Augmented Reality Contact Lenses are real!

WANT!

[ What does this have to do with info security?  What DOESN'T it have to do with IS?! ]


From Slashdot Augmented Reality In a Contact Lens: It's the Real Deal 

Tekla Perry writes:
Startup Mojo Vision announced a microdisplay mid-2019, with not a lot of talk about applications. Turns out, they had one very specific application in mind -- an AR contact lens. Last week the company let selected media have a look at working prototypes, powered wirelessly, though plans for the next version include a battery on board. The demos included edge detection and enhancement (intended for people with low vision) in a darkened room and text annotations. The lenses are entering clinical trials (company executives have been testing them for some time already).Steve Sinclair, senior vice president of product and marketing, says the first application will likely be for people with low vision -- providing real-time edge detection and dropping crisp lines around objects. Other applications include translating languages in real time, tagging faces, and providing emotional cues.

"People can't tell you are wearing it, so we want the interaction to be subtle, done using just your eyes," Sinclair said. He also noted the experience is different from wearing glasses. "When you close your eyes, you still see the content displayed," he says. Mojo Vision is calling the technology Invisible Computing.

So Google has humans listening to more conversations. How much and can we manage it?

And can we trust them?

Well, apparently not, from Slashdot:  Google Contractors Are Secretly Listening To Your Assistant Recordings

A new report from Belgian broadcaster VRT News describes the process by which Google Home recordings end up being listened to by contractors -- and the scary part is that it apparently doesn't take much, if anything, to start a recording. While the recordings are not listened to live, audio clips are sent to subcontractors. The Next Web reports:

The Next Web reports:VRT, with the help of a whistleblower, was able to listen to some of these clips and subsequently heard enough to discern the addresses of several Dutch and Belgian people using Google Home -- in spite of the fact some hadn't even uttered the words "Hey Google," which are supposed to be the device's listening trigger. The person who leaked the recordings was working as a subcontractor to Google, transcribing the audio files for subsequent use in improving its speech recognition. They got in touch with VRT after reading about Amazon Alexa keeping recordings indefinitely. 

 SO what did I do about it?  How-to-geek had instructions to turn off these recordings here,

Here's a a google search that shows even more information
https://www.google.com/search?q=google+home+recordings&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS723US723&oq=google+home+recordings&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.8519j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8


which I did and promptly stopped google voice commands from working

From there, I found another setting, in Google Activity Controls

Make sure "Web and App Activity" is ON, and go to "Manage Activity".

It might be set to save activity indefinitely, "

Keep until I delete manually", I set mine to "Keep for 3 months", which is the shortest amount of time.

I haven't done the same for my spouse's yet, or my Google search

Face Recognition for air travel - not theoretical, Delta is testing in Minneapolis...

Slashdot: Delta Airlines Begins Using Facial Recognition Scanners To Replace Boarding Passes

Oh, burying the lede - the flyer doesn't need to get their picture taken - "They already have it."

Lileks: It's time for us to face the future, literally

When the same thing happened on JetBlue, I gave them the benefit of the doubt - thinking if it's international, the process needed it from the passport database for entry into the country - that's wrong I think

Gizmodo: What Your Airline Won't Tell You About Those Creepy Airport Face Scanners

You've heard of the FEMA "Waffle House Index"? I raise you one "Walmart Index"

The Walmart Emergency response center has a store closing page for Florence

https://corporate.walmart.com/florence

Which has links to the google crisis map See Map

 

It's 2018: Whats the dumbest idea (by far) in Cybersecurity and Privacy?

Here's where I wish we had a lot more readers.  Well, a more than 0 is, well, a lot more.

What do you think is the dumbest idea in Cybersecurity and Privacy? Not the dumbest idea in general - there are probably lots more of those - like anything that starts with "hold my beer" - Brexit, A certain administration, etc. 

I don't think there's any question - it's electronic voting. ( AKA Internet voting, smartphone voting, etc )

Why? Because:

1. Clean elections are the most important thing (only?) thing standing between the US being a democracy and something else (like Communism, Fascism, Populism, Russia?).
2. Electronic voting allows the people (elected officials) who most desire tampering with elections the ability to do it without detection.
3. Any more don't really matter, but there are a TON more reasons.

So EV = the end of US democracy.

Unfortunately...

There are two headlines lately that are really worrying me...

1. From Slashdot: Georgia Defends Electronic Voting Machines Despite 243-Percent Turnout In One Precinct - because Politicians!

2. From Ars Technica: Experts criticize West Virginia’s plan for smartphone voting - Now with Blockchain!  WV says "Don't worry - It's secure" and "It's limited to internationally deployed military only"

"Mobile voting is a horrific idea," said Joe Hall, an election security expert at the Center for Democracy and Technology in an interview with CNN.

SO Please, I beg of you,

Don't allow electronic voting in your location, not now, maybe ever!

As a matter of fact, our privacy is getting much worse in 2018

To start, after net neutrality, our real time location data is getting sold to anyone

 Brian Krebs: Why Is Your Location Data No Longer Private?

My favorite part - (so far - I haven't read the whole thing)

"This month, it emerged that the major mobile providers have been giving commercial third-parties the ability to instantly look up the precise location of any mobile subscriber in real time. KrebsOnSecurity broke the news that one of these third parties — LocationSmart — leaked this ability for years to anyone via a buggy component on its Web site.

... 

We also learned that another California company — Securus Technologies — was selling real-time location lookups to a number of state and local law enforcement agencies, and that accounts for dozens of those law enforcement officers were obtained by hackers.  Securus, it turned out, was ultimately getting its data from LocationSmart.

This week, researchers discovered that a bug in T-Mobile’s Web site let anyone access the personal account details of any customer with just their cell phone number, including full name, address, account number and some cases tax ID numbers.

Not to be outdone, Comcast was revealed to have exposed sensitive information on customers through a buggy component of its Web site that could be tricked into displaying the home address where the company’s wireless router is located, as well as the router’s Wi-Fi name and password."

 

How about Uber kicking off the new year?

Happy New Year Everybody

I have to kick off the new year with Uber for obvious reasons, and now, they're leading off the Ars Technica deadpool, and probly others.   Unfortunately Twitter is on there too, and HTC ( which has a geuninely kick-ass VR rig, I think :-( )

We'll see what happens

Until then, I'll be listening to Kara Swisher's podcast for her take on the Uber ( and other ) situations, and her other awesome guests.

Perry