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From Macy’s to Albertsons, facial recognition is already everywhere

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Some of the US’s most popular stores — including <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-06/macy-s-sued-over-use-of-clearview-facial-recognition-software?sref=Wg6QzS2e">Macy’s</a> and Albertsons — are using facial recognition on their customers, largely without their knowledge, according to the digital rights nonprofit Fight the Future.
On July 14, Fight for the Future helped launch a <a href="https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/stores/">nationwide campaign</a> to document which of the country’s biggest retailers are deploying facial recognition, and which ones have committed to not use the technology. The campaign, which has the support of more than 35 human rights groups, aims to draw attention to retail stores using facial-scanning algorithms to boost their profits, intensify security systems, and even track their employees.
The campaign comes as a clear reminder that the reach of facial recognition goes far beyond law enforcement and into the private, commercial storefronts we regularly visit. Experts warn that facial recognition in these spaces is particularly concerning because the technology is largely unregulated and undisclosed, meaning both customers and employees may be unaware this software is surveilling and collecting data about them.
“A lot of people would probably be surprised to know how many retailers that they shop in on a regular basis are using this technology in a variety of ways to protect their profits and maximize their profits as well,” Caitlin Seeley George, a campaign director at Fight for the Future, told Recode.
While you may not have heard of it before, stores using facial recognition isn’t a new practice. Last year, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-riteaid-software/">Reuters</a> reported that the drug chain Rite Aid had deployed facial recognition in at least 200 stores over nearly a decade (before the company suddenly committed to ditching the software). In fact, facial recognition is just one of several technologies store chains are deploying to enhance their security systems, or to otherwise surveil customers. Some <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/19/21011527/retail-tracking-apps-wifi-bluetooth-facebook-ads">retailers</a>, for instance, have used apps and in-store wifi to track users while they move around physical stores and later target them with online ads.
A handful of popular stores, including the grocery chain Albertsons and Macy’s, are already using facial recognition, according to Fight for the Future’s <a href="https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/stores/">database</a>. How exactly these retailers are using facial recognition can be unclear, since companies typically aren’t upfront about it.
At the same time, a growing number of technology startups and security firms are looking for opportunities to sell this software to stores. Some of these sellers are already well-known, like Clearview AI, the controversial startup that <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/11/21131991/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-database-law-enforcement">scraped billions of people’s images</a> from social media. But there are plenty of other facial recognition <a href="https://www.biometricupdate.com/202107/cloudastructure-to-scale-facial-recognition-and-computer-vision-platform-after-raising-over-29m">providers</a> that have attracted less attention, such as firms like <a href="https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/07/06/this-manual-for-a-popular-facial-recognition-tool-shows-just-how-much-the-software-tracks-people">AnyVision</a>, which announced it had <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/israeli-startup-anyvision-raises-235-mln-softbank-others-2021-07-07/">raised $235 million</a> just last week.
