A coalition of civil rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union have filed an objection to the proposed expansion of Customs and Border Protections facial recognition at land and sea ports. The National Immigration Law Center, Fight for the Future, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are also participating in the motion, alongside twelve others. From a report: Filed in November, CBP's proposed rule would expand the biometric exit system, authorizing the collection of facial images from any non-citizen entering the country. But in a filing on Monday, the final day of the comment period, the coalition argued that those measures are too extreme. "CBP's proposed use of face surveillance at airports, sea ports, and the land border would put the United States on an extraordinarily dangerous path toward the normalization of this surveillance," said Ashley Gorski, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project, in a statement to reporters. "The deployment of this society-changing technology is unnecessary and unjustified." The filing raises a variety of legal objections to the expansion, in particular arguing that Congress did not intend to authorize long-term facial recognition when it mandated biometric exit tracking in 1996. At the time, Congress left the specific method open to interpretation, but the technology for algorithmic facial recognition from a video feed was not yet developed enough to be considered.

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Part of a giant rocket that will send humans back to the Moon has undergone a critical test.

T-Mobile has been asked to stop advertising its 5G network as more reliable than the competition by the National Advertising Review Board (NARB), which investigated T-Mobile's claims made primarily in an ad featuring celebrity scientist Bill Nye after complaints from Verizon earlier this year. From a report: But the NARB also says T-Mobile shouldn't have to mention the speed of its network when broadly discussing coverage superiority in future ads. T-Mobile has said it will comply with the recommendation. But it cast the recommendations as a partial win in a statement saying it "appreciates that the panel agreed that T-Mobile can continue to advertise its superior 5G coverage without qualification." T-Mobile's compliance is notable because telecom giants don't have to follow the recommendations offered by the NARB, which, as a self-regulatory body under the umbrella of a nonprofit organization, has no governmental regulatory power. For instance, AT&T flatly ignored a request it stop using its misleading "5G E" logo to reference a superior form of 4G.

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Browser makers Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla, have banned a root certificate that was being used by the Kazakhstan government to intercept and decrypt HTTPS traffic for residents in the country's capital, the city of Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana). From a report: The certificate had been in use since December 6, 2020, when Kazakh officials forced local internet service providers to block Nur-Sultan residents from accessing foreign sites unless they had a specific digital certificate issued by the government installed on their devices. While users were able to access most foreign-hosted sites, access was blocked to sites like Google, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Netflix, unless they had the certificate installed. Kazakh officials justified their actions claiming they were carrying out a cybersecurity training exercise for government agencies, telecoms, and private companies. Officials cited that cyberattacks targeting "Kazakhstan's segment of the internet" grew 2.7 times during the current COVID-19 pandemic as the primary reason for launching the exercise. The government's explanation did, however, make zero technical sense, as certificates can't prevent mass cyber-attacks and are usually used only for encrypting and safeguarding traffic from third-party observers. After today's ban, even if users have the certificate installed, browsers like Chrome, Edge, Mozilla, and Safari, will refuse to use them, preventing Kazakh officials from intercepting user data.

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Astronomers behind the most extensive search yet for alien life are investigating an intriguing radio wave emission that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. From a report: The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May last year, the Guardian understands. Analysis of the beam has been under way for some time and scientists have yet to identify a terrestrial culprit such as ground-based equipment or a passing satellite. It is usual for astronomers on the $100m Breakthrough Listen project to spot strange blasts of radio waves with the Parkes telescope or the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, but all so far have been attributed to human-made interference or natural sources. The latest "signal" is likely to have a mundane explanation too, but the direction of the narrow beam, around 980MHz, and an apparent shift in its frequency said to be consistent with the movement of a planet have added to the tantalising nature of the finding. Scientists are now preparing a paper on the beam, named BLC1, for Breakthrough Listen, the project to search for evidence of life in space, the Guardian understands. The beam that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star 4.2 light years from Earth, has not been spotted since the initial observation, according to an individual in the astronomy community who requested anonymity because the work is ongoing. "It is the first serious candidate since the 'Wow! signal'," they said.

