Kashmir Hill / is on Nostr

Kash Hill writes about privacy and technology. She is currently a reporter at The New York Times.

Last Notes

2024-04-23 17:53:21

For the last few months, I've been reporting on how data from our cars is being used in ways we might not expect.
I didn't realize it, but my own car was spying on me the entire time.
How it happened to me, and to millions of other people who drive cars made by General Motors:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/technology/general-motors-spying-driver-data-consent.html
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/321/808/146/844/926/original/c4f03813d90988ee.webp

2024-03-15 13:46:12

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And the class-actions begin.
The first was filed Wednesday by a Cadillac driver in Florida whose insurance doubled because data about how he drove was secretly siphoned from his car:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/technology/gm-lexis-nexis-driving-data.html?unlocked_article_code=1.c00.pHya.h4tIYZdYyms9&smid=url-share

2024-03-12 14:07:46

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@npub1lrv…tth9 How do you mean?

2024-03-12 14:03:55

My story about how telematics data from people's cars unexpectedly raised their insurance rates is on the front page today...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.b00.DzhQ.GXkvg-kgWebx&smid=url-share
... and this is where it started: me lurking on car forums and seeing comments like this.
If this story doesn't convince lawmakers we need a strong federal privacy law, I'm not sure what will.
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2023-09-25 19:47:24

We're standing on the brink of a world in which facial recognition runs amok and anonymity is impossible.
@npub1ffs…cxj7 has a new banger of a story on a Taylor Swift stan account dedicated to naming (and shaming) otherwise unknown people who appear in viral TikToks: https://www.404media.co/the-end-of-privacy-is-a-taylor-swift-fan-tiktok-account-armed-with-facial-recognition-tech/
I think it's still possible to intervene before use of face search engines like this becomes fully normalized. Read my new book which gets a nice shoutout in this story! https://kashmirhill.com/book

2023-09-18 15:12:47

Your Face Belongs To Us comes out Tuesday!
Years of research into Clearview AI and facial recognition technology in one speedy little read.
Publisher's Weekly said: "Combining vivid reportage with a chilling overview of facial recognition technology’s capabilities, this unnerves."
Here's a sneak peek and you can listen to an audio sample from the first chapter here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691288/your-face-belongs-to-us-by-kashmir-hill/
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2023-08-30 18:53:14

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@npub1zaw…tdg8 Thanks so much and apologize in advance if you're seeing me talking about it on all the social medias.

2023-08-30 18:52:34

A few years ago, I got a tip that seemed too outrageous to be true: A mysterious company called Clearview AI claimed it had scraped billions of photos from the public web to identify just about anyone based only on a snapshot of their face.
It led me on a fascinating reporting journey and to my book, YOUR FACE BELONGS TO US, coming out in 3 weeks! One big question is whether the average person is ready for a world in which anonymity ceases to exist.
Preorder here! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691288/your-face-belongs-to-us-by-kashmir-hill/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/980/063/608/770/444/original/a567070526f8abb6.jpeg

2023-08-29 20:22:18

My book, Your Face Belongs To Us, comes out in three weeks! I'll be wandering the country talking about it. Here are a few of my stops, with more to come. All preorders are highly appreciated, happy to sign if you make it to one of these events! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691288/your-face-belongs-to-us-by-kashmir-hill/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/974/753/697/688/322/original/7643259ddcb4b43b.jpg

2023-08-06 12:49:21

I have another story on a false arrest as a result of police use of facial recognition technology. This time, it was a woman who was 8 months pregnant. She was charged with robbery and carjacking for a crime committed two weeks earlier by a not visibly pregnant woman. You can read the story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/06/technology/facial-recognition-false-arrest.html?unlocked_article_code=qsFuuNKvnjIr6VoVXR3zV4AS1_jB8oyxiT3TEwCA6NuuAlx66Co8nU8kJ07djnLtjckQ7ZtehNThM7bCtGPjbrhlj8jUjFzp8QAA9UZ7I6N7gSoaXQzdB0alh_n_I-umkZ50fXwvrTLZzuDiMTwJYuW_w6X3OXr03k0POapGP7hfwT28eVMooxl-5nIhKpXwoJeaE6CR1BEQfUxMGIJz6I4tE-T_FuxBPXyZ8_krseECL7CFezED7hPZnrnaE2aImL8fAhYLdgicSdjZmCnAWXe6V8Ng-ujP9iZrah3XBjohulZGTNjwP1tPx25poO517VCgsm2V0ZO3LYZcbRv4-dByPva8YI2Zn3KM6g&smid=url-share
Or I did a thread on the x-bird site. https://twitter.com/kashhill/status/1688163609984069632
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2023-07-17 20:37:14

This is an interesting formulation on a shift that's happened in terms of how companies/people are thinking about online data: “Previously, the thought was that you got value from data by making it open to everyone and running ads. Now, the thought is that you lock your data up, because you can extract much more value when you use it as an input to your A.I.”
From this article on the "data revolts" https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/technology/artificial-intelligence-models-chat-data.html

2023-05-11 19:51:54

This week, I got pitched by a PR guy who expressed admiration for a book I wrote. Except I didn't write the book and when I Googled the title, no one else had either. I emailed the guy back: "What did you think of the book? 😉" That led him to admit that "someone used ChatGPT" and it gave a bio for me with this invented piece of information. The guy was embarrassed but I found it fascinating. ChatGPT hasn't learned how to tell the truth but it has learned plausibility. Beware, early adopters!
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/351/774/933/699/088/original/4df18b8610dba375.jpeg

2023-05-01 14:41:54

Lawmakers worried about the internet's effects on young brains have proposed age requirements for porn and other "harmful" online content. This isn't the first national panic about the internet & kids. In 1996, Congress made it illegal to knowingly send or display "indecent" material to people under 18. In a ploy to challenge the law, the ACLU posted a Supreme Court ruling about George Carlin's 7 Dirtiest Words in the English language to its website. It f***ing worked. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/30/business/aclu-free-speech-online.html

2023-03-09 21:51:53

This is a "holy shit" story with an emphasis on the holy: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/09/catholics-gay-priests-grindr-data-bishops/
To out priests using Grindr, a conservative group spent "millions of dollars" on mobile app tracking data.
This whole saga has been one of the most illuminating case studies in the privacy harms that can come from "aggregated" and "de-identified" data being freely sold in the marketplace.