Stores are embracing facial recognition tech because, they claim, it can help them prevent theft. But experts warn this technology raises alarms. Customers rarely know that this technology is in use, leaving them without the opportunity to say no or remove themselves from a store’s facial recognition-based watch list. At the same time, facial recognition algorithms can be inaccurate, and come with <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/18/21121286/algorithms-bias-discrimination-facial-recognition-transparency">built-in racial and gender biases</a>. In 2019, Apple was sued by a New York undergraduate student who alleges that the company uses facial recognition tech for security purposes and that it inaccurately linked him to several thefts at <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/04/23/apple-lawsuit-teen-claims-facial-recognition-tech-caused-false-arrest/3547479002/">Apple stores</a> that he didn’t commit.
“We’re really concerned about how employees at retailers using facial recognition are impacted in a large part because they don’t really have an option to opt out if it comes to a point where people can either have their job and be under surveillance or not have a job,” George, of Fight for the Future, told Recode. Customers living in areas where there are few options for stores can also end up being coerced into accepting the technology, she added.
One of the main challenges is that facial recognition is mostly unregulated, and many current efforts to rein in the technology primarily focus on its use by government and law enforcement. “The laws are so different it would be probably impossible to write a clean, clearly understood bill regulating both consumer and government,” Brian Hofer, who helped put together the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/technology/facial-recognition-san-francisco-ban.html">facial recognition ban</a> in San Francisco, told Recode <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/3/21307873/facial-recognition-ban-law-enforcement-apple-google-facebook">last year</a>.
But there have been attempts to regulate this tech, even when used privately. In 2019, Lowe’s and Home Depot were sued for using facial recognition in violation of Illinois’s <a href="https://cookcountyrecord.com/stories/513512142-biometrics-class-actions-target-lowe-s-home-depot-for-anti-shoplifting-surveillance-systems">biometric privacy law</a>, one of the strongest laws in the country. Just this month, <a href="https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/nyc-businesses-do-you-have-your-3066409/">a New York City law</a> finally went into effect that requires stores and businesses to tell customers when they collect their biometric data. And this week, the commission that oversees the Port of Seattle voted to ban biometric tech from its <a href="https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/95645-port-of-seattle-commission-bans-facial-recognition">facilities</a>.
While members of Congress have proposed several ideas for giving customers more protection against private companies’ use of facial recognition, there’s yet to be significant regulation at the federal level. “In the vast majority of cities and towns, there are no rules on when private companies can use surveillance tech, and when they can share the information with police, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], or even private ads,” warns Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.
In the meantime, Fight for the Future is moving forward with its plan to call out companies already using the technology. The group is also collecting information about competing stores that don’t use facial recognition, so people can have the option to avoid this surveillance if they want.
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Correction, July 19, 2021: An earlier version of this story said Ace Hardware uses facial recognition. Ace Hardware said in a statement that the specific store location Fight for the Future cited in its database does not use the technology. Ace Hardware did not clarify whether any other store locations use this tech. Fight for the Future has since updated its database.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/7/15/22577876/macys-fight-for-the-future-facial-recognition-artificial-intelligence-stores">https://www.vox.com/2021/7/15/22577876/macys-fight-for-the-future-facial-recognition-artificial-intelligence-stores</a>

