Corporate Cyber Complacency | ISIS’s New Strategy | Trust Governments with Facial Recognition Tech?, and more

chance on a repeat of the asteroid hit which killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Where Online Hate Speech Can Bring the Police to Your Door (Adam Satariano and Christopher F. Schuetze, New York Times)
When the police pounded the door before dawn at a home in northwest Germany, a bleary-eyed young man in his boxer shorts answered. The officers asked for his father, who was at work. They told him that his 51-year-old father was accused of violating laws against online hate speech, insults and misinformation. He had shared an image on Facebook with an inflammatory statement about immigration falsely attributed to a German politician. “Just because someone rapes, robs or is a serious criminal is not a reason for deportation,” the fake remark said. The police then scoured the home for about 30 minutes, seizing a laptop and tablet as evidence, prosecutors said. At that exact moment in March, a similar scene was playing out at about 100 other homes across Germany, part of a coordinated nationwide crackdown that continues to this day. After sharing images circulating on Facebook that carried a fake statement, the perpetrators had devices confiscated and some were fined. “We are making it clear that anyone who posts hate messages must expect the police to be at the front door afterward,” Holger Münch, the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, said after the March raids. Hate speech, extremism, misogyny and misinformation are well-known byproducts of the internet.

Tracking Covid-19 Cases in the U.S.  (Sergio Hernandez, Sean O’Key, Amanda Watts, Byron Manley, and Henrik Pettersson, CNN)
COVID-19 has infected over 96.07 million people and has now killed over 1.06 million people in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, there have been over 615.170 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 6.54 million deaths.

Can Government Be Trusted with Facial Recognition Technology?  (Girish Linganna, National Interest)
Facial recognition technology (FRT) is one of the foundational problems of artificial intelligence. Over time, there have been significant advancements in FRT hardware. Equipment like cameras and computers now pack more in the exact dimensions. This means that more powerful computers can be placed directly in the hands of a user with a powerful camera.
We have maintained that the face, as a biometric identification marker, is unique compared to other biometrics. The most crucial differentiation, however, is the power of consent. Usually, the power of approval to provide an iris scan and fingerprints is actionable. Unless under duress, consent can be freely exercised. But as far as FRT is concerned, consent is abstract and moot. If you have been at an airport, your face has been run through an FRT system. Because we cannot fly without our ID, your face and personal identification information are now part of an extensive database. You may not consent to it but the system has done the deed.
This is the problem of the policy concerning FRT. Another peculiarity is the use of FRT in phones and laptops. Many new applications use this to increase their attractiveness to the consumer. One example is LensKart, which allows users to scan their faces and try digital renders of a frame they might want to buy. Their privacy policy underlines how they store photos and scans to map and measure your facial features. They maintain that no third party can lay their hands on this data. In the private sector, consent concerning facial recognition is more prevalent as they are not forcing one to use such features. But public sector deployment is much more intrusive.

Why the Jan. 6 Committee Must Reinforce the 25th Amendment  (John Rogan and Joseph J. Fins, Lawfare)
The aftermath of the attack on the Capitol exposed challenges of using the 25th Amendment. In its upcoming report, the Jan. 6 committee should clearly explain how the amendment works and propose legislative reforms to close gaps in its implementation.