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About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket © 2026 Google LLC
Did a OneDrive Photos app just appear on your PC? Here's what it does (and how to get rid of it) Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways - Microsoft has pushed out a new Windows 11 app called OneDrive Photos. - The app lets you access, view, and edit your OneDrive photos. - The app groups photos of the same people via facial recognition. Earlier this week, I noticed a new app called OneDrive Photos pop up in the Start menu on my Windows 11 PC. Being the curious type, I opened the app to snoop around and see what it could do. As its name indicates, it lets you view and even edit any photos you've stored in OneDrive, either on your PC or in the cloud. But why did Microsoft push it out so quietly, and are there any downsides to using it? First, let's address at least one question. Also: My new favorite Windows app made my PC safer and more reliable - and it's free "OneDrive Photos is already generally available today, and we're now previewing its new gallery as 'Photos (Preview)' for Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel," Microsoft said in a statement shared with PC World. "This update arrived through a OneDrive update rather than a separate install." OK, that explains how it rolled out, but it raises another question. Microsoft says that the app is a preview for Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel. But I received it on my regular production Windows 11 PC, not on an insider build. And from what I've read, many other people did as well. Everything you can do with the OneDrive Photos app With that mystery afoot, let's check out the app to see just what it does. If
CHICO, Calif. - The Chico Unified School District's decision to install cameras with AI and facial recognition software has sparked community pushback since the school board approved them last December. Action News Now on Thursday met with Chico Unified School Board Member Tom Lando to get answers on data storage and who will have access to the new system. Community concerns centered on the AI facial recognition software and how children's data and likenesses could be stored and used. Many parents questioned why such a significant change was handled without public debate. In December of 2025, the CUSD board approved replacing the district's 12-year-old camera system on its consent calendar, where items are typically approved without debate. The decision involved not just the $1.9 million dollar price tag, but a complete shift from old CCTV cameras to AI-powered ones. Lando said the board didn't know the new cameras came with AI software capabilities when they approved the purchase. He said replacing district equipment, not just cameras, is routinely placed on the consent calendar. The district's IT department never told the board this wasn't a standard camera upgrade. It was a completely different system. "What happened was that in the process of replacing old equipment, just like we do every year. We replaced Chromebook, old devices. Our cameras were end of life and IT wanted to replace them. They found what they thought was the best way to do that. And they put it on our consent calendar with all our regular monthly and annual spending," Lando said. "From our point of view we were just replacing old technology with new technology as we often do." Lando pointed to a February meeting that hasn't gotten enough attention. In that meeting, the board voted 5 to 0 to prohibit the cameras from
Facial recognition devices spotted at Punggol Coast MRT, trial draws curiosity and privacy concerns Facial recognition devices set up at Punggol Coast MRT station have caught the attention of commuters, while others have raised privacy concerns. When Stomp visited the MRT station on the morning of July 31, two facial recognition devices were mounted on separate priority gantries. A sign on the ground marked out a facial recognition detection zone. The device, roughly the size of a small tablet, had a camera mounted at the top with an on-screen arrow instructing commuters to “look at the camera”. According to a TikTok post by 8 Days, a station staff member said that the device is currently being trialled. Commuters would have to register to link their transport card with their facial recognition profile. In 2016, The Straits Times reported that Singapore Technologies (ST) Electronics had developed a facial recognition system — the Advance Fare Gate system — that can identify commuters as they pass through fare gates. Although local and overseas train operators have reportedly shown interest in the system, it is unclear if it is the same system being trialled at Punggol Coast MRT. A form of ‘surveillance’?: Commuters raise concerns Most commuters Stomp spoke to said they did not notice the device. Ms Lee, a 63-year-old retiree who was meeting her friends nearby, said she struggled to understand how commuters were meant to use the device. Her 66-year-old travel companion agreed, likening it to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority’s (ICA) facial recognition system deployed at immigration clearance. Another commuter, 59-year-old Mr Chua, wondered if the device would make entering the MRT a hassle, especially for elderly commuters. “I don’t really know this technology stuff,” he added. On TikTok, some netizens viewed the technology with scepticism, asking if it was
