By Alexia Ramirez
AARP has filed a lawsuit against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to the growing number of employers who financially incentivize their workers to sign up for wellness programs. AARP argues that the programs, which force individuals to choose between financial penalties and the disclosure of private medical information, violate anti-discrimination laws meant to protect workers’ medical information.
ProPublica reported that Google had quietly changed its privacy policy over the summer. Now, users’ browsing habits “may be” combined with Gmail data and other tools (i.e., Double Click). Existing users were prompted to opt-in to the change and it has become the default standard for new users. Here’s how to opt-out.
The Pentagon has prioritized artificial intelligence as central to the United States’ defense strategy. The military is examining the use of artificial intelligence to create autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons, such as drones that can identify targets. This development has sparked a debate amongst legal and military experts about the ethics of implementing this technology.
Last Friday, DynDNS, a company whose servers facilitate internet traffic, experienced a distributed denial-of-service attack. The troubling aspect of this attack was that the hackers relied on new weapons—hundreds of thousands of internet-connected devices, such as cameras, baby monitors, and home routers. These everyday devices were infected with software that allowed hackers to command them to flood a target with overwhelming traffic.
Sweden’s highest court has banned drones with cameras. “Cameras attached to drones fall foul of Sweden’s strict surveillance laws, the country’s highest court has ruled by slapping an outright ban on drone filming—unless the kit is used by a law enforcement agency or an expensive permit has been issued.”