Hi there,

While Australia has gone all in with a new biometric ID border processing system, globally use of facial recognition – a component of the Department of Home Affairs’ new Unisys-developed system – is blowing up again.

With George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers and the subsequent BLM protests again raising the issue of racial profiling, tech giants IBM, Amazon and Microsoft have all moved to distance themselves, to varying degrees, from the technology, specifically its use by police departments.

Here in Australia, however, uploads to the planned National Driver License Facial Recognition Solution database continue. Proposed legislation governing how the database can be used by law enforcement remains in limbo after being rejected by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security last year and being sent back for redrafting. Most states, reportedly are deploying facial recognition in one form or another.

It’s indicative of a simple reality: The virtue signalling of the big tech companies – minor players in the facial recognition market –won’t be the death knell for the technology.

Indeed, facial recognition has reportedly been actively deployed by police to track down lawbreakers among BLM protesters (Covid facemasks notwithstanding).

Nonetheless, with tensions over inequality running high globally, now might be a good time for tech companies, tech users and the wider public to pause and consider how such technology can be used for the good of all.

In other news:

Why the remote worker, the water cooler and the Kool Aid won't mix
ERP implementations go better with testing
NZ gets the Google political transparency Australia missed out on
The need for data in the face of Covid economic impact

Enjoy the read,

Heather Wright
Editor
editor@istart.com.au

FACIAL RECOGNITION

Tech giants say no to facial recognition

IBM, Amazon and Microsoft won’t supply face recog tech to US law. What gives?…

Law enforcement Facial recognition technology

Against a backdrop of police violence and civil unrest in the US, IBM, Amazon and Microsoft have announced they will be stepping back – to varying degrees – from police facial recognition deals.

Perhaps now is the time to make sure that the technology is adopted in a way that serves the people.

[Read more]

REMOTE WORKING

Does remote work really work?

2020 may be the year the workforce came untethered, but is it all too good to be true?…

If you believe the remote-work enthusiasts, it’s a bold new decade of business, spurred on by the Covid-19 pandemic and the countless employees around the globe it has forced home.

“The pain points of remote work are multi-faceted.”

[Read more]

ERP TESTING

Testing, testing: Helping eliminate ERP implementation failure

When failure to launch isn’t an option…

When it comes to ERP implementations there are lots of ways to fail.

“An out of the box solution does nothing out of the box.”

[Read more]

POLITICAL ADVERTISING

Google, Facebook make push for political transparency

Now about that targeting…

Google is rolling out its Political Ads Transparency Report for NZ's election – a year after failure to do so in Australia saw the company in hot water – with Facebook also upping it’s transparency game.

“In the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies.”

[Read more]

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Covid in numbers

Tracking the trackers…

A week is a long time in politics – and in economics – but while New Zealand is rolling in an abundance of data about its Covid response, Australia appears to be in something of a vacuum.

“The health response required a more frequent read of the economy.”

[Read more]

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