Snippings

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The analysis found that the single Chinese company was able to pull over $100mn in cryptocurrency into just two digital wallets, a scale that Jackie Koven, head of cyber threat intelligence at Chainalysis, said showed the extent to which bad actors were using digital assets to fuel a burgeoning black market.

From: $100mn in crypto payments traced to Myanmar-based ‘scammers’.

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Professor Julia Hornle of Queen Mary University of London pointed out that one of the key challenges of implementing the Act will be ensuring that age estimation is effective at distinguishing between the various age groups involved. A distinction between childhood and adulthood is inadequate to many of the services and potential harms in the Act’s scope.

From: The UK’s Online Safety Act is live; now for the hard part | Biometric Update.

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The draft guidance issued by Ofcom for pornography providers specifies that digital identity wallets, open banking, photo-ID matching, age estimation based on face biometrics, mobile operator checks and credit cards can all be sources of “highly effective” age assurance, if implemented properly.

From: The UK’s Online Safety Act is live; now for the hard part | Biometric Update.

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However, compared with investors in traditional investment accounts, the median crypto user is more likely to come from lower rungs of the income ladder and is more likely to be young and male. Crypto-assets may therefore merit a differentiated policy approach—compared with the existing architecture for traditional markets (e.g., stocks and bonds)—to effectively protect investors and the economy.

From: The Dynamics and Demographics of U.S. Household Crypto-Asset Use.

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British banks are fed up with footing the bill for a tidal wave of fraud that originates online. They want tech platforms to cough up.

From: British banks want Big Tech to pay up when people are scammed online – POLITICO.

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The quick brown fox

 

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Credit cards are surprisingly important to department stores. While they account for a small piece of their top lines, they boost profits. Credit income accounted for about 49% and 44% of Macy’s and Nordstrom’s JWN 0.34%increase; green up pointing triangle operating income in 2022, according to estimates from BofA Global Research equity analyst Lorraine Hutchinson. At Kohl’s KSS 0.55%increase; green up pointing triangle, credit income well exceeded operating income, implying that the retailer would have swung to an operating loss if it hadn’t been for the credit-card business.

From: Credit Cards Could Swipe Department Stores’ Profits – WSJ.

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One advert used footage of Nigella Lawson chatting about her recipes and work as a TV chef.
“I went on vacation and met this man at a very exclusive party. His name was Wesley and he handed me this hidden Bible page that was locked away in somebody’s room,” the voice said.
But it was not that of Lawson, it was the barely indistinguishable mimicry of an AI voice generator.

From: Piers Morgan and Oprah Winfrey ‘deepfaked’ for US influencer’s ads – BBC News.

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Nearly one in three preteens lists influencing as a career goal, and 11 percent of those born in Generation Z, between 1997 and 2012, describe themselves as influencers. The so-called creator economy surpasses $250 billion worldwide, according to Goldman Sachs, with U.S. brands spending more than $5 billion a year on influencers.

From: A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men – The New York Times.

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Speaking as he collected the “popular prize” at the European Inventor Award 2014 for his work, Hara said that the QR code is likely to be replaced by something more sophisticated.
He suggests that future software can accurately recognise objects by their size and shape, rather than relying on a special code, such as the new Amazon Fire.
“I think there may be further development in the area of image processing, so they will be able to see directly,” he said. “It would be great if we can get away with this code that’s printed on paper and recognise the thing itself. That’s an idea I’ve been having in my mind for years.”
A secure QR code which is capable of distinguishing between what you want to share and what you don’t is being looked into in Japan, Hara said.

From: QR codes only have about 10 years until extinction, inventor believes | The Drum.

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For now, it’s strictly early adopters who are handing over seemingly every aspect of their lives to these AIs. But if adoption by users follows investment, then the billions being poured into OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Jeff Bezos-backed AI search startup Perplexity, Google’s new Gemini AI, and Microsoft’s Copilot (which featured in the first every Super Bowl ad for an AI) set us on a path for a very different future for online commerce.