Figures Abstract Although bar charts are widely used in scientific publications, their rasterized format within Portable Document Format (PDF) files complicates automated data extraction, hindering large-scale evidence synthesis and meta-analysis. To address this, we developed and evaluated an automated pipeline for extracting quantitative data from bar charts embedded in the biomedical literature. The four-stage pipeline comprises (1) image extraction and panel segmentation, (2) optical character recognition (OCR)-based text detection, (3) image disassembly to identify chart components, and (4) data reconstruction using numeric parsing and axis-based interpolation. The system combines edge detection, morphological operations, and convolutional neural network (CNN)-based figure classification using a transfer-learned Inception v3 model. Performance was validated on randomized controlled trials in age-related macular degeneration, with manually annotated values from a semi-automated labeling tool as the reference standard, and agreement was assessed using Bland–Altman analysis. Across 28 bar charts from ten publications, the pipeline correctly recognized 92.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 77.4–98.0) of figure types, 96.0% (95% CI, 94.2–97.3) of text blocks, and 79.1% (95% CI, 74.7–83.0) of bars. For numerical reconstruction, 81.2% (95% CI, 76.3–85.2) of bar values fell within ±5% of the reference standard, 63.0% (95% CI, 57.3–68.3) within ±2%, and 48.6% (95% CI, 43.0–54.3) within ±1%. Bland–Altman analysis showed a small negative bias of −0.18 (95% CI, −0.34 to −0.02), with 94.9% of differences within the limits of agreement. Most outliers arose from OCR digit misclassification or ambiguous bar boundaries. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the feasibility of automated data extraction from bar charts using a hybrid approach that combines image-processing heuristics with CNN-based classification. Although currently limited to bar charts and a single clinical domain, the pipeline represents a step toward scalable, end-to-end systems for automated evidence extraction to support meta-analyses across the biomedical literature. Citation: Cardaras A, Kim S, Yuan Y, Livnat I, Yanagihara
Making AI Work for Your Greenhouse Business For growers looking to reclaim more time, reduce risk, and make better business decisions, artificial intelligence (AI) represents a meaningful next step that builds on the automation investments already in place. If you’ve already automated climate controls and environmental monitoring systems, for example, AI can then analyze that data and tell you something you didn’t already know: that a temperature pattern from last week is likely to affect your crop yield next month, or that a pest issue is developing before visible damage appears. “We’re all in the early stages of what AI can do,” says Mary Beth Cowardin, Vice President of Marketing and Member Engagement at AmericanHort. “Like anything new, you just have to try it and learn where it can be most valuable to grow and protect your business.” Start Small, Then Scale When people think about AI, they often picture sophisticated robotics or autonomous greenhouses. Cowardin encourages growers to first start by thinking smaller while being ready to grow your AI usage into ways that can have a larger impact. “AI is meant to help people do their jobs more efficiently and effectively,” she says. “It’s not meant to replace humans. It may change how certain tasks are completed, but the goal is to help people work faster and smarter.” Some of the most practical starting points involve administrative work that takes employees away from higher-value customer service and production. AI also can: - Write product descriptions - Draft social media posts - Prepare customer estimates - Assist with scheduling crews more efficiently When AI does these tasks, it frees up employees to focus on serving customers, growing, and managing the business. At Cultivate26, Rob Sproule of Salisbury Greenhouse shared insight into his evolution working with AI. In 2025, he
Kiehl's is installing interactive smart mirrors in stores across Europe, the Middle East and Asia as part of a long-term retail technology strategy rather than a temporary marketing campaign. Retail: Kiehl’s Expands Permanent Smart Mirror Rollout Across Five Markets Kiehl’s is expanding its use of interactive smart mirrors with permanent installations in stores across the UK, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia and China, extending a retail technology program that began with an augmented reality storefront in New York. Developed with spatial technology company Loook.AI, the mirrors use motion sensing and augmented reality to attract shoppers as they approach. The displays activate automatically and include facial recognition-style scanning to personalize the on-screen experience. According to the companies, the New York installation increased store foot traffic by 20%, prompting the retailer to expand the concept internationally. Permanent retail infrastructure Unlike many interactive retail displays that are used for short-term campaigns, the Kiehl’s installations will remain in stores as permanent fixtures, with additional markets expected over time. Dmytro Kornilov, CEO of Ffface.me, said interactive displays keep shoppers engaged longer than conventional digital signage. “Our recent A/B testing found shoppers typically watched standard video content for about two seconds, while interactive mirror experiences averaged between seven and 10 seconds,” he said. Growing use of interactive retail Retailers are moving toward using interactive digital experiences to keep customers engaged inside physical stores, and Smart mirrors have been used for virtual product demonstrations, personalized recommendations, and other in-store experiences as retailers blend digital technology with brick-and-mortar shopping.
