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Microsoft says it will no longer invest in third-party facial recognition companies following a controversy around its funding of Israeli startup AnyVision, which critics and human rights activists say powered a surveillance program in the West Bank following an NBC News report about the companys relationship with the Israeli government.

Microsoft now says an independent investigation led by former US Attorney General Eric Holder and his team at international law firm Covington & Burling found that AnyVisions technology has not previously and does not currently power a mass surveillance program in the West Bank that has been alleged in media reports. Had it done so, Microsoft says it would have constituted a breach of the finance portfolios pledge on ethical facial recognition use.

Regardless, Microsoft says it is divesting from AnyVision and will no longer make minority investments in any facial recognition firms. For Microsoft, the audit process reinforced the challenges of being a minority investor in a company that sells sensitive technology, since such investments do not generally allow for the level of oversight or control that Microsoft exercises over the use of its own technology, reads an announcement on the website of the companys M12 venture arm.

By making a global change to its investment policies to end minority investments in companies that sell facial recognition technology, Microsofts focus has shifted to commercial relationships that afford Microsoft greater oversight and control over the use of sensitive technologies, the announcement goes on to say.

While Microsoft is stepping away from funding facial recognition firms, it does still have a facial recognition technology of its own through its Azure cloud computing platform. The Face API, as its called, allows any developer to embed facial recognition into your apps for a seamless and highly secured user experience. However, the companys chief legal officer, Brad Smith, said last year that Microsoft would never sell facial recognition for surveillance purposes, and Smith has gone on the record saying its denied law enforcement access to the technology over concerns it would contribute to civil and human rights abuses.

Its unclear if Microsofts new investment stance means it can still acquire facial recognition firms or whether it is making any adjustments to its own use of internal facial recognition software as a result of the change in direction. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

Facial recognition, specifically the variety of the technology powered by advanced machine learning and other artificial intelligence tools, has come under a spotlight in recent years. At the same time, concern grows among politicians and activists that it could be used by law enforcement and governments to surveil citizens without their consent and in ways that violate privacy and human rights laws.

In January, Facebook was hit with a $550 million fine as part of a settlement for a class action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition without clear opt-in provisions for users of its social networking products. Tech leaders like Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who helped oversee the formation of the companys AI ethics principles in 2018, has said a temporary ban on the technology might be warranted in response to the European Unions ongoing efforts to more aggressively regulate it.

One notable provider, Clearview AI, has found itself at the center of the growing controversy around the tech, as its database of billions of photos scraped largely from social media sites is already in use by thousands of private companies and law enforcement agencies. As a result of the Clearview story, more attention is now being paid to lesser-known facial recognition firms, and especially whether they have deals with local law enforcement groups or under-the-radar relationships with big tech firms.

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Microsoft to end investments in facial recognition firms after AnyVision controversy - The Verge

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Gov. Jay Inslee announced additional guidance today related to the "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" proclamation to slow the spread of COVID-19. Inslee also sent a government-to-government letter to Washington's tribal communities.

In partnership with the governor's office, the Washington State Department of Licensing sent additional guidanceto funeral homes and cemeteries today.

The letter from DOL reads, in part:

"As your licensing agency for mortuary services, we provide the following guidance. Licensed funeral homes and cemeteries may conduct funeral services in a funeral home or graveside under the following conditions:

"We have also received questions about embalming. The governor's proclamation does not prohibit embalming."

Read the full letter.

Inslee alsosent a letter that provides further guidance on real estate transactions today. The letter reads, in part:

"While real estate activities along with mortgage lending activities have been approved asessential activities under the Proclamation, such activities shall only be permitted under thefollowing restrictions and limitations:

Read the full letter.

The governor sent a letter to tribal governments throughout the state yesterday, as part of government-to-government communications. The letter reads, in part:

"First, none of my Emergency Proclamation orders apply to conduct on tribal lands. Tribal governments, as sovereign nations, are making their own decisions in response to the current COVID-19 emergency.

"Second, constituents have presented several questions to my office regarding individuals who commute to tribal lands or Washington businesses that work on tribal lands. While I have defined essential activities (for purposes of Emergency Proclamation 20-25) in Washington, tribal leaders maintain sovereignty to define essential activity on tribal lands."

Read the full letter.