vox From Macy’s to Albertsons, facial recognition is already everywhere

Some of the US’s most popular stores — including Macy’s and Albertsons — are using facial recognition on their customers, largely without ...

Don’t assume your iPhone is safe from hackers

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If you were paying attention to the news over the weekend, you might have heard something about “Pegasus.” In this case, Pegasus is not a mythical flying horse, but <a href="https://forbiddenstories.org/pegasus-project-articles/">powerful phone-hacking spyware</a> sold by an Israeli company that’s allegedly been used to snoop on journalists, politicians, activists, and even business executives around the world. But if you don’t fall into those categories or are otherwise unlikely to be the target of a sophisticated hacking operation, how any of this directly applies to you may not be so obvious.
Does the average person really have to worry about the government of <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pegasus-project/life-in-azerbaijans-digital-autocracy-they-want-to-be-in-control-of-everything">Azerbaijan breaking into their phone</a> and listening to their conversations or surveilling them through their phone cameras? Probably not. But the reports do suggest that people who have wholeheartedly bought into Apple’s marketing about how secure its devices are — and how hard Apple fights to ensure that security — might want to think again: iPhones can be hacked.
That might be surprising to many, as Apple has long cultivated its reputation as the private and secure alternative to rivals Microsoft and Google, whose Android operating system powers most phones in the world that aren’t iPhones. Apple took a well-publicized stand against the United States federal government twice by <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/1/13/21064271/barr-apple-iphone-alshamrani-pensacola">refusing</a> to help the FBI unlock phones that belonged to suspected terrorists. But the fact that the FBI was able to <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/18/21262731/fbi-apple-unlock-iphone-encryption-bill-barr-alshamrani">get into those phones</a> without Apple’s help should be your first clue that iPhones <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/12/21134681/mac-pc-virus-malware-malwarebytes">and Macs</a> are not impenetrable fortresses.
Now, <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/07/pegasus-project-apple-iphones-compromised-by-nso-spyware/">multiple</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/19/apple-iphone-nso/">reports</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/19/how-does-apple-technology-hold-up-against-nso-spyware">based</a> on a leak of 50,000 phone numbers belonging to people said to be potential targets — including journalists, dissidents, human rights advocates, and heads of state — say that thousands of iPhones may have been hacked by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/18/what-is-pegasus-spyware-and-how-does-it-hack-phones">Pegasus</a>. This sophisticated spyware, which was developed by the Israeli intelligence firm NSO Group, can harvest a target’s phone’s data, access their location, and record them through their microphone and camera without their knowledge — and without a target even clicking a link.
NSO <a href="https://www.nsogroup.com/Newses/following-the-publication-of-the-recent-article-by-forbidden-stories-we-wanted-to-directly-address-the-false-accusations-and-misleading-allegations-presented-there/">maintains</a> that it only sells its technology to government agencies to investigate and combat terrorism and crime (“for the sole purpose of saving lives”) and that the allegations made in the report are false — though its co-founder and CEO Shalev Hulio <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/nso-spyware-pegasus-cellphones/">also told the Washington Post</a> that the reports were “concerning” and that the company was “investigating every allegation.” But news outlets that investigated devices owned by phone numbers on the list found that some people were targeted because they were investigating or speaking out against governments or otherwise powerful people — not because they were criminals or terrorists.
A <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2021/07/forensic-methodology-report-how-to-catch-nso-groups-pegasus/">detailed report</a> from Amnesty International, which, along with nonprofit organization Forbidden Stories, spearheaded the investigation, shows how Pegasus used Apple’s own apps, including Apple Photos, Apple Music, and iMessage, as attack vectors. And some of the exploits were already known to security experts and researchers. For instance, the fact that a hacker can send malware over iMessage that infects a target phone even if the recipient never clicks on anything — known as a “zero-click” exploit — has been reported on <a href="https://citizenlab.ca/2020/12/the-great-ipwn-journalists-hacked-with-suspected-nso-group-imessage-zero-click-exploit/">for several years</a>.
Apple insiders <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/19/apple-iphone-nso/">told the Washington Post</a> they believed that the company wasn’t doing enough to protect against known vulnerabilities or vet new products for exploits before they were released to the public.
Apple told Recode that iPhone is “the safest, most secure consumer mobile device on the market” and that it takes multiple steps to detect and fix new threats.
“Apple unequivocally condemns cyberattacks against journalists, human rights activists, and others seeking to make the world a better place,” Apple said in a statement. “Attacks like the ones described are highly sophisticated, cost millions of dollars to develop, often have a short shelf life, and are used to target specific individuals. While that means they are not a threat to the overwhelming majority of our users, we continue to work tirelessly to defend all our customers.”
Whether you’re a likely target of spyware hacking or not, there are some measures you can take to make your devices safer, like frequently updating your operating system and apps. The iMessage zero-click exploit, for example, <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-researcher-discovers-new-ios-security-system/">appears to have been addressed</a> by iOS 14 update’s “Blastdoor,” which isolates incoming iMessages from the rest of the phone (including the iMessage app itself) and tests them for malicious code. But the key word here is “safer.” That’s not the same thing as “safe,” and it’s not a guarantee of anything.
The Pegasus investigation shows that iPhones — and any other device, Apple or otherwise — are not 100 percent secure and will always be playing catch-up to fix the vulnerabilities that hackers find and exploit. Even the most secure devices and encrypted messaging apps can potentially be hacked. It’s exceedingly unlikely that they’ll be used against the device owned by you, the average reader. But you shouldn’t assume it’s impossible for anyone else to get in.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22583617/apple-iphones-pegasus-nso-hacks">https://www.vox.com/recode/22583617/apple-iphones-pegasus-nso-hacks</a>

vox Don’t assume your iPhone is safe from hackers

If you were paying attention to the news over the weekend, you might have heard something about “Pegasus.” In this case, Pegasus is not a m...

