The Weekly Cypher is specially curated to keep you up-to-date on the latest in cybersecurity, biometrics, and related news and innovations. Here are a few of the headlines you might have missed this week:
Amazon Introduces Biometrics to Amazon Key | Find Biometrics
To build on Amazon Prime even more, Amazon introduced Amazon Key last fall, a home security system that allows Amazon employees to make deliveries straight to customers’ homes. By accepting a command prompt on their smartphone, customers can unlock their homes remotely. Considering this is an extremely risky situation, Amazon’s cellphone app needed a boost in security. Previously, if a phone fell into the wrong hands, strangers had the potential to enter a home. Now, with biometric verification, the app is far more secure. [Read More]
Chincotech Tackles Racial Bias in Facial Recognition Systems | Biometric Update
After multiple studies and non-white consumers complaining about the efficacy of facial recognition systems, Chicanotech is prototyping facial recognition software that uses a 3D transforming algorithm. Chincotech explains that the system continuously learns new facial features to create more accurate results compared to its counterparts. While there hasn’t been a public display of the facial recognition system, we hope that it will make facial recognition more inclusive and secure for non-white customers. [Read More]
Cops Unlock Dead People’s Phones | Tom’s Hardware
Because of biometric technology’s immutable yet convenient nature, police forces recently confessed to using fingerprints to access the phones of dead individuals. In the past, Apple has refused to unlock phones belonging to the deceased, leading to this unsavory way of fingerprint verification. Many have protested on the obvious privacy violation, but policemen retaliated by claiming that important information about the person’s death could possibly be stored on the phone. [Read More]
China Leads in Facial Recognition Patents | Planet Biometrics
A recent surge of facial recognition patents from China along with its introduction of a nationwide facial recognition system has many Western individuals pondering the country’s decision to favor national security over privacy. Slowly, the country hopes to gain partnerships between tech giants and academic institutions to increase public surveillance. China cites the need for this technology to encourage citizen cooperation through surveillance in areas such as jaywalking. [Read More]
UN Chief Warns Against Potential Risks of Technological Advances | Xinhua Net
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that the advancement of current technologies could be repurposed for unsavory outcomes. Because of the ever-evolving technological landscape, Guterres is uncertain on whether the tools we are beginning to use today, like biometric verification, could be used for dangerous outcomes in this turbulent political atmosphere. He calls for a conscientious approach to growing and utilizing these technologies. [Read More]
