Snippings

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An age-verification law in the U.S. state of Texas can’t be enforced against porn sites as intended while arguments about its constitutionality are heard in court.
A preliminary junction has been placed on the gating law because it was found to violate the First Amendment of the Constitution. It is not clear what the next step in this case will be.
The contentious regulation, HB 1181, was supposed to be law as of September 1. Its stated goal is to prevent children under the age of 18 years from accessing adult content online.
Anyone found to break the law would face daily fines of up to $10,000 of a violation. Fines can be up to an additional $250,000 if a child gets past the gate.
Opponents, which, of course, includes the online porn industry, say the agenda and impact is larger.
To comply with this and other similar laws, publishers have to deploy age verification software and handle ID document checks in a way that does not let that information get out. Their costs and liability increase under the legislation.
Consumers of pornography do not want to go to the trouble of proving their age and identity to view content that is protected under the U.S. Constitution. Some are worried about future government interference and reprisals as well as their biometric data being stolen and sold.

From Texas law paused. Age verification for porn sites put on hold | Biometric Update.

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The obligations will require UK crypto asset firms to send beneficiary and originator information before or when making a digital asset transfer to another crypto company.

From UK Travel Rule goes live: This is what it means.

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Faruk Fatih Özer, the founder of the collapsed Turkish crypto exchange Thodex, his sister Serap Özer and his brother Güven Özer have been sentenced to 11,196 years, 10 months and 15 days in prison, according to local media. A judicial fine of 135 million liras ($5 million approx.) was also imposed.
Thodex was one of Turkey’s largest crypto exchanges before it suddenly went offline in April 2021 and Özer went missing. Over 400,000 members were left in the dark without access to deposits of $2 billion in cryptocurrencies. Özer had fled to Albania but was arrested in August 2022 after an Interpol red notice against him.
By April 2023, Özer was extradited to Turkey, and detained by police upon arrival on seven charges, including establishing and managing an organization with the purpose of committing a crime, being a member of an organization, fraud by using information systems as a tool of banks or credit institutions, fraud of merchants or company executives and cooperative managers, and laundering the value of assets resulting from crime.

From Boss of Collapsed Turkish Crypto Exchange Thodex Sentenced to 11,196 Years in Prison.

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The point about AML solutions making the problems worse reminds me of the case of Faruk Fatih Özer, founder of the now-defunct Turkish crypto exchange Thodex, who vanished last year along with $2 billion in cryptocurrencies from the exchange, had fled not only with customers’ cryptocurrencies, but also with their identities. As David Gerard so eloquently phrased it, Özer paid the most “painstaking attention” to money-laundering compliance and was therefore able to take detailed Know-Your-Customer (KYC) data for hundreds of thousands of users with him. This data included scans of the customers’ national ID cards, once again proving that digitising identity is no substitute for digital identity.

Now, of course, the reason why Mr. Özer had such a treasure trove of customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) was because regulators had forced him to obtain it. So maybe it should be up to the regulators to fix the problem! But what are they going to do? What will happen to all of the people whose identities were stolen in this way? Are they all going to be given new identities in a vast national witness protection programme while their old identities are cancelled? Will the authorities give everyone a new name and a new number, cancel their old ID cards and send them new ones?

Well, of course not. Insane CDD demands continually force us to hand over our sensitive personal information to every Tom, Dick and Faruk on the internet while doing nothing to help us when our personal information is inevitably compromised as it must be when it’s sprayed around the web at the behest of regulators.

From AML Isn’t Working – by David G.W. Birch.

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Square is suffering a major systems outage that has left sellers unable to access their accounts or process payments for more than 12 hours.

The Block unit says that the outage hit at around noon Pacific Time on Thursday and was still affecting clients as of around 4:00am PT Friday.

A disruption at a data centre hit “multiple Square services,” affecting sellers across the US, although it is not clear how many firms are affected

From Square outage leaves sellers unable to process payments.

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LinkedIn estimates that 15-20% of candidates are dishonest in the way they present themselves. Additional alarming statistics include:

There has been a 92% increase in candidate fraud since the pandemic. 
21% of candidates engage in cheating in a controlled testing environment. 
52% of executives believe AI fraud detection is a best practice for hiring and preventing candidate fraud. 
Hiring managers have learned the hard way that hiring a candidate based on false information can prove costly – up to 30% of the worker’s first year salary, so it’s crucial for stakeholders in the hiring process to watch for red flags on resumes and during job interviews.

From Detecting and preventing fraudulent candidates.

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For reasons too boring to go into, I needed to use a prepaid card. In order to pass the KYC checks I was required to email a photo of my passport (what could possibly go wrong) and then provide proof of address in the form of a utility bill less than six months old. As you might expect, I have no such bill around the house because like most normal people I scan the bills when they come in and then shred them.

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Despite all the trouble of updating her ID and registering her new face on all the online platforms she used, Huan said she was very happy with her new nose.

The growing popularity of cosmetic surgery is proving a challenge for facial recognition technology. In January, another woman, in Urumqi, Xinjiang, failed to pay a fine for a traffic rule violation because her face did not match the one stored in the police system, according to online news video platform Pear Video.

Officers at the police station where the woman tried to pay the fine accused her of using someone else’s identity card, until she admitted she had undergone plastic surgery.

From Facial recognition technology in China beaten by a nose job | South China Morning Post.

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A new study finds that the total value of digital wallets transactions will rise from $9 trillion in 2023 to $16 trillion in 2028, a growth of 77%.
This trend is driven by growth across both developed and developing markets, as the increased adoption of advanced services such as BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) and microloans drives end-user engagement.
The study found that in a highly congested wallets landscape, diversifying their appeal to users is vital.

From Digital wallets transaction value to surpass $16 trillion globally.

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The Uptrip app empowers passengers to convert their conventional boarding passes into valuable NFT trading cards, which can subsequently be used to unlock a spectrum of exciting rewards. This unique concept adds a layer of gamification to the travel experience, incentivizing passengers to engage further with Lufthansa’s services. To participate in this novel approach, users must connect their crypto wallets to the app to seamlessly mint and transfer their Uptrip NFTs. By assembling specific NFT collections, travelers become eligible for an array of enticing rewards, ranging from flight upgrades and access to exclusive airport lounges to prestigious frequent flyer statuses and valuable award miles.

From Lufthansa airline’s mind-blowing NFT loyalty program – Cryptopolitan.

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‘I was so shocked. They made me go through security and seemingly had all of my details – and the number flashed up as being Monzo’s genuine one.’

Scammers often employ a tactic called number spoofing, whereby they change the caller ID to disguise their identity. To do this they either hide the identity or try to mimic the number of a real company or person.

From Scammers took £10,000 from me and Monzo ignored me for FIVE weeks – it’s ruined my life | This is Money.

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