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Astronomers behind the most extensive search yet for alien life are investigating an intriguing radio wave emission that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. From a report: The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May last year, the Guardian understands. Analysis of the beam has been under way for some time and scientists have yet to identify a terrestrial culprit such as ground-based equipment or a passing satellite. It is usual for astronomers on the $100m Breakthrough Listen project to spot strange blasts of radio waves with the Parkes telescope or the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, but all so far have been attributed to human-made interference or natural sources. The latest "signal" is likely to have a mundane explanation too, but the direction of the narrow beam, around 980MHz, and an apparent shift in its frequency said to be consistent with the movement of a planet have added to the tantalising nature of the finding. Scientists are now preparing a paper on the beam, named BLC1, for Breakthrough Listen, the project to search for evidence of life in space, the Guardian understands. The beam that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star 4.2 light years from Earth, has not been spotted since the initial observation, according to an individual in the astronomy community who requested anonymity because the work is ongoing. "It is the first serious candidate since the 'Wow! signal'," they said.

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With their savvy interfaces, smart features and oodles of VC money, digital banks have become the poster-child for fintech. There are now almost 300 so-called "neobanks" live worldwide, with nearly half concentrated in Europe. From a report: Meanwhile, new players are continuing to join the ranks, particularly in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. This boom is being fuelled by ongoing investor enthusiasm for the sector, with neobanks raising over $2bn in venture capital globally this year alone. Customers are also riding the neobank wave. PitchBook estimates that by 2024, 145m of us will be using these apps across North America and Europe alone. To help keep track of the global neobank landscape, we have broken down the key data and trends. For clarity, 'neobank' is defined here as an app that i) offers its own retail banking services (i.e. prepaid, debit, credit cards), ii) launched after 2010, and iii) is mobile-centric. This definition does not distinguish between regulatory status, but it's worth noting that only a handful have official bank licences. Here is the story of the world's neobanks, as told in numbers. The neobank boom: At its peak? The number of neobanks worldwide has tripled since 2017, climbing from 100 to nearly 300 worldwide. That means, over the last three years, a neobank launched every five days somewhere in the world (!), according to Exton, a consultancy firm which manages a global database of consumer banking apps. In 2019 alone, more than 70 neobanks went live globally. But Cristoph Stegmeier, a partner at Exton, says we may finally have reached a peak, with 2020 seeing a slowdown. "I expect we will see less from now," he told Sifted. He explained this year's launch decline went beyond simply the 'Covid effect' and stems from the growing saturation of neobanks. Indeed, 30 neobanks have been wound down since 2015, according to Stegmeier. Still, the neobank boom hasn't totally stalled. Over 30 neobanks launched in the face of the pandemic, including Zelf, Daylight (a US bank for LGBT+ members) and Tenpo in Chile. Meanwhile, dozens of new players are still planning to go live in 2021 -- including Greece's Woli and France's Vybe.

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Is your internet service provider charging you every month for the cable modem or router that you purchased with your own money? Or, perhaps, have you never bothered to buy those items because you couldn't escape the fee? That fee is illegal as of yesterday. From a report: Last year, Congress passed a law that should have fixed this ridiculous loophole as of June 20th, 2020 -- and though the FCC managed to extend the deadline six months by spinning up some bullshit about how cable companies didn't have the resources to stop charging you money, the law should take full effect Monday. Do note that the actual text of the law still allows some BS to occur. If your ISP sends you a router, you'll need to return it to avoid charges. Frontier in particular has been notorious for charging customers $10 a month for their equipment "whether you use it or not" -- the company's words, not mine -- but Frontier is clearly aware it won't be able to do that anymore. Starting this month, the company's equipment page has changed to remove the part where it talks about the mandatory fee.

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Five neighborhoods in Queens have more people than Wyoming. Here's the math. The five largest neighborhoods in Queens, by population, are: Astoria, Jamaica. Corona, Elmhurst and Flushing -- for a total of 581K. Wyoming's population is 578K. The point being this is just part of one county in New York State. It gets zero senators, probably a total of one member of the House (hard to figure). This came up as part of a discussion on how the counties, if votes were allocated to them, one per county, would have given Trump a landslide win over Biden. Yes, and if every one of my toes were worth $1 billion, I would be a billionaire. I'm sure you can tell a story that makes you sleep easier at night. But that's not how elections are won and lost. And of course everyone knows that. Oh can we stop being idiots some day, perhaps? That would be nice.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The Japanese website Asahi reports that Nikon is ending the production of cameras in Japan and moving all production to Thailand. This is simply Nikon's attempt to cut costs as much as it gets. Don't think this is enough to make them stay in the business.

