temporarily blocked a state law granting “personhood” to unborn fetuses from taking effect.
U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Rayes wrote in his ruling that Arizona’s law was vague and therefore deprived plaintiffs of their due process rights.
(Related) Definitions are important.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/11/us/pregnant-woman-hov-lane/index.html
A pregnant woman got a ticket for driving in the HOV lane in Texas. She says her fetus was her passenger
Brandy Bottone was driving in the HOV lane meant for at least two people per vehicle in Dallas, Texas, two weeks ago when she was pulled over by police. The officer noted there didn't seem to be anyone else in the car, but Bottone had a retort – she was 34 weeks pregnant.
"He said, 'Is there somebody else in the car?' And, looking around, I said, 'Yes there is,' and he said 'Well, where?' I pointed at my stomach and I was like, 'Right here,'" she told CNN on Sunday.
"He said, 'Well, it's two bodies outside of the body, so that doesn't count.' I was kind of in shock, and I was like, 'Well, in light of everything that's happened, and I'm not trying to make a huge political stance here, but do you understand that this is a baby?'"
The interaction, first reported by The Dallas Morning News, came days after the US Supreme Court ruled there is no federal right to abortion and declared abortion rights can be determined by each state. Texas, like other states led by conservative officials, has pushed to restrict abortion and has defined a fetus or unborn baby as a "person" in its penal code.
Perspective. Are we seeing ‘justifications’ for war? Any significance to this change in language?
US warns it will defend ally if China breaks sea ruling
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington is obligated to defend treaty ally Philippines if its forces, vessels or aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters.
… China did not participate in the arbitration, rejected its ruling as a sham and continues to defy it, bringing it into territorial spats with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian claimant states in recent years.
Tools & Techniques.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-ai-image-analysis-tool/456724/#close
Free Google AI Image Analysis Tool For Image Recognition
Google offers an AI image classification tool that analyzes images to classify the content and assign labels to them.
The tool is intended as a demonstration of Google Vision, which can scale image classification on an automated basis but can be used as a standalone tool to see how an image detection algorithm views your images and what they’re relevant for.
Even if you don’t use the Google Vision API to scale image detection and classification, the tool provides an interesting view into what Google’s image-related algorithms are capable of, which makes it interesting to upload images to see how Google’s Vision algorithm classifies them.
This tool demonstrates Google’s AI and Machine Learning algorithms for understanding images.
It’s a part of Google’s Cloud Vision API suite that offers vision machine learning models for apps and websites.
Tools & Techniques. I hope my students go beyond Wikipedia…
https://gizmodo.com/meta-ai-wikipedia-citations-bot-facebook-1849166322
Meta's New Bot ‘Sphere’ Can Crawl Through Wikipedia to Certify Citations
Students trying to complete last minute term papers may feel a little bit better trawling through Wikipedia for their midnight “research.” Meta announced a new artificial intelligence model that researchers claim can help make Wikipedia entries more accurate.
As first reported by TechCrunch, Meta’s new open source AI may be how the company—notably known for its issues with content moderation —better finds and snuffs out fake news or disinformation. The company’s AI team released a blog post Monday describing “Sphere,” which is reportedly capable of scanning hundreds of thousands of citations at once.
Because I want to write right, right?
https://www.bespacific.com/sentence-rephraser/
Sentence Rephraser
“Using machine learning, Ginger’s tools keep up to date with the way language usage evolves. Works across all websites, tools and devices. Get suggestions from Ginger while posting a Tweet, writing on Gmail, drafting a Word document, and anywhere you write. Ginger goes beyond spelling and grammar. It takes into account full sentences to suggest context-based corrections. This drastically speeds up your writing – especially for long emails or documents. With Ginger, the AI-powered writing assistant, correct your texts, improve your style and boost your creativity. [Free and business versions available for Mac and PC]
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