Good Monday Morning

It’s March 10th, Harriet Tubman Day, and while she won’t be on the $20 bill until at least 2030, the U.S. Mint has commemorative coins that honor her with hefty surcharges going to two charities in her name.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,147 words, about 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know

DHS to Spend 200M on Immigration Ads, including Digital

Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem is seen in the first ad in the series telling migrants in the audience “we will hunt you down.” See it here.

Rose Bringing Back Digg

Digg co-founder Kevin Rose plans to relaunch Digg and has partnered with Reddit co-founder and one time foe, Alexis Ohanian. During its heyday 17 years ago, Digg received 236 million visitors each year.

Google Testing AI-Only Search Results

Google will begin testing search results that purportedly respond to a user’s search query in a conversational way instead of showing links. For years, we’ve warned that search must be supplemented by other programs. The test, happening with paid Google AI subscribers, will help us understand how soon the future of Google finally harnessing the world’s information for itself comes true. 

We Don’t Really Trust Government or Tech

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take

This is less about the devices and much more about what info that 30%-50% of Americans will view on them. Every organization will clamor to be on a device a person wears. The Big Tech firms will win, and how your organization is viewed by those companies will be a substantial part of your success next decade.

McDonalds Tries Again

Running Your Business

McDonald’s will outfit 43,000 restaurants with Google AI edge systems that will monitor equipment, automate supply ordering, and verify those orders.

Behind The Story

This is a huge move for McDonald’s which abandoned its partnership with IBM last year that assisted with customer order taking. Their smart takeaway is to roll out the automation to internal operations before allowing AI to become customer facing.

Mass Surveillance Isn’t Just For Criminals – How Police Access Your Data

Image by Ideogram, prompted by George Bounacos

This is week two of our annual look at how law enforcement uses technology. Week one was “How Police Access Your Data”

The Issue Remains The Same

Facial recognition is a fantastic tool that may not be ready for use when it is the sole determinant over who is arrested and placed inside a jail cell. Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that there had been 8 people wrongfully arrested in the U.S. on the sole basis of a facial recognition match.

That doesn’t sound like a lot–unless you’re one of the eight.

What is Supposed to Happen

Law enforcement officers are typically only permitted to use facial recognition in conjunction with other methods. Some systems aren’t even allowed to be used for police work. Last year, Microsoft banned police from using its enterprise-level AI tools for facial recognition. 

The misuse continues

We tell this type of story every year, but this year’s victim is LaDonna Crutchfield, who was at home with her children when police arrested her for attempted murder. Detroit police denied they had used facial recognition to arrest Crutchfield. They even had a different name and knew that she was five inches shorter and younger than the shooter that they were looking for.

NBC quoted a detective who allegedly showed her a picture and said, “You got to admit it looks like you.”

The Problem Is Big

The Post received data from police in 15 states that showed the use of facial recognition more than 1,000 times over the past four years. And the paper’s investigation confirmed that police officers are not required to disclose their use of facial recognition in reports and are often under department instructions not to do so.

Misuse isn’t limited to American law enforcement. A report about UK policing discovered that images of people who faced no action or were acquitted were being stored in a database despite a 12-year-old court order prohibiting their retention.

Here in the U.S., the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others continue to lobby for more restrictive use of facial recognition during police work to little effect.

Late last week, Axios broke the story that the State Department is launching a program called Catch and Revoke that will use AI to scan the records of tens of thousands of foreign student visa holders. In addition to checking social media, the federal government will use AI to scan protests using facial recognition and deport individuals who were present.

Google Sheets AI Catches Up To Excel

Practical AI

All Google Workspace customers now have free access to Google Gemini inside spreadsheets. The company says its AI can help you analyze and develop visualizations. Remember that you’re the product if you’re not paying for it so check with your boss to see if you should use it. 

Consider a Virtual Burner Phone

Protip

I began using a virtual phone number years ago and highly recommend that you do. The WSJ takes you through setting one up either free through Google or at $10 per month via the Burner app.

Trump Supporters List Inaccurate

Debunking Junk

A list of 119 household brand names of companies purportedly financing Donald Trump’s election and other endeavors is making the rounds on social media, but has a lot of inaccuracies, including companies that are closed and others who donated to both parties. Snopes takes its shot at figuring out who gave what in this piece.

