The maker of a defunct cloud photo storage app that pivoted to selling facial recognition services has been ordered to delete user data and any algorithms trained on it, under the terms of an FTC settlement. TechCrunch reports: The regulator investigated complaints the Ever app — which gained earlier notoriety for using dark patterns to spam users’ contacts — had applied…
Tag: selfies
An AI can make selfies look like they’re not selfies
Computer software can now edit selfie photos so it doesn’t appear the person in the image is holding the camera in their outstretched arm Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2251262-an-ai-can-make-selfies-look-like-theyre-not-selfies/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Apple Granted Patent That Would Allow For Socially Distant Group Selfies
With people around the world self-isolating at home in order to curb the spread of Covid-19, Apple has received a patent for software that would allow people to take group selfies while socially distancing from one another. CNN reports: The US Patent and Trademark Office recently granted Apple a patent for the software that would allow for “synthetic group selfies,” or…
See Curiosity’s epic new selfie from Mars
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has taken a beautiful new selfie. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mars-curiosity-rover-new-selfie-image…
Submit your #SocialDistanceSelfie
How’re you doing out there? We want to see you and hear from you! Post your selfie at EarthSky Facebook, or at EarthSky Community Photos, or in the comments section of this post. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/photos-social-distance-selfies-earthsky…
Disneyland Is Closed. 31,000 Employees Given 18-Day Paid Vacation
There’s a Three Stooges movie where aliens try to attack the earthlings where it will hurt them the most — Disneyland. The Los Angeles Times points out that in fact the park has been closed just three times in the park’s 65-year-history. But now Business Insider reports: As the spread of the novel coronavirus impacts cities and communities around the world,…
Crooks Keep Revealing Their Crimes on Social Media
Quartz tells the story of a large-scale heroin and methamphetamine dealer named Francisco Ruelas-Payan who’s now serving 15 years in prison:
While phone records and GPS location devices were useful in helping investigators keep tabs on Ruelas-Payan’s location and near-term plans, it was his public Facebook activity that not only confirmed many of these leads but also offered additional clues authorities used…
Tourists risk giving gorillas deadly diseases when they take selfies
Eco-tourists are breaking rules on keeping their distance from mountain gorillas – social media and the quest for perfect selfies may be partly to blame Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2220483-tourists-risk-giving-gorillas-deadly-diseases-when-they-take-selfies/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Online Lenders Publicly Shame Debtors in the Philippines Using Their Facebook Contacts
A man named Roger was surprised to hear from an old college friend after all these years, reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer — and even more surprised to find out why. What she wanted to know was why he gave her number to an online lending company that was hounding him at that time. The company told her that he was…
Chinese Deepfake App Zao Sparks Privacy Row After Going Viral
A Chinese app that lets users convincingly swap their faces with film or TV characters has rapidly become one of the country’s most downloaded apps, triggering a privacy row. From a report: Released on Friday, the Zao app went viral as Chinese users seized on the chance to see themselves act out scenes from well-known movies using deepfake technology, which has…