What is CNN+ and why would you pay for it?

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What is CNN+, the new streaming service the cable news channel announced today? Let’s do the short answer first: CNN+ is not CNN.
Think of it, for now, as CNN Jr.
Slightly longer: If you want to watch Actual CNN, CNN+ is not for you. Actual CNN is still limited to people who pay for the news channel as part of a pay-TV bundle. So CNN+, which will launch next year for a yet-to-be-disclosed price, will be ... something else. That is, stuff that’s like CNN, but not on CNN (disclosure: Vox Media is producing a series with CNN Originals and I’m working on that project).
Here’s the full story: CNN+, like lots of other attempts from big TV programmers to move into the streaming world, is an in-betweener: It wants to leverage the old TV channel’s brand to create a new revenue stream, without cannibalizing the thing that generates enormous revenue and profits.
You can see why CNN and its owner — for now, that’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/5/16/22439154/warner-media-discovery-hbo-max-att-streaming-netflix-merger">AT&T, which owns WarnerMedia</a> but plans to dump it into a new company, which will combine WarnerMedia with Discovery Networks — want this to happen. Whether consumers will want it is another question.
But since lots of other Big TV networks have tried similar “have your streaming and eat your TV, too” gambits, we at least know some of the options CNN+ is looking at:
<ul>
<li>Give your most hardcore fans more of what they already get. This is the Fox Nation strategy: If you like the cynical misinformation Tucker Carlson’s peddles on his nightly Fox News show, you might also want to watch <a href="https://nation.foxnews.com/tucker-carlson-today/">Tucker Carlson Today</a>, his streaming-only show. I like Discovery’s Guy Fieri, but not enough to subscribe to Discovery+ so I can also watch Guy: Hawaiian Style, which Discovery tells me will feature Fieri and family “rolling through the Hawaiian Islands for a deep dive into the tradition, the adventure and all types of great food.” You, on the other hand, may want to pay up. There’s a lid for every pot.</li>
<li>Give hardcore fans something they want but aren’t getting already. You can’t watch college lacrosse on ESPN because college lacrosse doesn’t attract enough viewers to take up precious airtime on a linear TV channel. But on ESPN+, which has unlimited shelf space — you can watch college lacrosse and at the same time I can watch German soccer — it makes perfect sense, as analyst Ben Thompson laid out recently:</li>
</ul>
Other versions of this include Paramount+ running exclusive episodes of The Good Fight, a spinoff of the CBS series The Good Wife. It’s not for everyone, but if you liked the first show on regular TV, you might pay up to watch the streaming sequel.
<ul>
<li>Give everyone almost everything, and spend a ton of money doing it. This is the Disney+ proposition: The company is streaming (just about) its entire film catalog, plus a roster of big-budget, high-profile streaming-only shows (The Mandalorian, Loki, etc). <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/4/12/18307539/disney-streaming-launch-cost-billions-netflix-strategy-change">It’s an expensive bet</a> — because it requires paying a lot of money for new stuff, as well as forgoing money you can get selling your stuff to other outlets — but so far it appears to have worked for Disney.</li>
</ul>
The problem for CNN/WarnerMedia executives is that CNN+ looks like it’s none of the above. And it may be that CNN’s product simply doesn’t work as a standalone streaming product: Maybe there are passionate Jake Tapper or Anderson Cooper fans willing to pay extra to see more of them, but it’s hard to believe there are a lot of them. Meanwhile, it is a very good bet that the Jake Tappers and Anderson Coopers of the world will continue to put most of their energy and focus on TV because that’s where the audience, fame, and money is.
And while CNN does excellent work (again, see disclosure), it famously does best when there is breaking news and you need to know what’s happening now, in real time. The rest of the time, it is straining mightily to find something you’ll want to watch instead of news, while you are flipping through channels. And in an on-demand streaming world, if you’re looking for something to watch besides news, you have unlimited options. Even more worryingly, it may turn out that in an on-demand streaming world, when you do want to watch real-time news, you may have many other options.
The best-case scenario for CNN+ is one that <a href="https://twitter.com/awallenstein/status/1417115846640508931?s=20">officials are already hinting at</a>: that it’s something you don’t pay for directly, but as part of another bundle.
Record scratch here: Wasn’t the whole <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/2/18518666/bundle-tv-hbo-disney-netflix-apple-amazon-war">point of streaming TV</a> to break up the cable TV bundle and replace it with a menu of networks and shows we could pick and choose from whenever we want? Well, yes. Except the people who make and sell entertainment like the bundle — and they think you will like it, too. That’s why Disney lets you buy Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ together at a discount, and that’s why HBO Max exists at all — because WarnerMedia thinks you’re more likely to buy HBO if it comes with a lot of other stuff as well as HBO. (You can credibly argue that Netflix, meanwhile, is its own bundle.)
In this case, there’s a good chance CNN+ gets folded into HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s “HBO + some other stuff” service, which is already likely to envelop Discovery+ (another tweener service) if and when the WarnerMedia/Discovery merger goes through. So Warner Bros. Discovery could use CNN+ as justification to raise prices for HBO Max — or it could simply get it for free so you feel you’re getting additional value for streaming dollars.
You can see other examples of this in the wild already: You can buy a standalone subscription to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/cooking.html?campaignId=6W9RF&ds_c=71700000067126147&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxdSHBhCdARIsAG6zhlXCpKk1vmMeFf3IYssAEfmLbr0B-EoLfT9Ev83qVCkiMlKfGWg7EP4aArGCEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">New York Times Cooking app for $5 a month</a> — or you can buy an “all access” subscription that gives you the paper’s cooking app, games app, and all of the paper itself for $17 a month. And if that’s CNN+’s future, you don’t need to worry about whether or not you’re paying for it — you’ll simply get it alongside a bunch of other stuff, whether you want it or not. Just like good old-fashioned TV.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22583584/cnn-streaming-explainer-bundle-hbo">https://www.vox.com/recode/22583584/cnn-streaming-explainer-bundle-hbo</a>