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The discovery of U.S. spy networks in China fueled a decadelong global war over data between Beijing and Washington. From a report: Around 2013, U.S. intelligence began noticing an alarming pattern: Undercover CIA personnel, flying into countries in Africa and Europe for sensitive work, were being rapidly and successfully identified by Chinese intelligence, according to three former U.S. officials. The surveillance by Chinese operatives began in some cases as soon as the CIA officers had cleared passport control. Sometimes, the surveillance was so overt that U.S. intelligence officials speculated that the Chinese wanted the U.S. side to know they had identified the CIA operatives, disrupting their missions; other times, however, it was much more subtle and only detected through U.S. spy agencies' own sophisticated technical countersurveillance capabilities. The CIA had been taking advantage of China's own growing presence overseas to meet or recruit sources, according to one of these former officials. "We can't get to them in Beijing, but can in Djibouti. Heat map Belt and Road" -- China's trillion-dollar infrastructure and influence initiative -- "and you'd see our activity happening. It's where the targets are." The CIA recruits "Russians and Chinese hard in Africa," said a former agency official. "And they know that." China's new aggressive moves to track U.S. operatives were likely a response to these U.S. efforts. This series, based on interviews with over three dozen current and former U.S. intelligence and national security officials, tells the story of China's assault on U.S. personal data over the last decade -- and its consequences. But instead, CIA officials believed the answer was likely data-driven -- and related to a Chinese cyberespionage campaign devoted to stealing vast troves of sensitive personal private information, like travel and health data, as well as U.S. government personnel records. U.S. officials believed Chinese intelligence operatives had likely combed through and synthesized information from these massive, stolen caches to identify the undercover U.S. intelligence officials. It was very likely a "suave and professional utilization" of these datasets, said the same former intelligence official. This "was not random or generic," this source said. "It's a big-data problem." The battle over data -- who controls it, who secures it, who can steal it, and how it can be used for economic and security objectives -- is defining the global conflict between Washington and Beijing. Data has already critically shaped the course of Chinese politics, and it is altering the course of U.S. foreign policy and intelligence gathering around the globe. Just as China has sought to wield data as a sword and shield against the United States, America's spy agencies have tried to penetrate Chinese data streams and to use their own big-data capabilities to try to pinpoint exactly what China knows about U.S. personnel and operations.

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Lockheed Martin has agreed to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.4 billion in cash (including assumed debt). From a report: This reflects how legacy defense companies are racing to keep up with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in space, a dynamic that also helped drive Raytheon's merger effort with United Technologies. Plus, this is the exact type of company that will be seeking Space Force bids, maybe getting cool branding logos on the Guardian outfits. Aerojet in 2015 offered to pay $2 billion to buy a rocket launch joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed, but was rebuffed by Boeing.

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After months of deliberation, congressional leaders reached a $900 billion coronavirus relief deal on Sunday, including billions in funding for broadband internet access. From a report: Congress' latest relief measure provides $7 billion in funding for broadband connectivity and infrastructure. That figure includes $3.2 billion for a $50-per-month emergency broadband benefit for people who are laid off or furloughed during the pandemic, according to a press release from Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-OR) office on Sunday. "Broadband connections are essential for Americans seeking to get new jobs, and to access school, health care and other government services," Wyden said in a statement Sunday night. "Ensuring working families can stay online will pay massive dividends for kids' education, helping people find jobs and jump starting the economic recovery next year."

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Yesterday I ranted about journalism and the way they report on Facebook, from their own conflicted point of view. Toxic stuff, completely unrestrained by any effort at balance. I just came across a thread in a private FB group where a parent, considering buying a house in a small nearby town, asks what people think of local schooling. What came back is an incredible thread with real-life experiences. So far 70 comments. Not the kind of stuff you can get from journalism or books. Since it's private, I can't quote it, sorry.

Pfizer and BioNTech SE's Covid-19 vaccine won the backing of a key European review panel, clearing the way for inoculations to start before the end of the year as the continent struggles with rising death rates and tighter lockdowns. From a report: The endorsement was announced in a news briefing by the European Medicines Agency on Monday. The final step in approval is a sign-off from the European Commission. European Union leaders pushed the regulator to speed up its review amid complaints that residents across the continent were still waiting to get a vaccine -- pioneered in Germany -- that is already being used in the U.K. and U.S. The goal is to start a European immunization campaign on Dec. 27, commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week. Monday's recommendation puts the EU in position to meet that timeline. The commission last week signaled it would give the official go-ahead for distribution to start no later than two days after the agency's sign-off.

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