We Love LA Gets Updated

Screening Room

Thousands of Cat Robot Servers

Science Fiction World

Give a hearty meow to your server if you’re in one of the more than 2,000 restaurants owned by Japan’s Skylark Holdings. Fighting a labor shortage and rising costs, the company has deployed 4,000 cat-faced robots that can carry heavy plates and don’t have scheduling problems. Bloomberg estimates that the move is saving the company more than $30 million per year.

AI Correcting Old Research

Tech For Good

The Black Spatula Project was inspired by a study last year that incorrectly said black plastics used in cooking were more toxic. They’ve analyzed 500 academic papers and found errors in many. Another project, YesNoError, says it has analyzed 37,000 papers and also found many flaws.

Lunar Eclipse on Thursday Night

Coffee Break

The Blood Moon returns for the first time in almost three years and will be visible on the US East Coast starting around midnight on Thursday. Here’s what you need to know.

Sign of the Times

Good Monday Morning

It’s March 3rd. Ramadan started Friday night, Ash Wednesday is this week. 

Today’s Spotlight is 1,147 words, about 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know

Skype Shuts Down In May

Microsoft is replacing it with a free version of Teams, where chats and contacts will transfer automatically.

OpenAI Cracks Down On Abuse

The company has removed user accounts worldwide after finding ChatGPT was being misused for scams and other malicious activities.

Google Ditches SMS Codes For 2 Factor Authentication

Google will replace 6-digit SMS authentication codes with QR codes to combat widespread fraud.

We Don’t Really Trust Government or Tech

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take

Our first law enforcement report of the year highlights improper data collection by the government and big tech—two of the least trusted entities. Meanwhile, it’s striking that even healthcare providers and charities earn the trust of only a quarter to a third of Americans. Further down, we see that 28% of respondents trust none of the institutions.

Most Americans Want AI Oversight

Running Your Business

68% of U.S. adults believe both the government and businesses should prevent AI-driven misinformation, while businesses are seen as most responsible for AI’s impact on job loss but least responsible for national security risks. Nearly two-thirds also feel uneasy about AI-generated ads.

Behind the Story

Most people don’t fully grasp AI’s limits, but they know businesses plan to use it to cut jobs. They don’t just oppose that—they’re already assigning blame, and you probably haven’t even made cuts yet. This is a horse & buggy vs. automobile moment, and as a business leader, you’re on the unpopular side

Mass Surveillance Isn’t Just For Criminals – How Police Access Your Data

Image by Ideogram, prompted by George Bounacos

Expanding Use of External Data in Law Enforcement

Technology is a critical component of law enforcement. For seven years, we’ve examined how police use evolving tech tools.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore how police rely on external data, followed by a look at facial recognition, surveillance tools like robots and cameras, and how algorithms process this information.

Mass Surveillance Continues Growing

Americans have never before lived with the surveillance they face today. A Spotlight reader told me last year that while data controls matter, any tool stopping violent crime or terrorism seemed worthwhile. That’s a debate each person must weigh—but first, they need to know what’s being collected, and that’s not always clear.

Law enforcement agencies buy and use vast amounts of data. While traditional sources remain fair game, Big Tech expands police access to previously untapped data. Police linking home addresses and phone numbers is expected, but adding personal data like location, purchases, and browsing history raises concerns.

Genetic Data

Genetic testing was once a police-exclusive tool that required court orders and medical personnel, but consumer DNA databases changed that. Police quickly began using them to track relatives of DNA found at crime scenes.

Critics argue that’s a violation of their right to privacy. They are angry about recent news that the FBI accessed genetic information at consumer sites GEDmatch and MyHeritage to tie Bryan Kholberger to the murder of four University of Idaho students in the fall of 2022. The FBI turned to consumer sites after a forensic genealogist could only identify relatives within three generations. The FBI later acknowledged that people who had submitted DNA samples to those services had not agreed to have their genetic data released to law enforcement.

