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A leading research centre has called for new laws to restrict the use of emotion-detecting tech. The AI Now Institute says the field is “built on markedly shaky foundations.” Despite this, systems are on sale to help vet job seekers, test criminal suspects for signs of deception, and set insurance prices. It wants such software to be banned from use in important decisions that affect people’s lives and/or determine their access to opportunities. The US-based body has found support in the UK from the founder of a company developing its own emotional-response technologies — but it cautioned that any restrictions would need to be nuanced enough not to hamper all work being done in the area.

AI Now refers to the technology by its formal name, affect recognition, in its annual report. It says the sector is undergoing a period of significant growth and could already be worth as much as $20 billion. “It claims to read, if you will, our inner-emotional states by interpreting the micro-expressions on our face, the tone of our voice or even the way that we walk,” explained co-founder Prof Kate Crawford. “It’s being used everywhere, from how do you hire the perfect employee through to assessing patient pain, through to tracking which students seem to be paying attention in class. “At the same time as these technologies are being rolled out, large numbers of studies are showing that there is… no substantial evidence that people have this consistent relationship between the emotion that you are feeling and the way that your face looks.”

When you’re scrolling through Facebook’s app, the social network could be watching you back, in more ways than just your data, concerned users have found. Multiple people have found and reported that their iPhone cameras were turned on in the background while looking at their feed. The issue came to light with several posts on Twitter, showing that their cameras were activated behind Facebook’s app as they were watching videos or looking at photos on the social network. After clicking on the video to full screen, returning it back to normal would create a bug where Facebook’s mobile layout was slightly shifted to the right. With the open space on the left, you could now see the phone’s camera activated in the background. This was documented in multiple cases, with the earliest incident on November 2.