vox What is CNN+ and why would you pay for it?

What is CNN+, the new streaming service the cable news channel announced today? Let’s do the short answer first: CNN+ is not CNN. Think of...

Internal Apple letter shows employees are still fighting to work from home

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Tech companies like Apple were some of the first to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-03-08/apple-work-from-home-coronavirus-outbreak">allow their corporate employees to work from home</a> at the start of the pandemic. Now, tensions are rising about when and if these employees will return to the office.
In a new letter, some Apple employees are asking that the company allow staffers to work from home full time, with some restrictions. Apple has only agreed to let employees work from home two days a week, with limited exceptions. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is the second <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/4/22491629/apple-employees-push-back-return-office-internal-letter-tim-cook">petition letter</a> in two months from Apple employees writing about more flexible working conditions, and it’s a sign of continued rank-and-file dissent at the company. That's a surprising departure from Apple’s traditionally hierarchical work culture.
The petition outlines two different “pilot arrangements” that would allow employees to work from home full time for at least one year, with no promise of being extended. These arrangements would give employees the option to work remotely from their home five days a week — including in a location different from the area they were hired to work in — with the approval of their manager or department head, and in some cases, a cost-of-living compensation adjustment. The letter was posted on Monday morning to an internal Apple employee Slack channel for discussing remote work; the channel has more than 6,000 members and is open to all Apple corporate employees.
Other Silicon Valley tech giants like <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/05/google-relaxes-remote-work-plan-will-let-20percent-of-employees-telecommute.html">Google</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/21/21266570/facebook-remote-work-from-home-mark-zuckerberg-twitter-covid-19-coronavirus">Facebook</a> have offered more flexibility to their employees, allowing workers in good standing to request to work from home full time, although the details of these plans are still being worked out. Amazon even <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-says-workers-wont-need-to-spend-all-week-in-the-office/">backtracked on plans to require corporate staff to return to the office full time</a> after an employee backlash. But Apple (which, unlike Google and Facebook, is primarily a hardware company that manufactures physical goods) has insisted that it needs most employees back in the office to run its notoriously secretive business. Management’s resistance to changing its work-from-home policy has caused open frustration among Apple’s traditionally heads-down workforce, and reflects larger tensions among white-collar workers in the US as their employers begin to call them to return to the office in person.
“We continue to be concerned that this one-size-fits-all solution is causing many of our colleagues to question their future at Apple,” the letter states, which goes on to say, “With COVID-19 numbers rising again around the world, vaccines proving less effective against the Delta variant, and the long-term effects of infection not well understood, it is too early to force those with concerns to come back to the office.”
The letter cites an internal employee survey, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/15/22578804/apple-employees-work-from-home-request-denied-hybrid-model">first reported by The Verge</a>, which found that 68 percent of respondents — totaling over 1,100 employees — strongly agreed that Apple’s “lack of location flexibility” would “likely cause them to leave Apple.”
In June, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/2/22465846/apple-employees-return-office-three-days-week-september?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4">Apple CEO Tim Cook sent a memo</a> saying that employees needed to return to the office at least three days a week beginning in September. Many Apple employees — some of whom had already permanently moved away from the Bay Area during the pandemic or had medical concerns about returning to the office — pushed back on that decision, with more than 1,700 Apple employees signing a protest letter, as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/4/22491629/apple-employees-push-back-return-office-internal-letter-tim-cook">The Verge first reported</a>. Management pledged to listen to employees’ concerns. But just two weeks later, company executives sent out a video announcing it <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/29/22556615/apple-response-hybrid-work-model-employee-letter-remote">wasn’t changing its original position</a>, with Apple VP Deirdre O’Brien saying “we believe that in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future.”
In the past several weeks, Apple’s HR team (which it calls its People team) has been listening to employees’ personal stories about why they wanted to work from home. Sources told Recode that Apple employees with disabilities, single parents, or those who have already permanently moved away from the office were among those most negatively affected by the mandate to return to the office.
