Week in Review

Not too long ago a discussion about face recognition technology sounded like something straight out of a futuristic spy thriller. Today, such technology is well into development. The Department of Homeland Security is testing a crowd-scanning program that will allow it to identify the faces of people on the terrorism watch list. In addition, corporate training courses are developing scanning software to detect when trainees are distracted. The technology tracks the user’s eye movements and when it detects the user looking away for more than a few seconds, it pauses the program and forces the user to pay attention in order to complete the course. In other developments, it was reported this week that PayPal is testing app features that will allow local businesses to use a face-verification system for phone payments.

Technology and the Workplace
This Software Won't Let You Look Away (Atlantic)
How to Use Skype Keyboard Shortcuts (Mashable)
Four easy ways to break the law by viewing an employee's Facebook posts (Employer Handbook)
Birthday Greetings, Now Sent by Text and Twitter (NYTimes)
Ditch Your Passwords -- US Gov To Issue Secure Online IDs (Forbes)
AOL CEO: Publicly firing employee for taking a photo was a mistake (CNN)

Technology and the Law
Facial scanning system for crowds shows improvement in tests by Homeland Security (ABA)
Software That Exposes Faked Photos (NYTimes)
Cracks in California’s Cyber-Revenge Bill (WSJ)
Elena Kagan Admits Supreme Court Justices Haven’t Quite Figured Out Email Yet (Slate)

There's an App for That
PayPal Testing Face-Verification System for Mobile Payments (Mashable)
New York victim of street harassment? There's an app for that (Guardian)
YouTube picture-in-picture feature falls short of being really useful (LATimes)
How to easily add 1 GB of free storage to Dropbox using Mailbox (LATimes)
Need a compatible roommate? Five apps and sites to help you search (LATimes)
Fitness Trackers: Step by Step to Better Health or Driving Us Crazy? (ABC)