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If online platforms violate privacy policies and sell your photos, they may be forced to pay a settlement fee that is not disclosed 12 years later. Who says justice is dead? Reuters reports that Clarifai, an AI company, has removed 3 million profile pictures taken from OkCupid dating site in 2014. Clarifai, based in Delaware, reportedly certified to the FTC the deletion of data on April 7th. The company confirmed to US Representative Lori Trahan, D-MA, that it had deleted any models trained on the data. Clarifai informed the representative’s office it had not shared the data. The FTC launched the investigation in 2019 after The New York Times reported Clarifai’s training database was built using OkCupid dating profiles. This behavior was a direct breach of OkCupid’s privacy policy. Clarifai requested the data from OkCupid executives in 2014, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters. Apparently, they obliged.

Clarifai uses this creepy facial profiling example to sell its services.

Clarifai”We’re collecting data now and just realized that OkCupid must have a HUGE amount of awesome data for this,” Clarifai founder Matthew Zeiler wrote in an email to OkCupid co-founder Maxwell Krohn. The AI startup used images from the dating site to create a facial recognition system that can identify an individual’s age and gender. Clarifai’s brilliant and ethical idea of tapping into unauthorised city surveillance cameras was shut down. Zeiller told The New York Times that people should get over it in 2019. “There must be a level of trust in tech companies like Clarifai, to use powerful technology for good purposes. Get comfortable with that,” declared the AI founder. As part of the settlement the FTC “permanently banned” OkCupid for misrepresenting its privacy and data collection controls. TechCrunch notes how strange it is to use that as a penalty, given that FTC rules already bar that behavior.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/ai-company-deletes-the-3-million-okcupid-photos-it-used-for-facial-recognition-training-195223996.html?src=rss

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Meta is facing a lawsuit over its advertising policies. Consumer Federation of America has filed a proposed lawsuit against Meta, accusing it of “failing to safeguard users” from scam advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. The lawsuit, first reported by Wired claims that Meta violated consumer protection laws in Washington D.C. because it misled Facebook and Instagram users regarding scams on their apps, and that the company “chased profits instead of protecting its users.” The filing includes a number of examples of alleged scam advertisements that CFA claims it found in Meta’s ad libraries. Ads promoting “a free government iPhone” and those offering $1,400 checks for people born in specific years are included. CFA claims that many of the ads are AI videos. CFA’s lawsuit includes some examples of alleged scam advertisements. The report also highlighted Meta’s processes that have made it difficult for its employees to combat malicious advertisers. CFA’s lawsuit claims that Meta claims it is doing everything it can to crackdown on scam advertising. Meta has taken deliberate steps and adopted policies to increase its bottom line, at the expense of users’ safety and wellbeing. Meta does not ban advertisers it has determined to be a greater risk to its users, as other tech companies such as Google have done. Instead, Meta charges them more. Meta profits more the riskier an advertiser is. Meta’s spokesperson said that CFA’s accusations “misrepresent our work” and that they will be fought. “We aggressively fight scams across all our platforms to protect businesses and people. Last year, we removed 159 million ads, 92% before anyone reported them. We also took down 10.9 millions accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were associated with criminal scam centres. We fight scams because they are bad for business — people don’t want them, advertisers don’t want them, and we don’t want them either.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-has-misled-users-about-scam-ads-on-facebook-and-instagram-lawsuit-says-193220235.html?src=rss

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High-end specs with DIY-friendly features. Gigabyte Aorus Elite is a powerful PC that can be built without the usual installation headaches.

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This collaboration with Hasselblad offers a lot for photographers.

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Mozilla’s built in VPN provides an extra layer of security for your browser traffic, without the need for a separate subscription.