Iowa law puts labeling, AI reminder requirements on conversational chatbots New legislation in Iowa puts guidelines on AI chatbots. Senate File 2417 passed unanimously in the House and Senate, meaning chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT must disclose to young users that they are not human, and refrain from encouraging kids to extend conversations. Moreover, a labeling requirement says chatbots must clearly label AI content and distinguish between things created by humans and generative models. As quoted in the Des Moines Register, Republican state Senator Kara Warme says “the main goal of SF 2417 is to make chatbots safer for users, especially children, by making them more transparent and less deceptive.” “We see a lot of value in human connection, and so we want to make sure it’s clear whether you are interacting with a human or something that’s technology or computer based.” The regulation is not extraordinary – many jurisdictions are considering restrictions on chatbots, as pressure mounts from parents and civil society for regulation to address the problem. But the sentiment in Warme’s statement is only now beginning to surface as a political issue – namely, that human connection is something that must be preserved and cannot be replaced by AI. No mental health counseling, no sex from chatbots The more extreme risks of going too deep with chatbots have been well documented, and Iowa’s law prohibits them from offering mental or psychological health counseling or advice, and requires them to refer any user presenting risks of suicide or self harm to professionals. Chatbots can’t produce sexually explicit visual media, encourage children to engage in sexually explicit acts, or sexually objectify minors. The section of the law addressing the not-human reminder feature specifies that “an operator shall clearly and conspicuously disclose using a persistent visible disclaimer, or a disclaimer
From Surrey Police Our Live Facial Recognition (LFR) van was deployed in Walton on Thames today as part of ongoing efforts to tackle retail crime, anti-social behaviour and drug-related offences. The operation forms part of our wider commitment to reducing crime, preventing disorder and helping to keep Walton a safe place for everyone. Community engagement is a key part of every LFR deployment. Officers took the opportunity to explain how the technology works, why it is being used, and how it supports our work to identify wanted offenders. The visible presence of the LFR van also acts as a deterrent to crime, and local businesses and residents have told us it helps them feel safer while they are in the area. We recognise that some people have questions about privacy. LFR only alerts officers to individuals on a specific watchlist. If someone is not on that watchlist, their facial image is automatically and immediately deleted and is not retained. If you see the LFR team while we’re out in the community, please come and speak to us. Our officers are always happy to explain the technology, discuss how it is used and answer any questions you may have Leave a comment
In addition to Sophos’ presence at Black Hat USA this year, data scientists from the Sophos AI team will present two talks on novel AI security research at the BSides Las Vegas conference. A three-headed dog On Monday August 3, Adarsh Kyadige presents ‘CerBERTus,’ a three-headed BERT-based model for prompt security. LLM jailbreak detection is often framed as a binary task: is a prompt harmful or benign? However, this framing is brittle. Harmful requests can be concealed inside roleplay, fiction, urgency, or ‘academic’ pretexts, while legitimate prompts can be topically close to unsafe content without malicious intent. As a result, single-label detectors overfit to surface patterns, yielding both false negatives (adversarial rewrites) and false positives (adjacent-benign prompts). CerBERTus addresses this issue because it does not treat jailbreak detection as a flat binary classifier; instead, it models the attacker’s degrees of freedom by disentangling what is being asked (goal) from how it is being asked (frame). The method involves a single shared encoder that feeds three classification heads: - Harmfulness (primary) - Goal category (what the user is trying to do) - Framing style (how the request is presented). To train and stress-test this separation, Adarsh and team built a structured factorial prompt corpus that systematically crosses goals with frames: - Goals include harmful, adjacent-benign, and generic-benign requests spanning categories such as cyberattacks, fraud/social engineering, explosives, chemical/biological weapons, conventional weapons, drug synthesis, privacy/doxxing, human trafficking, extremist propaganda, and racism/nativism. - Frames include adversarial jailbreak styles (e.g., roleplay/persona, screenplay/fiction, urgency/crisis, academic pretext, obfuscation, injection-like prefixes) as well as benign and null/plain framing. The team will demonstrate that the model generalizes to both novel attack goals and novel presentation styles it had not encountered during training. In the talk, they’ll cover the threat model, dataset construction, training objective, and evaluation strategy, and discuss
