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Apple Purchases Software Company To Read Users' Expressions (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Apple's first disclosed acquisition of 2016 is software company Emotient, which specializes in reading users' expressions while they operate computers. Emotient uses AI software to break down micro-emotions shown on each face in a video frame and quantify it into three indicators: is the subject paying attention to the advertising, are they emotionally engaged, and are they showing a positive or negative emotion? The faces are pixelated to provide user anonymity without sacrificing the expression.
One of the Snowden leaks was of a photo of a government official naked (sexual?) taken with the phone camera. Some are self taken, some are taken covertly. I assume you're smart enough not to take pictures of yourself in a bra snorting coke if you're a politicians! Since GCHQ or NSA could simply leak that to the press if you ever pissed them off, but your phone is with you all the time. But then somehow those pictures end up on British newspapers!
People think the phone is off when the screen is off, and don't realize the camera can be recording all the time. The mic also is listening all the time, and GCHQ's "smurf" suite of software lets them turn on a phone, record video, audio, grab all data, and the "Wilson Doctrine" (a legal principle that stopped GCHQ spying on Parliament) was removed this year too.
Smurf software:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/14/gchq_privacy_international/
Some background on Snowden leaks on politicians photographs:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/how-the-nsa-spies-on-smartphones-including-the-blackberry-a-921161.html
"The results the intelligence agency documents on the basis of several examples are impressive. They include an image of the son of a former defense secretary with his arm around a young woman, a photo he took with his iPhone. A series of images depicts young men and women in crisis zones, including an armed man in the mountains of Afghanistan, an Afghan with friends and a suspect in Thailand."
"No Access Necessary"
"All the images were apparently taken with smartphones. A photo taken in January 2012 is especially risqué: It shows a former senior government official of a foreign country who, according to the NSA, is relaxing on his couch in front of a TV set and taking pictures of himself -- with his iPhone. To protect the person's privacy, SPIEGEL has chosen not to reveal his name or any other details."