Face recognition systems reportedly active at Chaayos without the option to opt-out

According to a report by Medianama, a popular tea outlet in India Chaayos is gathering users face data without giving customers the option to opt-out of it. The popular chain is doing this as an alternative to OTP. In the UI of the display where one has to register, there is no option to opt-out of facial recognition. There is only a “start” option. There are a lot of questions that are left unanswered. For example how long is the data stored? Where is it stored? How long is it stored for? What other uses can Chhayos use the facial data for? Medianama points out that “In case the police approaches a Chaayos outlet to investigate a case, will the company share this facial data with them?” There is also no assurance on the safety of this data being collected. 

Nikhil Pahwa, founder and editor of MediaNama said, “I was buying tea and didn’t even notice what was on the screen, and suddenly, the screen showed me. Remember, all this is happening without facial recognition norms, or a privacy law in India.” 

In a series of tweets, Nikhil Pahwa says, “Issues: 1. No terms & conditions displayed.  2. Consent isn't real when there's no opt out option.  3. We don't know if Chaayos will sell this data/gives itself the right to.  4. We don't know what kind of other data this facial info is being linked to. We don't know what kind of info this data will be compared with from other external databases.  5. Biometric info is a permanent username+password. Should not be used. 6. This is sensitive personal info.+”

Chaayos terms and conditions page says the following which is quite alarming. It reads, “Unless a law prohibits us from excluding or limiting our liability, we are not liable for any loss you incur in connection with Login service, or your instructions, or any unauthorised transactions through or in connection with the Chaayos Face Login service. You agree to undertake any direct or indirect claims, legal procedures, legal liabilities, loses, damages arising from our actions in accordance with your orders or notices and all expenses (including all legal costs) which are of reasonable amount whatsoever and howsoever caused that may arise to be reasonably incurred by us in providing Chaayos Face Login service to you. And you promise to indemnify us, upon our request, for the losses and expenses that we have suffered”. You can read the complete terms and conditions here.

According to the source, Chai Point has had a similar system in place since 2018. The function of the system is the same, to remove the need for OTP.

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GOG Black Friday Sale 2019: Top Deals on Recent Games, Classics, and More

GOG is ringing in the Black Friday 2019 sale season with hefty discounts on some recent games as well as a few classics.

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Black Friday 2019: Apple Devices, Gaming Products Hit Among Shoppers in the US

Black Friday shopping frenzy caught up with people across the globe after Thanksgiving Day and deal shopping was so intense that Costco's website and app in the US went down.

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Vivo hosting event for V-series launch on December 9, could be the Vivo V17

Vivo is hosting an event on December 9 for a new smartphone launch. The company has sent out invites for the same and it’s largely expected to be the Vivo V17. The smartphone was launched in Russia earlier this week and rocks a dewdrop notch and a diamond-shaped camera module.

The same smartphone was also launched in the Philippines as the Vivo S1 Pro. The smartphone rocks the Snapdragon 665 along and a 48MP rear camera and a 32MP selfie camera on the front. There’s also a 4,500mAh battery to boot. In contrast, the Vivo V17 Pro, launched earlier this year rocks dual selfie cameras in a pop-up module along with a 48MP quad-camera setup at the back.

The invite that Vivo sent out confirms it is a V-series smartphone launching on December 9. That gives more fuel to the rumour that it’s the Vivo V17. Interestingly, the invite shows a hole-punch camera in the graphic. A recent report also tipped Vivo is planning to launch the Vivo V17 with a hole-punch display in India. The report also claimed Vivo will ditch the waterdrop notch for a more premium look.

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Twitter is testing Reddit-esq nesting conversations

Looks like Twitter will be taking a leaf out of Reddit and is testing ‘nested’ replies. The feature was spotted by app researcher, Jane Manchun Wong. The new feature aims to make it easier to follow conversations. It was noted that the feature was first seen on Twitter’s beta testing app, Twttr and should roll out to the general public sometime in 2020.

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the new feature is a part of the company’s broader plans to bring feature from Twttr to the Twitter app. However, the spokesperson also noted that not all features discovered by Wong would be a part of the launch of the global version of the app. Just the “best parts”.

 

Twitter continues working on Conversation Tree now with the ability to focus a specific tweet, even from a permalink pic.twitter.com/CVadSqbFDP

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 26, 2019

 

In related news, it was recently reported that Twitter planned to remove accounts that haven’t signed in for six months or more. The plan is scheduled to start from December 11, but a spokesperson said that closing said accounts may take months. The move is aimed at cleaning up the platform and present more accurate, credible information that is reliable. Twitter has also said that it will find a way to memorialise accounts of people who have died but didn’t really say anything beyond that. So hopefully, we will not lose accounts of some of our loved ones who passed away a few years ago. 

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Apple could bundle AirPods with 2020 iPhones: Report

The Apple AirPods are one of the best-selling Truly Wireless Earphones in the market today. Now, according to a new report by DigiTimes, Apple is planning to bundle AirPods with the upcoming iPhone 2020 models. The report also mentions Samsung and Xiaomi are also planning on doing the same.

The reports cites industry sources behind the scoop, and considering the patchy reputation of the publication in predicting developments, it’s better to take this report with a pinch of salt given the high asking price of AirPods.

Apple sells the AirPods for more than Rs 10,00 and it’s difficult to imagine the company simply ditching a major source of revenue and bundling the product with the iPhones of the future. But then again, Apple introduced the AirPods Pro a few weeks back which has been selling out everywhere and Apple has already decided to increase production.

If the AirPods Pro becomes Apple’s premium play, the AirPods can indeed come bundled with the 2020 iPhones. You can surely expect the price of iPhones to shoot up even more, if that’s the case. Apple also might look to modernise the iPhone packaging. So far, Apple has been bundling Lightning EarPods with every new iPhone and bundling AirPods could be a way to catch up with changing times.

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LG UX 90 showcased, coming to LG G8X ThinQ in the future

LG’s new UI is out and the company has made some serious new changes to how LG smartphones will look from the inside. Called LG UX 9.0, the new interface improves upon the aesthetics of UX 8.0, and introduces new features to make usability of a LG smartphone much better.

LG phones were long overdue of an UI overhaul considering its phones received a lot of flak over its choice of UI aesthetics. That’s soon to change and by the looks of it, LG has taken big inspiration from Samsung’s OneUI.

The company released an YouTube video showcasing the changes and in the video description, it says the UI will first come to the LG G8X ThinQ at some point in time.

LG UX 9.0 incorporates bubbles everywhere with rounded corners. There’s more space between elements while the fonts are much bolder. The bottom of the screen will house a lot of actionable items, which should be easily reachable by the thumb. The new UI also brings a dark mode which can be scheduled and a new tablet UI for better multitasking.

By the looks of it, LG seems to have borrowed some aesthetics from iOS and some from Samsung’s OneUI. But then again, everything these days seems to be a copy of the other. What’s more important is that the UI should make using LG phones better. It looks more modern, for one.

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