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Do you work at Apple and have thoughts on what’s going on? Please email Shirin Ghaffary at shirin.ghaffary@protonmail.com to reach her confidentially (off-the-record.) Signal number available upon request by email.
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“However, it has been disappointing to see these personal stories not acknowledged individually or by any change in policy,” the letter states.
Ultimately, the letter argues that the risks of the proposed policy changes to Apple’s business are “minimal, while their potential benefits are enormous”.
Apple employees airing their grievances about how the company is run — even internally — is a relatively new phenomenon. Unlike Google or even Facebook, Apple does not have much of a history of employee debate on controversial matters. The floodgates seemed to have opened with a <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/5/13/22435266/apple-employees-petition-controversial-antonio-garcia-martinez-new-hire-departure">backlash to the hiring of Antonio Garcia Martinez,</a> an engineering manager who has previously written what many viewed as sexist comments about women. Martinez was fired from the company shortly after employees published a petition calling for an investigation into his hiring.
The big question moving forward is how Apple’s management will respond to this ongoing wave of activism in its workforce and whether it will listen to its employees’ concerns, or if it will <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/8/23/20829430/google-new-community-guidelines-employees-political-speech-internal-debate">crack down on the dissent as other companies like Google have</a>.
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The full text of the letter is below (emphasis not ours):
Dear Tim, Deirdre, and Team,
Thank you for all the work you and the team do to keep Apple’s culture so rich, vibrant, and inclusive! We especially appreciate the People’s team’s efforts over the last few weeks to understand our personal situations. However, it has been disappointing to see these personal stories not acknowledged individually or by any change in policy. We continue to be concerned that this one-size-fits-all solution is causing many of our colleagues to question their future at Apple. Around 68% of the respondents to our informal survey somewhat or strongly agreed that the lack of location flexibility would likely cause them to leave Apple; that’s over 1100 members of our Apple family, and we care about every single one of them.
With COVID-19 numbers rising again around the world, vaccines proving less effective against the Delta variant, and the long-term effects of infection not well understood, it is too early to force those with concerns to come back to the office. Furthermore, allowing some greater flexibility than the current 3/2 schedule would enable us to truly validate whether some people working remotely, not just everyone occasionally working from home, is compatible with Apple’s culture of collaboration.
We propose the following adaptations to the Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA) and Temporary Remote Work Arrangement (TRWA) programs to make them part of the Hybrid Working Pilot. These new arrangements would be limited to one year with no promise to be extended.
Local WFH Temporary Pilot Agreement:
This proposal is intended to accommodate employees who work better from home—or who do not feel comfortable in the office while the pandemic is still not under control—by allowing them to continue working from home unless the particular needs of their role require them to be in the office.
<ul>
<li>Required: Approval of direct manager.</li>
<li>Default work location is home, but the employee will still have an assigned desk in the office.</li>
<li>WFH location must be within commutable distance to the employer’s assigned office.</li>
<li>A fixed WFH/in-office schedule may be part of this arrangement at the manager’s discretion.</li>
</ul>
Remote WFH Temporary Pilot Agreement
This proposal is intended to accommodate employees whose living situations are not compatible, or have become incompatible, with commuting to an Apple office.
<ul>
<li>Required: Approval of department head.</li>
<li>Default work location is current permanent home address; employee will not have an assigned desk in the office.</li>
<li>Employee’s compensation may be adjusted based on location, the same as for permanent remote employees.</li>
</ul>
We believe that these two proposals are essential to making the Hybrid Working Pilot successful. Together, they ensure the Pilot encompasses the full range of office and non-office working arrangements, allow us to retain many of our colleagues, who have expressed the desire for location-flexibility in their current roles, and enable individuals and teams to respond more quickly to the changing regional conditions of COVID-19 without relying on previous company-wide guidance. We hope you agree that the risks of these adapted policies are minimal while their potential benefits are enormous and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22583549/apple-employees-petition-work-home-employee-activism">https://www.vox.com/recode/22583549/apple-employees-petition-work-home-employee-activism</a>

