Sidney Fussell, Author at Gizmodo

Cops Use Coin Toss App to Decide Whether to Arrest Woman. She Wins, and They Arrest Her Anyway.

Two police officers in Georgia are on administrative leave after using a coin toss app to determine whether to arrest a woman for allegedly speeding. Body camera footage obtained by WXIA-TV shows officers Courtney Brown and Kristee Wilson questioning, and ultimately detaining the woman. Brown admits in the recording that she doesn’t have equipment to…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Microsoft Asks Congress to Regulate Face Recognition

Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, Brad Smith, called for federal regulation of face recognition in a new blog post on Friday. Half of all adults already have their face in a federal database, and vendors are supplying face recognition technology to schools, airports, and baseball stadiums. Federal regulation could help meet numerous privacy concerns…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Face Recognition ‘Tickets’ Are Coming to Baseball Games

MLB and Clear announced a partnership on Thursday that will soon let baseball fans enter stadiums using fingerprints, and eventually, just their face, instead of tickets. Clear, which offers similar biometric fast-tracking for participating airports, says it will let baseball fans link their Clear and MLB.com accounts. By sharing fingerprint data, visitors can bypass long lines…

Privacy & Security Sidney Fussell

School District to Arm Students With Giant Pepper Spray Canisters to Deter Shooters

An Ohio school district is gearing up for a surprising security upgrade for the new year: smart pepper spray. Beginning in the fall, schools in the Columbiana Exempted Village School District in Ohio will begin using devices called ‘Threat Extinguishers.’ Modeled after fire extinguishers, these are pepper spray canisters capable of firing “tactical grade” incapacitating…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Facebook’s Ad Tools Labeled Thousands of Users as ‘Interested’ in Treason

Facebook is apologizing after its algorithms tagged 65,000 Russian users as “interested in treason.” Facebook algorithmically tags users based on their behavior, making it easier for advertisers to target people interested in specific topics. In this case, however, the tag “treason” may have put users under the threat of government intervention. Facebook says it has…

Social Media Sidney Fussell

Who Will Police Police Drones?

The Police Foundation doesn’t want the police to call drones “drones.” Because of the public’s association with “military-style weapons like the Predator,” the organization’s 311 page report reads, the term “drone” is “a major obstacle to law enforcement’s ability to convince the public” that police drone programs “could actually increase public safety, not jeopardize it.”…

Privacy & Security Sidney Fussell

Amazon and Orlando Cops’ Controversial Face Recognition Pilot Isn’t Over

Contrary to earlier reports, Orlando police confirmed Monday they will renew a contract with Amazon to pilot its controversial face recognition software, Rekognition—a move that is sure to reignite concerns of privacy and civil liberties advocates who have pushed back against law enforcement’s use of the technology. The American Civil Liberties Union released emails in…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Facebook Admits to Major Screw-Up That Silently Unblocked People Without Asking

Facebook disclosed a new “bug” on Monday that temporarily let some users who’d been blocked on the service send messages to the people who had blocked them. The bug also let some previously-blocked users view posts that were shared “to a wider audience,” such as publicly or with friends of friends, Facebook said. Facebook’s privacy…

Social Media Sidney Fussell

Instagram Under Fire for Removing Photo of Gay Couple

Instagram has apologized to a British photographer after removing her photo of a gay couple kissing, saying the post was removed “in error.” London photographer Stella Asia Consonni uploaded photos of couples as part of an art series on modern relationships, published in i-D magazine. After posting the photo, Instagram removed it, sparking public backlash.…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

UK Reveals Plan for a Centralized Biometric Database That Sounds Like an Absolute Nightmare

The UK government’s Home Office released a report this week announcing plans for a forthcoming centralized biometric database of its citizens, compiling DNA, fingerprint, face, and possibly even voice data for law enforcement to access and share, according to the Telegraph. In addition to helping local police solve crimes, the Home Office report also proposes…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Amazon Buys PillPack in a Move to Swallow Your Pharmacy

Amazon has a new side hustle. The company confirmed on Thursday that it’s buying its way into the pharmacy industry by snapping up PillPack, a service that sells prescription drugs online. Simple over-the-counter drugs are already available on Amazon.com, but this will mark Amazon’s first big foray into the pharmaceutical industry. PillPack describes itself as…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Faking My Westworld Fandom Was So Easy, I Almost Forgot I Was a Fraud

Reading The Ringer’s recent review of Hereditary’s Wikipedia page, I thought I’d found another opportunity to do my favorite thing. Everyone’s favorite thing. The activity that the internet seems to have been designed for: acting self-righteous. “I have read the Wikipedia plot summary for Hereditary multiple times, which is the only way I will ever…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Orlando Police Drop Amazon’s Controversial Face Recognition Tech—For Now

The Orlando Police Department announced today it has ended its pilot of Amazon’s Rekognition face recognition software. Last month, the ACLU released hundreds of pages of documents from the Orlando Police Department and Oregon’s Washington County Sheriff’s Office detailing their use of the software, prompting backlash from civil rights groups and Amazon employees. But while…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Face Recognition CEO Says Use of This Tech by Police Is ‘Irresponsible and Dangerous’

