It doesn't have to be, but the businesses making it claim it needs to be.
TWeaK
Fuck off with your device based verification system. That's just the same service, but as a more invasive app installed on your phone.
Instead of scanning a face or ID and uploading it to a service, we're expected to run unverified closed source code on the device we carry everywhere in our pockets?!
I don't think it's so much one less thing to worry about, rather it gives them some way to argue that they shouldn't be shut down as the result of any lawsuit. But that doesn't mean such an argument would be successful.
There was a link at the bottom of the OP article: https://www.kqed.org/news/12049420/sf-based-internet-archive-is-now-a-federal-depository-library-what-does-that-mean
Pretty sure it needs a live camera to access. It's less a photo and more a video.
The researchers are hoping that the tiny cyborg could allow the military to infiltrate hard-to-access space or be used in search and rescue missions to find survivors in natural disasters, according to a research paper.
In other words the researchers are clawing at reasons to justify their research. The Chinese military aren't looking into this, following commands 9 out of 10 times isn't reliable enough to even start development.
This is about as strategically useful as a bluetooh controlled robo-roach.
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