Location Tracking

Warrantless tracking raises legal and ethical concerns. That became a problem for the Secret Service, which used Locate X, a tool that captures an individual’s location data from weather and navigation apps, among other sources. The agency admitted that it did not seek a warrant to use the data or verify the company’s claim that people had opted in to police use of their location history. A DHS oversight body ruled late last year the Secret Service, ICE, and Customs and Border Protection had all broken the law doing so.

Fog Data works like Locate X but also tracks frequent locations—homes, workplaces, even doctors and lawyers’ offices. Like Locate X, it markets broad data access at low costs, making it affordable for county sheriffs and highway patrols at under $10,000 per year.

New Service GeoSpy trained on millions of images worldwide, can even geolocate photos in seconds, again without a warrant.

Government Surveillance and Reporting Gaps

The USPS images mail sent to every address. Police requested this data 312,000+ times (2015-2023) without warrants.

In Mississippi, 60% of law enforcement agencies fail to submit crime data to the state. The Clarion Ledger reports that data from 540,000 state residents is not reflected in statewide crime data.

Los Angeles County Sherriff deputies misused sensitive databases 6,789 times in 2022—accounting for most of California’s 7,257 data violations that year.

Abuse of Law Enforcement Databases

Authorities say individual abuse is also a problem. Police nationwide have fired or disciplined officers for stalking people using databases.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department recently deleted the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, making it easier for officers with misconduct records to get rehired elsewhere. While law enforcement has more access to data than ever, oversight mechanisms continue to disappear.

Next week, we’ll examine how surveillance tools like facial recognition and AI further expand police access to personal data.

Wyden Pushes For Digital Transparency

Practical AI

Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) is urging the FTC to require companies to disclose when digital purchases like ebooks or games are just licenses that can expire or be revoked, as many digital licenses actually state.

Google Eases Personal Information Removal

Protip

An updated “results about you” tool lets users quickly request the removal of personal data from Search, with alerts when their info appears online.

Fake Obamacare Royalty Claim Goes Viral

Debunking Junk

A satirical post falsely claimed Obama received $2.6M in annual “Obamacare Royalties” but many believed it was real as it spread from network to network.

Skinnypop and Aniston I New Branding

Screening Room

Shape-Shifting Robots Take Form

Science Fiction World

Researchers have developed 3D-printed mini-robots that move, adapt, and harden into weight-bearing tools, inspired by how cells form muscles and bones.

AI Solves Decades-Long Mystery In Days

Tech For Good

Google’s AI solved why some superbug resist antibiotics— a mystery that took scientists a decade to unravel.

Tech Opens Doors For Accessible Travels

Coffee Break

New apps help people with disabilities navigate cities, book accessible transportation, and find inclusive spaces more easily. Wired breaks down new options.

Sign of the Times

Good Monday Morning!

There are 90 hours remaining until Valentine’s Day if you needed a reminder to buy someone a gift. Also, that’s a 3 day weekend for President’s Day so we’ll be off hunting for markdowns on chocolate candy.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,151 words, about 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know Now

Google Guts AI Ethics, Labels U.S. a ‘Sensitive’ Country

Google quietly removed its pledge to avoid AI use in weapons and surveillance—four years after dismissing its top AI ethicists.

Meanwhile, it now lists the U.S. as a “sensitive country,” a designation for nations with strict governments and border disputes. In a bizarre twist, Americans will see “Gulf of America” on Google Maps, while the rest of the world sees “Gulf of Mexico.”

Judge Bans Warrantless ‘Backdoor’ Searches of Intel Data on U.S. Citizens

Citing Fourth Amendment protections, Judge LaShann Hall ruled that law enforcement cannot comb through warrantless intelligence data to seek evidence implicating Americans.

OmniHuman Creates Videos from a Single Image and Audio

OmniHuman’s newly published paper—with multiple video demos available here —demonstrates how a single image combined with audio or video motion can generate remarkably lifelike videos of events that never actually occurred.

iCloud & Apple Music Driving Profits

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take
Only 11 companies boast a market capitalization of at least $1 billion, and Apple outpaces its nearest competitor by nearly 10%, achieving a robust 46% profit margin on tens of billions in quarterly revenue. 

However, some of the luster may be fading—Apple has lost absolute control over its EU Play Store, its encryption practices are under regulatory scrutiny, and some hardware sales are softening. We’ll be taking a deep dive into these issues and more in two weeks.