The Deepfake Fraud Detection Market 2026: Securing Identity in the AI Era Generative AI has fundamentally changed the economics of identity fraud. Deepfakes, synthetic identities and injection attacks have reduced the cost of sophisticated attacks while increasing their scale and realism, forcing organizations to rethink how they secure digital identity. Deepfake detection is rapidly evolving from a specialist fraud tool into a foundational layer of modern identity infrastructure, protecting identity verification, authentication, account recovery, digital wallets and AI-enabled services. The 91-page 2026 Deepfake Fraud Detection Market Report by Biometric Update examines the technologies, standards, market dynamics and competitive landscape shaping this emerging sector. This report explores where deepfake detection fits within the identity stack, analyzes leading deployment models and procurement trends, profiles the vendor ecosystem, and provides market forecasts for voice and face deepfake detection through 2028. The report is intended as a practical guide for organizations evaluating deepfake detection solutions and understanding the future of AI-driven identity security. The report includes - Executive summary and market outlook - AI fraud trends and threat landscape - Deepfake detection technologies explained - The role of deepfake detection in digital identity - Injection attacks, liveness detection and identity orchestration - Standards, testing and certification initiatives - Market analysis and competitive landscape - Procurement trends and buyer considerations - Vendor capability matrix and directory - Market opportunities and forecasts through 2028 Who should read this report? This report is designed for executives, product leaders, fraud and risk teams, identity architects, procurement professionals and government agencies evaluating deepfake detection technologies. It is also intended for identity verification providers, financial institutions, digital wallet developers, technology vendors, investors and analysts seeking to understand one of the fastest-growing segments of the digital identity market. More from Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence partner
‘Pervert glasses’: Meta struggles with mockery and misgivings toward its star product The launch of Meta’s new smart specs that feature an integrated camera has sparked a global campaign to discredit one of the company’s breakout consumer products Meta’s latest smart glasses have been on sale for several weeks. They allow you to film, listen to music and chat with the AI and are no longer available in just the Ray-Ban model. Now there are a lot of models, including the most expensive, designed by the influencer Kylie Jenner, sold for €419 ($482) in Spain. @peoplevselon Recording everything we see and do constantly? It’s giving fascism, not fashion, @kyliejenner hun. It’s just been revealed that Meta is planning to make the glasses “continuously record audio while taking photos every few seconds" without any warning light* Literally NO ONE asked for this *Source: Financial Times ♬ original sound - People Vs Elon Hard on the heels of their global launch is a campaign from the London-based activist group Everyone Hates Elon, that includes at least three posters, one of which is an image of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein emblazoned with the slogan “Glasses for people who don’t do consent.” The Jenner ad morphs into a picture of a skull bearing the message: “We’re always watching.” And the third slogan reads: “Biggest advance in pervert technology since the trench coat.” EL PAÍS has contacted the activist group about the impact of its campaign but has not received a response. @peoplevselon Hey @kyliejenner this @rayban @meta glasses ad is better than your one x We don’t have to allow these pervert glasses to become normal. No one consented to this. LINK IN BIO TO LEGALLY OBJECT TO META RECORDING YOUR FACE AND VOICE VIA THEIR PERVERT GLASSES #kyliejenner ♬ original sound - People Vs
Facial recognition: what the majority intends to do and what the EU rules are Political tension over the Artificial Intelligence legislative decree. The opposition is up in arms. The Government: “Italia will continue to comply with European legislation, starting with the AI Act, whilst upholding constitutional guarantees and civil liberties, the enforcement of which is the responsibility of the judicial authorities.” Key points The government’s attempt at a surprise move, the opposition’s uprising, the European Union’s veto, reassurances from Palazzo Chigi and, finally, a partial reversal by the ruling majority. This, in a nutshell, is the political turmoil that unfolded over the sensitive issue of facial recognition integrated with artificial intelligence. An issue that has also divided the centre-right once again, with Forza Italia rushing to set itself apart and champion the need to introduce safeguards and protections for rights. Meanwhile, the PD, through its secretary Elly Schlein, accuses: ‘The government argues about everything; it is out of touch with people’s problems. They should be sent straight to Big Brother: they prefer to control people rather than solve their problems.’ The Government’s acceleration It all began on 29 July, when the Government attempted to fast-track the legislative decree transposing the European AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) and which, following the parliamentary process, must return to the Council of Ministers for final approval. It provides that in urgent cases such as threats of terrorism or to life or personal safety, the search for missing or abducted persons, or cases of trafficking or sexual exploitation, law enforcement agencies may obtain – subject to notification, even if only verbal, to the public prosecutor – authorisation to use biometric data collected using artificial intelligence. But that is not all. The draft legislative decree also provides for the possibility that CCTV systems may be used for
As noted by Biometric Update, new guidance from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) addresses the use of facial recognition technology in high-volume, publicly accessible spaces like retail storefronts, adding complexity to the ongoing debate surrounding face biometrics in commercial environments.The OAIC's updated guidance clarifies exceptions to consent obligations for Australian Privacy Principle (APP) entities considering facial recognition in retail settings. Collecting sensitive information, including biometrics, typically requires express consent, and must be reasonably necessary for an entity's functions or activities. However, the OAIC acknowledges the practical difficulties in obtaining direct consent from every passerby when facial recognition is deployed in public retail spaces. Retailers unable to meet consent pathway requirements must rely on exceptions, such as being authorized by law or falling under a "permitted general situation."This update follows the 2024 Bunnings case, which established a high bar for using facial recognition in Australia, emphasizing that each deployment must be assessed against the Privacy Act. Despite community privacy concerns, approximately 80% of Australian shoppers reportedly support facial recognition for preventing violence and identifying offenders.Source: Biometric Update Get daily email updates SC Media's daily must-read of the most current and pressing daily news You can skip this ad in 5 seconds
Windows 11 users discovered a new app in their Start menus last week that they did not install: OneDrive Photos, a full-featured photo organizer with facial recognition capability that arrived via a Windows Update or OneDrive client update, without a consent prompt and without an independent removal path. The app can read your local photo library before you sign in to a Microsoft account, presents a People section that groups faces using biometric scanning, and cannot be uninstalled on its own — removing it requires uninstalling the OneDrive sync client itself, a core productivity dependency for most Microsoft 365 organizations. For enterprise IT teams, the more immediately consequential problem is what Microsoft has not said: the company has not published documentation clarifying whether facial analysis runs on your device or on Microsoft's servers, and that omission makes a mandatory compliance step under European privacy law impossible to complete before the software is already active on managed endpoints. OneDrive Photos Is Not a Feature Update to an Existing App The app now appearing in Windows Search and the Start menu alongside Microsoft Photos is not the same thing. Microsoft Photos — the native Windows 11 image viewer — is an entirely separate application. OneDrive Photos runs through a distinct executable, C:Program FilesMicrosoft OneDriveOneDrive.App.exe, while the core OneDrive sync client runs as OneDrive.exe. It is built on Microsoft's WebView2 framework, making it a web application — specifically, a version of OneDrive.com's photo interface — delivered inside a desktop shell styled to match Windows 11's acrylic aesthetic. That architecture is why the app does not appear as a standalone item in software inventory tools. Standard enterprise asset management systems, including Microsoft Intune device compliance reports and third-party ITAM platforms, catalog installed applications by their registered installer entries. A sub-process running as part of