Face recognition will be used to harm citizens if given to governments or police, writes Brian Brackeen, CEO of the face recognition and AI startup Kairos, in an op-ed published by TechCrunch today. Last week, news broke that bodycam maker Axon requested a partnership with Kairos to explore face recognition. Brackeen declined, and writes today…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Bodycam Maker Axon Reportedly Tried to Buy Face Recognition Tech

Body camera manufacturer Axon requested a contract for face recognition software from an artificial intelligence startup, the Wall Street Journal reports, which stands to further fears from privacy advocates about the state of surveillance in America. In a report on the future of privacy and face recognition, WSJ spoke with Brian Brackeen, CEO of Kairos,…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Facebook Wants to Use Machine Learning to Stop Hoaxes and Fake News

Facebook debuted a host of new efforts Thursday in its fight against fake news. In a blog post from product manager Tessa Lyons, Facebook announced a series of new partnerships and expansions to its fact-checking endeavors, including fact-checking viral photos and images and the use of machine learning to stop the spread of hoaxes and…

Social Media Sidney Fussell

‘Bitcoin Baron’ Gets 20 Months in Prison for DDoS Attack That ‘Crippled’ Emergency Communications

An Arizona man who once styled himself as a hacktivist “Bitcoin Baron” has been sentenced to prison for a distributed denial-of-service attack against the city of Madison, Wisconsin’s computer networks. According to the Department of Justice, the attack “crippled” the city’s emergency communication system, causing “delays and outages in the ability of emergency responders to…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint Pledge to Stop Selling Your Real-Time Location to Data Brokers

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon say they won’t provide their customers’ location data to third-party data brokers, AP reported on Tuesday. A New York Times report in May touched off a major scandal by describing the ways location data, which all four major carriers in the U.S. share with data brokers like LocationSmart, can be…

Privacy & Security Sidney Fussell

The Dangers of Tech’s Privacy Promises

Where do you go to tell a secret? Probably depends on the secret. What you’d feel comfortable murmuring to a friend in a private meeting is likely not what you’d say loudly to a coworker while your boss is in earshot. Online, we not only communicate, we calculate—based on who we’re speaking to, or what platform…

Privacy & Security Sidney Fussell

Welcome to the Beesistance

Apoidea, welcome to the resistance. On Sunday, tens of thousands of unrelenting enemies of the racist surveillance dystopia enveloping America took to Times Square to protest Big Brother. The NYPD estimates 20,000 bees simultaneously swarmed a surveillance camera on 42nd Street and Broadway. In a towering message to all of us, the hive mind temporarily blocked…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Sidney Fussell

Cops Use Coin Toss App to Decide Whether to Arrest Woman. She Wins, and They Arrest Her Anyway.

Microsoft Asks Congress to Regulate Face Recognition

Face Recognition ‘Tickets’ Are Coming to Baseball Games

School District to Arm Students With Giant Pepper Spray Canisters to Deter Shooters

Facebook’s Ad Tools Labeled Thousands of Users as ‘Interested’ in Treason

Who Will Police Police Drones?

Amazon and Orlando Cops’ Controversial Face Recognition Pilot Isn’t Over

Facebook Admits to Major Screw-Up That Silently Unblocked People Without Asking

Instagram Under Fire for Removing Photo of Gay Couple

UK Reveals Plan for a Centralized Biometric Database That Sounds Like an Absolute Nightmare

Amazon Buys PillPack in a Move to Swallow Your Pharmacy

Faking My Westworld Fandom Was So Easy, I Almost Forgot I Was a Fraud

Orlando Police Drop Amazon’s Controversial Face Recognition Tech—For Now

Face Recognition CEO Says Use of This Tech by Police Is ‘Irresponsible and Dangerous’

Bodycam Maker Axon Reportedly Tried to Buy Face Recognition Tech

Facebook Wants to Use Machine Learning to Stop Hoaxes and Fake News

‘Bitcoin Baron’ Gets 20 Months in Prison for DDoS Attack That ‘Crippled’ Emergency Communications

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint Pledge to Stop Selling Your Real-Time Location to Data Brokers

The Dangers of Tech’s Privacy Promises

Welcome to the Beesistance

Revisiting the Ending of ‘Chainsaw Man’ Through the Lens of Japanese Folklore

U.S. Considers Ban on Chinese Air Bags Blamed for Deaths of 10 People in Survivable Crashes

Samsung’s New Frame TVs Look Even More Like Actual Paintings

You Can Now Watch Rocky From ‘Project Hail Mary’ Sleep With the Perfect Accompaniment

5 Things You May Have Missed During NASA’s Historic Launch of Artemis 2

Artemis 2 Day 2: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

30 Unpublished Poems From Iconic Greek Philosopher Discovered in Cairo

Lucid Recalls 4,000 Gravity SUVs for Faulty Seat Belts That May Not Actually Work During a Collision

Ninja Blast Max Hits Its Lowest Price and Now One of the Cheapest Portable Blenders Worth Buying

The ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Sequel Is a Beautifully Executed Dystopian Nightmare

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?