vox Internal Apple letter shows employees are still fighting to work from home

Tech companies like Apple were some of the first to allow their corporate employees to work from home at the start of the pandemic. Now, t...

Joe Biden Meets Jordan's King Abdullah To Discuss Middle East Issues

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Joe Biden Meets Jordan's King Abdullah To Discuss Middle East Issues" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-06/9m85smdg_joe-bidengeneva-summit650_625x300_16_June_21.jpg" title="Joe Biden Meets Jordan's King Abdullah To Discuss Middle East Issues" /></div>
US President Joe Biden announced the delivery of more than 500,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Jordan. (File)
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Washington:
US President Joe Biden held Oval Office talks on Monday with Jordan's King Abdullah, a key US ally in a volatile region, in the first of three face-to-face meetings expected soon with Middle East leaders.
Abdullah, who faced down a challenge to his authority in April from his half-brother, Prince Hamza, met Biden for the first time since the US president took office in January. Biden called the king a "good, loyal, decent friend."
"You've always been there, and we will always be there for Jordan," Biden told reporters during a picture-taking session. He said he wanted to hear about developments in the Middle East from the king.
"You live in a tough neighborhood," he said.
Abdullah said his region has many challenges. "You can always count on me, my country and many of our colleagues in the region," he told Biden.
In the meeting, Biden announced the delivery of more than 500,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Jordan and the two leaders discussed the US-Jordan defense relationship and Syria's humanitarian crisis, the White House said in a statement.
"President Biden commended the important role Jordan plays in the wider stability of the region," it said
They also discussed Middle East peace efforts and Biden voiced his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Jordan's engagement with the new Israeli government, the White House said.
Tensions remain high following the 11-day war in May between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.
Abdullah plays a unique role in the Middle East, seen by US officials as a moderate and pragmatic leader who can play a mediating role.
He is the first Middle East leader to visit the Biden White House, to be followed on July 26 by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. US and Israeli officials are working on scheduling a meeting soon between Biden and new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who recently replaced Benjamin Netanyahu.
Jordan's image as an island of stability in the turbulent Middle East was called into question after Prince Hamza was accused of a plot to destabilize the country in April.
Biden has offered full support to Abdullah, who was joined at the White House by his wife, Queen Rania.
Abdullah will have a working breakfast with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday at the vice president's residence. He will also meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-joe-biden-meets-jordans-king-abdullah-to-discuss-middle-east-issues-2490295">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-joe-biden-meets-jordans-king-abdullah-to-discuss-middle-east-issues-2490295</a>