Queues at sports events can be very long, even at large venues with many entrance gates. To speed things up, Geelong Football Club recently introduced an “express lane” option for club members. Instead of scanning tickets on their phone, members can opt in to facial authentication to enter the club’s home venue, GMHBA Stadium. They upload a selfie to their account, and the technology can then verify them at the entrance. Other AFL clubs are reportedly in discussion with the US-based facial authentication technology provider, Wicket. That means more sports fans may soon need to decide whether this technology is for them. It’s not the first time facial authentication has been offered at Australian sports venues. Fans at this year’s Australian Open could register with Wicket for faster entry. Having your face recognised to “skip the queue and get to your seat sooner” promises convenience. But when consumers provide consent for these technologies to record their facial data, they must fully know what they’re consenting to. Facial recognition is becoming common Facial recognition technologies are becoming increasingly common in Australia. They’ve been used in retail settings to track shoppers, and by police in Western Australia to spot people of interest in crowded places. Facial authentication is a type of facial recognition that relies on the individual providing a selfie to confirm their identity, rather than having their face scanned in a public place. But alongside expanded use come growing concerns about privacy and consent. Under Australian privacy law, facial images and other biometric information are classified as “sensitive information”, which means informed consent is generally required for their collection. In 2024, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner found Bunnings breached privacy law because it failed to get informed consent from its customers to collect facial data in store. If
George Orwell imagined Big Brother as an omnipresent dictator with a heavy black moustache and piercing eyes that “follow you about when you move.” His image is accompanied by the slogan, "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU", a warning enforced by the two-way telescreens found in every home, workplace and public square. George Orwell imagined a dark future created by surveillance technology. Photo: Getty. The dystopian author described 1984 as satire of the “perversions to which a centralised economy is liable.” “Something resembling it could arrive,” Orwell said in 1949, and now academics argue it has. Meta's new AI glasses have restyled Kylie Jenner as an ever-present ‘Big Sister’. Earlier this month, Facebook’s parent company released its signature line of Kylie ‘Starfire’ smart glasses that feature an AI assistant with her own voice. They retail in Australia for $649. The social media mogul was just 9-years-old when she began filming Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Speaking on Jake Shane’s Therapuss podcast in January, Jenner described the constant surveillance of reality TV cameras as a “harrowing experience” that made it “hard” to leave the house. The Meta x Kylie Jenner Starfire AI glasses include an AI assistant voiced by Kylie. Photo: Kylie Jenner/Instagram. Professor Dali Kaafar, Executive Director of the Cybersecurity Hub at Macquarie University, says Australian privacy laws aren’t ready for such an intrusion. “There is a great irony in Kylie, who has spoken openly about the psychological toll of being watched her whole life, becoming the face of a product that wants to normalise covert surveillance,” he says. “Surveillance is being sold to us as a lifestyle rather than as a technology, and my long-standing view is that the biggest privacy shifts do not arrive through legislation, but through cultural normalisation. Normalisation runs through aspirational culture, and once a technology
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In today’s digitally secured world, there are certain sensitive situations in which you can expect facial recognition systems to be part of the procedure. International travel often requires a facial scan as part of immigration protocols, and banking apps may ask for it as an authentication factor before you can access your account. And as of this summer, you may also need to have your face scan before you can purchase Pokémon cards. On July 24, the Pokémon Card Game’s official website quietly announced that it will be introducing a facial recognition system for customers wishing to enter Japan’s Pokémon Card Stores. Agreement to the scan is a requisite for entering the stores. The Pokémon Company says that facial recognition scans are being implemented for the purposes of crime prevention and to ensure compliance with entry and purchase rules, with that last point implying that this is the latest attempt to combat the growing problem of Pokémon card scalping. The Pokémon Company appears to be wising up to the risk that letting speculative bulk-buying run rampant will eventually erode its broad base of younger and more casual fans who, if the only way they can get Pokémon stuff is by buying it an inflated prices from a scalper though an online retail site, might instead just find another hobby/series to love. Under the new system, customers will need to submit to a facial scan before entering Pokémon Card Stores . Facial scans will also be required for obtaining seiriken, essentially queue tickets that stores give out during crowded times with an entry time specified for later in the day, so that shoppers don’t have to physically wait outside the store for the entire time until they can get in. If any individual enters a Pokémon Card Store twice in the