Facebook's gonna shut down its facial recognition system and delete the facial recognition templates of more than 1 billion people. Oddly, Facebook's press release doesn't mention why they're ending the practice and instead explains the positive uses of it like notifying a user if someone tags them in a photo (so you can tell if someone's uploaded a pic of you without your permission) and creating alt-text descriptions for visually impaired people that'll list the people in a photo. Who wants to bet something dodgy was going on they only now found out about or grew a spine to stand up against it?
Big day for cryptocurrency in Australia - the Commonwealth Bank is adding the ability to buy, sell and hold up to ten cryptocurrency assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin within the CommBank app. They're starting off with a pilot in the next few weeks before a wider rollout in 2022. The app will "use the Gemini platform for cryptocurrency exchange and custody, and the services of Chainalysis to aid compliance and monitoring". Apparently CommBank noticed many of its customers are already trading cryptocurrency and Australia's biggest bank wanted a slice of the action.
On the topic of facial recognition, Clearview AI has been told by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to "stop collecting any information on Australians and to delete all of the images it has already hoovered up" within 90 days. Unfortunately due to Australia's weak privacy laws, the OAIC can't even issue a fine, let alone criminal proceedings. If you don't remember, Clearview AI is that creepy database that lets cops submit a photo of a suspect and then search social media to find out who that person might be. Australian police have taken up free trials of Clearview over the years, but to what extent (just free trials/demos?) is unknown.
Another day, another fool parted with their money thanks to the magic of the blockchain. This time it's people who "invested" in a "token named after the popular South Korean Netflix series Squid Game". I have no fucking idea what is going on - maybe you can read the whitepaper for yourself and try understand it - but one of the dudes that got fleeced ("who says he has a lot of experience in crypto and computers") after the devs of SQUID cut and run with people's money is blaming "media outlets for his investment in SQUID" because "sometimes you feel FOMO". Cry me a river you greedy cunt.
📻 Some Mutts (Can't Be Muzzled) - Amyl and The Sniffers
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