London’s Metropolitan police recently announced plans to begin using cameras equipped with facial recognition technology to combat crime and terrorism on London streets. London police, or the Met, have insisted on the technology’s accuracy, while privacy groups continue to voice their concerns over the potential for false positives. The cameras will be linked with a database of suspects updated with the government’s latest intelligence.
Manufacturers of smart speakers, cameras and other IoT devices, will need to provide a new set ofprotections in the UK after new rules were announced. The UK’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport now requires device makers to ship individual products with unique passwords, avoiding security risks for users who fail to change devices’ default passwords. “[The new law] will mean robust security standards are built in from the design stage and not bolted on as an afterthought,” said Matt Warman, the UK’s digital minister.
Facebook announced that it will create 1,000 additional jobs in London this year, mainly in the areas of software engineering and data science, according to Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. The new roles will also include the Facebook team charged with combating harmful online content on Facebook platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp.
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