news world Joe Biden Meets Jordan's King Abdullah To Discuss Middle East Issues

US President Joe Biden announced the delivery of more than 500,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Jordan. (File) Washington: US President Joe Bid...

UK PM Didn't Want Lockdown As Only Elderly Were Dying, His Ex-Aide Says

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="UK PM Didn't Want Lockdown As Only Elderly Were Dying, His Ex-Aide Says" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/hs3mfqu_boris-johnson_625x300_28_April_21.jpg" title="UK PM Didn't Want Lockdown As Only Elderly Were Dying, His Ex-Aide Says" /></div>
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied that health services would be overwhelmed, his ex-aide said.
</div>
London:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not prepared to impose lockdown restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19 to save the elderly and denied the National Health Service would be overwhelmed, his former top adviser said in an interview aired on Monday.
In his first TV interview since leaving his job last year, excerpts of which were released on Monday, Dominic Cummings said Johnson did not want to impose a second lockdown in the autumn last year because "the people who are dying are essentially all over 80".
Cummings also claimed that Johnson wanted to meet Queen Elizabeth, 95, despite signs that the virus was spreading in his office at the start of the pandemic and when the public had been told to avoid all unnecessary contact, particularly with the elderly.
The political adviser, who has accused the government of being responsible for thousands of avoidable COVID-19 deaths, shared a series of messages from October that are allegedly from Johnson to aides.
In one message, Cummings said Johnson joked that the elderly could "get COVID and live longer" because most people dying were past the average age of life expectancy.
Cummings alleges Johnson messaged him to say: "And I no longer buy all this NHS (National Health Service) overwhelmed stuff. Folks I think we may need to recalibrate."
Reuters could not independently verify whether the messages were genuine.
A spokesperson for Johnson said the prime minister had taken "the necessary action to protect lives and livelihoods, guided by the best scientific advice".
Britain's opposition Labour Party said the revelations by Cummings strengthened the case for a public enquiry and were "further evidence that the prime minister has made the wrong calls time and again at the expense of public health".
Cummings told the BBC that Johnson told officials that he should never have agreed to the first lockdown and that he had to convince him not to take the risk of meeting the queen.
"I said, what are you doing, and he said, I'm going to see the queen and I said, what on earth are you talking about, of course you can't go and see the queen," Cummings said he told Johnson. "And he said, he basically just hadn't thought it through."
Despite questioning Johnson's fitness for his role as prime minister and castigating the government's fight against COVID-19, Cummings' criticism has yet to seriously puncture the British leader's ratings in opinion polls. The full interview will be broadcast on Tuesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/british-prime-minister-boris-johnson-didnt-want-covid-19-lockdown-as-only-elderly-were-dying-his-ex-aide-says-2490287">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/british-prime-minister-boris-johnson-didnt-want-covid-19-lockdown-as-only-elderly-were-dying-his-ex-aide-says-2490287</a>

news world UK PM Didn't Want Lockdown As Only Elderly Were Dying, His Ex-Aide Says

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson denied that health services would be overwhelmed, his ex-aide said. London: British Prime Minister Bori...