Caught on Camera

The New York Police Department has been using arrest photos of children, some as young as 11, in a facial recognition database that compares the mug shots with crime scene images. The police say they’re using technology just to identify suspects, which is, after all, their job. But evidence shows that the software has a higher risk of false matches with younger faces. Not to mention, these are minors — usually a protected group within the justice system. Civil rights groups say it’s just another example of the Police Department’s ability to use powerful surveillance tools without public knowledge.

All It Takes Is One

Another day, another data breach — but this one has a twist. Capital One found that a hacker had compromised the personal information of more than 100 million people, making it one of the largest-ever data thefts from a bank. Now for the surprise: The suspect is a not a shadowy foreign actor but a 33-year-old software engineer in Seattle who used to work for Amazon. She stands accused of stealing 140,000 Social Security numbers and 80,000 bank account numbers through a single weak spot in Capital One’s security software. The bank said it was “unlikely that the information was used for fraud or disseminated by this individual,” but customers should monitor their accounts anyway.

Image Credit... Giacomo Bagnara

What’s Next? (Aug. 4-10)

Digging In

If you thought last week’s trade talks with China might go somewhere, sorry. It now looks as if they only made a bad situation worse. Mr. Trump announced on Thursday that he would impose a 10 percent tariff on an additional $300 billion in Chinese goods, starting in September. This would join the existing 25 percent tariff on $250 billion in imports, which began in May. The president said the levies were a response to China’s failure to keep its promise to buy more American agricultural products and to stop selling fentanyl (an opioid) to the United States. China is likely to reciprocate with its own punitive measures soon. The news battered markets around the world.