Brace For Instant and Crowdsourced Disruption
Running Your Business

Amid the Trump Administration’s threats to deport millions—including sending some to third countries when their home nations refuse deportees—anonymous platforms like People Over Papers are enabling rapid, crowd-sourced reporting of ICE raids with photos and videos.

Behind The Story

Regardless of your stance on immigration, if a national crowdsourced network can operate for under $20 a month, imagine what a similar system could do to your organization. Now is the time to consult a crisis management expert and prepare your team for a swift response in the first minutes, hour, and day of catastrophe.

Don’t Be a Beta Tester: How to Unplug AI

Our screens are flooded every month with a dizzying array of new AI features. You would have laughed three years ago if someone predicted that people would soon be able to create full videos from a single image, generate photorealistic pictures from text, or produce thousands of words from just one sentence. 

Today, generative AI is reshaping the global economy—even as many of us are still struggling to weave it into our daily routines. For a while, it was easy to ignore these innovations, but recently tech giants have taken bold steps by embedding AI deeply into their platforms, devices, and apps. In short, AI is now seamlessly integrated into nearly every corner of our digital lives. 

“Spotlight, Help Me Get Rid Of This”

More than one reader has written to me about their distaste for working as beta testers for trillion-dollar companies using technology they don’t want. That’s why we’re showing you how to disable these intrusive features and take back control of your technology.

We’ve rounded up explainers and how-to guides from some of tech’s top writers to help you disable these AI features. Many noted the frustrating number of workarounds required, but everyone eventually got their task done.

Apple iOS (Iphone)
Disable the AI-driven suggestions on your iPhone by navigating to Settings > Siri & Search to turn off personalized features, giving you a more manual experience.
Read More —>

Microsoft 365 Copilot
If you’d rather work without an AI assistant, disable Copilot through your Microsoft 365 account settings to maintain full control over your documents and tasks.
Read More—>

Gmail Gemini AI Summaries
Opt out of Gmail’s AI-generated email summaries by adjusting your account settings for a more traditional inbox experience.
Read More—>

Google Pixel 9 Phone
Disabling the advanced AI features on the Pixel 9 isn’t straightforward, but guides are available to help you revert to a simpler, more conventional phone interface.
Read More—>

Resisters vs. Zealots

Big Tech has acted as Big Tech usually does—they moved fast, broke things, and forced people to interact with AI. As with all innovation, there’s a group eager to try every new feature, a group (the resisters) who fight against it, and an indifferent majority that simply doesn’t care enough to get involved. 

Right now, you can still make changes and opt out of these intrusive systems—but much like buying a car with a carburetor or without catalytic converters or seatbelts, the window for choice may soon vanish as AI technologies become the new standard.

Using ChatGPT Search For Free

Practical AI

ChatGPT’s search functionality is now available to everyone without an OpenAI account. Visiting ChatGPT.com lets users tap into advanced AI services that were unavailable just weeks ago—but the standard caveats apply. Unless you’re paying for proprietary features, remember that you are the product, just as with Google, so avoid sharing personal information.

Deleted Federal Data Recovered

Protip

When the Trump Administration ordered agencies like the CDC, Census Bureau, and FDA to remove data from their websites, scientists, journalists, and activists sprang into action. A Lifehacker feature now reveals how you can access many of the thousands of pages that were deleted.

Google’s Sweet Dream Job

Screening Room

AI Model to Forecast Heart Attacks

Science Fiction World

It’s not a Starfleet medical tricorder yet, but researchers from three universities are developing an AI model that uses calcium-scoring CT scans along with key factors—such as heart shape, body composition, bone density, and visceral fat—to accurately predict heart attacks. 

Glasgow Engineers Unveil Eco-Friendly RFID Alternative

Tech For Good

University of Glasgow engineers have developed an RFID Tag Replacement that uses sustainable coils and PDMS materials, offering an eco-friendly solution to reduce electronic waste and cut costs. These innovative tags can be read by wireless handheld devices costing less than £100.

One Million vs. One Billion

Coffee Break

Jason Zhang may have created the best interactive to reveal how our minds fool us into underestimating scale. Take a minute to explore it and see the astonishing difference for yourself.

Sign of the Times