Category: Crime

Taylor Swift used facial recognition software to detect stalkers at Rose Bowl concert

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❝ The periphery of a Taylor Swift concert is as thought out as the show she presents on stage. Beyond the traditional merchandise stands, there are often dedicated selfie-staging points and staff distributing light-up bracelets. When Swift performed at the Los Angeles Rose Bowl venue on 18 May, fans could watch rehearsal clips at a special kiosk.

What they didn’t know was that a facial recognition camera inside the structure was taking their photographs and cross-referencing the images with a database held in Nashville of hundreds of Swift’s known stalkers, according to a Rolling Stone report…

❝ While some have raised privacy concerns over the ownership and storage of the images, concerts are technically private events, and Swift has no obligation to notify ticket holders that they may be surveilled. The Guardian has contacted Swift’s representatives for comment.

Swift has a number of known stalkers. In September, she got a restraining order against Eric Swarbrick, who had been harassing her with letters threatening rape and murder since September 2016. In April, 38-year-old Julius Sandrock was arrested outside her Beverly Hills home. He was wearing a mask and had a knife in his car, and told police that he had driven from Colorado to visit the singer. Swift took out a restraining order against him in May.

RTFA and don’t blame the tech. Tech, science, generally are lifetyle neutral. Use is what determines the social value – or detriment to society – at any specific time. Even that can change with societal norms. Checking out customers for known creeps and villains seems pretty useful and proper to me.

3 cop cars get a Tesla to slow down and stop — DWI driver kept sleeping

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The driver failed a sobriety test and was arrested immediately.

❝ At approximately 3:37 am, December 1st, an officer pulled up to a stationary Tesla Model S with sirens blaring on Highway 101 in Palo Alto, California. After chasing the car for seven long minutes at 70 mph (the Tesla was driving just over the speed limit) the officer finally managed to get a peek at the driver.

But the driver was completely “unresponsive…”

❝ The officer was clever enough to figure out the Tesla was most likely set to Autopilot —although that’s not officially confirmed yet — and called two additional officers to help him slow down Samek’s Model S safely.

The driver turned out to be the head of the Los Altos Planning Commission Alexander Samek. The officers gave him a ride to a local Shell gas station, and promptly arrested him after he failed a sobriety test.

❝ It’s unusual given the fact that Tesla’s Autopilot feature will aggressively blink, and beep at the driver if they are unresponsive or don’t have both hands on the steering wheel. That is, if Autopilot was actually turned on. The feature will also automatically slow the car down on the side of the road if the driver doesn’t react.

Tesla has asked permission to check the car’s recordings to see if the autopilot was on at the time of the driver’s arrest.

Drug dealers rediscover behavioral market analysis

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❝ Major dark web drug suppliers have started to voluntarily ban the synthetic opioid fentanyl because it is too dangerous, the National Crime Agency has said.

They are “delisting” the high-strength painkiller, effectively classifying it alongside mass-casualty firearms and explosives as commodities that are considered too high-risk to trade. Fentanyl can be up to 100 times stronger than heroin and can easily cause accidental overdoses, particularly when mixed with heroin.

❝ Vince O’Brien, one of the NCA’s leads on drugs…[says] that dark web marketplace operators appeared to have made a commercial decision, because selling a drug that could lead to fatalities was more likely to prompt attention from police.

It is the first known instance of these types of operators moving to effectively ban a drug.

RTFA. I don’t expect junkies to have beaucoup decision smarts. Anyone else, please don’t go experimenting with instant death – smiling or otherwise.

School bus driver turned in for hit-and-run by bus passenger

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❝ A college student from Buffalo, New York, was surprised to find his car mysteriously dented last week, but he was even more shocked by the note left on his car.

The note was not left by another driver, but rather, someone too young to be responsible for a hit-and-run…

❝ The note writer specified it was a Buffalo Public School bus that hit Sipowicz’s car. That’s right, the anonymous good Samaritan was just a kid, on her way home from school. She signed the letter: “a 6th grader at Houghten Academy.”

Andrew Sipowicz, owner of the dented vehicle, tracked down the 6th grade schoolgirl who left him the note and plans a reward for her good deed. As for the bus driver…?