Public and constituent inquiries | 360.902.4111Press inquiries | 360.902.4136

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Inslee issues additional guidance on funerals and real estate transactions, letter to tribal governments - Access Washington

Executive Summary

During stressful, uncertain times like the COVID-19 pandemic, its normal to be scared. Your family is likely also scared and everyone you seem to know on social media is scared as well. These feelings can spread, something known as negative emotional contagion, which can make us less equipped for dealing with the unknown. But by learning what it is and how it works, you can start making positive emotions more infectious. This can help you feel more prepared and in control and will help others feel the same way as well.

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You are scared. Your family is scared. Everyone you seem to know on social media is scared. And with good reason: Things are uncertain. We dont feel in control. Everything is shifting, and fast. We dont know what the rules are. We arent sure what will happen to us, our livelihoods, our families. And it doesnt necessarily feel short-term. So what do you do?

While medical and public health leaders working as hard as they can to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, we of course listen to and heed their advice. But experts in emotional intelligence also have something powerful to offer a way to help us manage a different type of contagion that, if we let it run rampant, will only make things worse. Stemming negative emotional contagion and making positive emotions more infectious will make us feel more prepared and in control during this frightening period.

Weve long known that panic spreads, but experts more recently have come to understand emotional contagion, the mechanism by which peoples emotions (positive or negative) go viral within groups, influencing our thoughts and actions. Learning about that mechanism is key to dampening negative emotional contagion and making us feel a bit less frantic.

As research has shown, we generally have little awareness of emotional contagion and its influence on our behavior. It starts when we automatically mimic other peoples facial expressions, body language, tone of voice which were hardwired to do from infancy. What happens next is also infectious: Through a variety of physiological and neurological processes, we actually feel the emotions we mimicked and then act on them.

When you have legitimate reason to worry, as we do now, youre even more likely to be influenced by everyone elses justifiable fear. Its easy to become infected by the negative emotions of coworkers, the newscaster youre watching, friends on social media, or your family. In effect, you catch their anxiety and transfer it to others, who relay it back to you, in an almost unending circuit of negative emotion.

And while feelings are more contagious in person, they can still be transmitted online and by email, phone, or any other ongoing remote interaction with other people. In fact, isolation can increase social loneliness, which can dampen our mood, making us even more susceptible to negative emotional contagion. Given this, we can all benefit from becoming more aware of how we respond to emotional contagion during this time, even if were working at home.

There is good news: Were not helpless. Understanding how emotional contagion works increases your awareness of the negative version of it and is a form of prevention in its own right, as research on the benefits of recognizing unconscious processes has shown. Your worry is reasonable, but understanding how negative emotional contagion works can help you cope. Youll be able to see why your legitimate emotions are getting amped up from interactions with others, and that knowledge gives you the power to do something about it.

For starters, cut down on how often you engage with venues where fear feeds on itself rather than on the facts social media, for example, or conversations with friends and coworkers who do more speculating and catastrophizing than sharing of evidence. Distinguish between people who are consulting sound information and those who are in a frenzy.

That doesnt mean burying your head in the sand. To the contrary, you should stay alert. But be wise about your sources. Turn to reliable health and behavioral experts: your doctor or nurse-practitioner, the CDC, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health. Do what these experts advise but dont assume you need to do more than they advise, as this could intensify negative emotions in yourself and others.

Second, just as youre trying to protect yourself and everyone else from viral contagion with exemplary health hygiene, actively work to stem negative emotional contagion by exercising good emotional hygiene. Try to stay calm using whatever methods work for you. People will mimic that emotion, too. That can lead to positive emotional contagion, and my research shows that its just as strong as the negative variety.

Exercising, volunteering and showing kindness, mindfulness meditation, and positive high-quality connections with others even if virtual can positively increase your mood. Feelings of hope have been shown to be more important than feelings of fear in resilience to poor outcomes, and purposefully expressing optimism and gratitude, with the explicit goal and understanding of feeling better, also relate to long-term well-being. We need this positive counterbalance during this difficult time, and there are free, research-based online resources to help you do these things.

There may not be an effective COVID-19 vaccine or treatment for a while. But we have the power to take action where we can, from heeding advice on social distancing to staying as calm as possible for our own benefit and the benefit of others. Reducing negative and bolstering positive emotional contagion will help us all weather this very unpredictable storm, together.

Link:
The Contagion We Can Control - Harvard Business Review

President Donald Trump and the national media have at least two things in common. They are both attempting to do their jobs amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and both are seen by the American people as unreliable sources of information.

Nevertheless, a majority of Americans (60 percent) approve of Trump's handling of the crisis. The same cannot be said of the national media. According to the most recent Gallup survey, 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the media's response to the China-caused pandemic.

