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 Apple today provided developers with the second betas of upcoming watchOS 26.5, tvOS 26.5, and visionOS 26.5 betas for testing purposes. The software comes two weeks after Apple released the first betas for each platform.
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Dozens of civil rights organizations have written a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to warn of the dangers in bringing facial recognition technology to the company's smart glasses. More than 70 groups have banded together to form a coalition to urge Zuckerberg to abandon plans to incorporate the tech, on the grounds that it would empower stalkers, sexual predators and other bad actors.
This coalition includes organizations like the ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future, Access Now and many others. The letter isn't asking for safeguards. These groups want the feature to be completely eliminated, stating the idea behind facial recognition of this type is so dangerous that it "cannot be resolved through product design changes, opt-out mechanisms or incremental safeguards." This tracks, as there would be no real way for bystanders to know or consent to being identified.
"People should be able to move through their daily lives without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health and behaviors," the letter states.
The organizations have urged Meta to disclose any known instances of its wearables being used for stalking, harassment or domestic violence. They also want the company to disclose past or ongoing discussions with federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, about the use of Meta smart glasses and other wearables,
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 With the second beta of iOS 26.5, Apple is continuing to prepare for ads in the Apple Maps app. There's a new splash screen in the app that says it will display ads based on approximate location, current search terms, or a view of the map when searching. Ads will also be shown in the "Suggested Places" section that was added in the first beta.
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