Silicon Valley Tech News Roundup – November 7th
The US Treasury Department buying private data – 11/6
A report published by The Intercept and Tech Inquiry, a research and advocacy group, reveals the Treasury Department is buying private app data from the company Babel Street. It uses the data in its investigations. Experts are expressing concern the government is bypassing Fourth Amendment search restrictions.
In July, The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) paid over $150.000 to access the mobile app location data from Locate X, a tool by Babel Street. OFAC is an intelligence wing within the Treasury that enforces economic sanctions against foreign regimes like Russia and Iran. Based on the information in the contract, OFAC can locate individuals using the Locate X tool without a search warrant.
In September, the Internal Revenue Service signed a contract with Babel Street, which allows them to scrape information from “public digital media records.” It will enable the IRS to uncover individuals and small-businesses who avoid paying their taxes through their social media posts. This contract is worth $150.000.
Facebook to shut down facial recognition software – 11/2
This Tuesday, Facebook announced it is shutting down its facial recognition software. Likewise, the company will delete all the data gathered using the software. Jerome Pesenti, the vice president of Artificial Intelligence at Facebook, announced the company’s decision in a blog post.
In his blog post, Pesenti described the move: “as part of a company-wide move to limit the use of facial recognition in our products.” Pesenti also addressed the concerns about the use of the facial recognition technology since there is no national legislation regulating it in the United States. He wrote: “We need to weigh the positive use cases for facial recognition against growing societal concerns, especially as regulators have yet to provide clear rules.” However, that does not mean Facebook will stop working on facial recognition technology. The company may use it for its other products in the future.
The use of facial recognition software had its share of problems like inaccuracy and underlying racial bias. Because the software is inaccurate when identifying people of color, it resulted in the wrongful arrest of several Black men.
US government offers a $10 million bounty for information about DarkSide – 11/6
The US government issued a bounty of up to $10 million for any information about DarkSide, the hacking group responsible for numerous ransomware attacks. The bounty is awarded for information about the identity and location of individuals holding a leadership position in DarkSide. The government is also offering an additional $5 million for any information that leads to the arrest of individuals “looking to conspire” with DarkSide.
In May, DarkSide was responsible for the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline. Its pipeline carries 45% of fuel to the East Coast. The ransomware attack forced the company to shut down its operations for several days and resulted in fuel shortages. Eventually, Colonial Pipeline paid a $4.4 million ransom in Bitcoin. The money was later recovered.
Elliptic, a crypto-currency analysis company, estimated DarkSide received $90 million in ransom from 47 targets of their attacks.
Airbnb reports strong profits for the third quarter – 11/4
On Thursday, Airbnb reported 79.7 million nights booked in the third quarter. In a call with the analysts, Dave Stephenson, the CFO of Airbnb, said the company saw the highest-ever revenue and net income. The revenue was $2.24 billion (up 67% year over year), and the net income was $834 million (a surge of 280% on a year-over-year basis). Meanwhile, the gross booking value was $11.9 billion in the third quarter. It is a way the company tracks host earnings, service and cleaning fees, and taxes.
In a letter to the shareholders, Airbnb wrote the company expects the recovery trends to vary from region to region depending on travel restrictions and vaccine mandates. However, the company expressed they are: “uniquely positioned for this travel revolution.” Likewise, Airbnb informed its shareholders that nights and experiences booked in North America are up 10% (compared to the same quarter in 2019). The company also expects strong growth for the fourth quarter as the travel industry continues to recover.
