Latest news with #privacyConcerns
RNZ News
3 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Morning Report Essentials for Wednesday 4 June 2025
media life and society 20 minutes ago In today's episode, according to results out on Wednesday morning, the left bloc would have enough support to govern, the Privacy Commissioner says facial recognition technology in North Island supermarkets has potential safety benefits, despite raising significant privacy concerns, after a shareholders meeting on Tuesday media company NZME - which owns the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB - has a revamped board and an historic ship at the Paihia waterfront in Northland has been 90 percent destroyed by fire.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Privacy commissioner inquiry finds supermarket facial recognition tech's use is justified
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster says any business using facial recognition technology must ensure the system is set up correctly to stay within the law. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith The Privacy Commissioner says facial recognition technology in supermarkets has potential safety benefits, despite raising significant privacy concerns. An inquiry from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner into facial recognition trialled by Foodstuffs in the North Island found any business using facial recognition tech, or considering doing so, must ensure the system is set up correctly to stay within the law. Commissioner Michael Webster says the system raised privacy concerns, like the unnecessary or unfair collection of a customer's information, misidentification, technical bias and its ability to be used for surveillance. The commissioner found the live technology model used in the trial was complaint with the Privacy Act. "These issues become particularly critical when people need to access essential services such as supermarkets. FRT (facial recognition technology) will only be acceptable if the use is necessary and the privacy risks are successfully managed," Webster said. Foodstuffs owns the PAK'nSAVE, New World and Four Square brands. Photo: Supplied The Foodstuffs trial ended last September, and ran in 25 supermarkets. About 226 million faces were scanned during the trial, including multiple scans of the same person, and 99.999 percent of those were deleted within one minute. The trial raised 1742 alerts, 1208 were confirmed matches to store watchlists - databases made from images of people of interest to a store. In December 2024, a woman took her case to the Human Rights Review Tribunal after she was wrongly kicked out of a Rotorua supermarket , claiming the technology was discriminatory. There were nine instances of someone being approached by staff, but misidentified as the wrong person during the trial. In two cases, the shopper was asked to leave. All nine instances were attributable to human error, and were outweighed by the benefits of using facial recognition , justifying its use. The inquiry found while the level of intrusion to customers privacy was high because every visitor's face was collected, the safeguards used in the trial reduced the intrusion to an acceptable level. Webster said there was still work needed to improve the safety and efficiency of facial recognition software for New Zealand, as it had been developed overseas and not trained on a local population. He said the commission could not be completely confident the technology had addressed issues on technical bias, and that it had the potential to negatively impact Māori and Pacific people. "This means the technology must only be used with the right processes in place, including human checks that an alert is accurate before acting on it. "I also expect that Foodstuffs North Island will put in place monitoring and review to allow it to evaluate the impact of skin tone on identification accuracy and store response, and to provide confidence to the regulator and customers that key privacy safeguards remain in place," Webster said. The safeguards included immediately deleting images that did not match with a store's watchlist, setting up the system to only identify those whose behaviour was seriously harmful, like violent offending, not allowing staff to add images of people under 18 or those thought to be vulnerable to the watchlist and not sharing watchlist information between stores. Match alerts were verified by two trained staff members to make sure a human decision was part of the process, the inquiry report said, and access to the facial recognition system and its information was restricted to authorised staff. Images collected were not permitted to be used for training data purposes, the report said. General counsel for Foodstuffs North Island Julian Benefield said the goal behind the FRT trail was to understand whether it could reduce harm while respecting people's privacy, saying it had succeeded in doing so. "Retail crime remains a serious and complex problem across New Zealand," he said. "Our people continue to be assaulted, threatened and verbally abused, and we're committed to doing all we can to create safer retail environments." Benefield said privacy was at the heart of the trial. He said an independent evaluator found the trial prevented more than 100 cases of serious harm, including assaults. "We have worked closely with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and listened to their feedback. "We welcome the OPC's feedback on areas for improvement and will carefully consider their recommendations, including the need to monitor accuracy, before we make any decisions about future permanent use." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CNET
28-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
T-Mobile Responds to New App Setting That Records Your Phone's Screen
Some T-Mobile customers accessing the carrier's T-Life app on their phones are discovering a new suspicious-sounding option that's on by default: Screen Recording Tool. Understandably, a setting that records the contents of your screen raises privacy concerns. That's especially true lately as Microsoft continues to roll out its controversial Recall AI feature in Windows that stores snapshots in the background. If you're a T-Mobile subscriber, you can check if this new option has been turned on by opening the T-Life app, tapping Manage and then tapping Settings (the gear icon). The Screen recording tool option shows up under the Preferences heading. A T-Mobile spokesperson defended the feature as designed to improve the user experience. "To help us give customers who use T-Life a smoother experience, we are rolling out a new tool in the app that will help us quickly troubleshoot reported or detected issues," the spokesperson said. "This tool records activities within the app only and does not see or access any personal information. If a customer's T-Life app currently supports the new functionality, it can be turned off in the settings under preferences." The description in the app for the Screen recording tool echoes the same intent, but the fact that the option is on by default is no doubt what's making customers justifiably concerned. It reads: "We use a tool to record how customers use the app to analyze and improve your experience. Only T-Mobile will review and analyze your info. If you turn this toggle on or magenta, we will record your screen while you use the app. If you turn this toggle off or gray, we will not record your screen." (The "magenta" and "gray" refer to the color of the toggle switch to indicate whether it's active or not, respectively.) According to a post on droidlife, which earlier referenced the issue, the new option shows up on both iPhone and Android phones. However, I'll note that it hasn't yet appeared on my test devices. The T-Life app includes another screen recording feature that is completely separate from this new Screen recording tool. In the app's settings, under Help & support, is Screen Share, which can be used during a support call. It allows a T-Mobile expert to view your phone's screen while troubleshooting an issue. If you've ever tried to help a friend or family member over the phone and asked them to describe what's on the screen, you'll appreciate how helpful it can be to view what they're seeing directly.
NHK
21-05-2025
- Business
- NHK
Japan introduces eye-scan device to foil AI impersonators
Japan has started use of an eye-scan technology to help block AI-generated impersonators often used in online fraud. It has been introduced at various locations around the country. A start-up led by ChatGPT architect Sam Altman developed the technology. The device is about the size of a human head. It scans the iris and issues an encrypted ID for storage in a smartphone app to prove an individual is human. The company says the system, known as World ID, can be used in financial, social-networking and other services. It aims to set up 7,500 of the iris-scanners in the United States by the end of the year. It hopes to install about 1,000 in Japan. "The times may come when no online information can be trusted," said Makino Tomoe, the head of the start-up's Japan operation. "To solve such a situation, we need a service that can identify real humans." The company says the data collected is encrypted and deleted immediately from the device. However, the system has raised privacy concerns. The New York Times reports the technology has been banned in some areas, including Hong Kong and Spain.