Members of the national media have responded in predictable fashionby losing their minds. Afterdownplaying the seriousness of the virus in January by regurgitating Chinese propaganda and denouncing Trump's decision to ban travel from China as racist and xenophobic, the media continue to demand the trust and respect of the American peopleeven as their collective hysteria ascends to unprecedented levels. (For what it's worth, they're still promoting Chinese propaganda.)

The media's efforts to assert their credibility during the crisis have been complicated by the fact that the media don't really respect or trust the American people. As Andrea Mitchelllamentedon MSNBC: "No matter what [the president] says, people seem to be seeing him as a leader." A headline in the Washington Post was more explicit: "Trump fans believe him over the media on coronavirus. This is dangerous."

Take that, America! This is what you get for not trusting us.

The Washington Post is all over the storyWhy Trump is Bad, etc. publishing two separate (yet practically identical) opinion columns really sticking it to America: "The U.S. is still exceptionalbut now for its incompetence," by Fareed Zakaria and "Trump made us No. 1 in the spread of a deadly disease," by Jennifer Rubin.

What does the coronavirus have to do with abortion? Very little, unless you're the Post. Take, for instance, Max Boot's cerebral column on how the pandemic proves "the conservative devotion to life ends at birth." Indeed, there is no shortage of journalists who are openly accusing the president of murder.

When a Michigan hospital's "worst case" policy draft leaked to the pressfull of grim details about "comfort measures" and the prioritization of ventilatorsjournalists pounced. Former National Journal editor Ron Fournier cited the policy draft as evidence that Trump "has abandoned Michigan doctors and hospitals. He is letting people die." The hospital was forced to clarify that the draft policies were not actually in effect, but not before the journos had racked up a bunch of precious retweets.

Meanwhile, the New York Times and the Washington Post were competing to see who could publish the most insightful headline on the intersection of religion and public health.

The Times wins this round, but the national media are further than ever from winning back the American people's trust and respect. "Less trustworthy than Trump" is quite the honorific, but the media are certainly doing their best to show they deserve it.

Andrew Stiles is senior writer at the Washington Free Beacon. He can be reached at stiles@freebeacon.com.

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UPDATE: The Journos Are Still Out of Control - Washington Free Beacon

Donald Trump addressed the press Saturday to discuss the ongoing coronavirus crisis and, for a long stretch, he was relatively calm and mature, at least by Trump standards. It was not a repeat of Friday's temper tantrum, in which he responded to NBC's Peter Alexander's reasonable question about the American public's worries by calling him a "terrible reporter." He applauded Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsome of California, two individuals he rarely showers with praise.

To start, he mostly painted a picture of our glorious 500-million mask future (definitely not our present), then let FEMA head Peter Gaynor and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci take the reins to give answers about equipment availability and testing rates. (Short answer: were working on it.) Trump congratulated himself on the bold economic initiatives hes enacting (nobodys ever done a package like this!) and applauded private businesses for stepping up. He gave two shout-outs to Hanes, reporting that they are going to start making surgical masks. (Start hoarding boxers, I guess.) He also joked about personally taking Dr. Fauci's temperature, which was a borderline human moment. Fauci's facial expressions in these press conferences have become a real-time fact-checkwhen Trump started to talk about China's culpability, Fauci's eyes darted.

Trump mostly kept a lid on the raw rage on display on Friday. But his political strategyblame China, blame the press, tout his China travel ban, blame previous administrationswas clear. He doubled down on the phrase Chinese virus, invoked "Sleepy Joe Biden," wouldn't say whether he'd talked to Pelosi. Then a reporter from OAN, the same outlet that recently asked if Chinese food is racist, set the President up, wondering what he thought of recent coverage in the Washington Post.

This was the kind of softball Trump couldn't resist taking a swing at. He called the paper a disgrace that we have to live with. When reporters spoke up he barked quiet! quiet! and lectured that fake news is something he is personally inured to, but insults the great people standing behind me.

Trump went on to chastise China for being secretive and for not letting people like Dr. Fauci know about the severity of the coronavirus threat, and then praised himself for closing off the border as early as he did.

I was called xenophobic, the President said, citing, among others Sleepy Joe Biden. I took a lot of heat. I didnt act late, I acted early.

He also put much blame for the current state of our medical crisis on previous administrations, saying we inherited an obsolete and broken system.

A better effort, without questionbut the buck still apparently stops with Barack Obama.

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Trump's Coronavirus Press Conference More In ControlBut the Blame-China, Blame-The-Blame Obama Strategy Is Clear - Vanity Fair