 Drone maker DJI is among the eight Chinese tech companies expected to be added to the U.S. government's investment blacklist today. The other firms are facial recognition provider CloudWalk Technology; supercomputer manufacturer Dawning Information Industry; image-recognition firm Megvii; cyber security specialist Xiamen Meiya Pico; AI company Yitu Technology; and cloud computing companies NetPosa Technologies and Leon Technology. More: - The companies are accused of involvement in human rights abuses against minority Uyghur Muslims in China's autonomous Xinjiang region.
- The designation on the Treasury Department's "Chinese military-industrial complex companies" list bars U.S. citizens from investing in the firms.
- DJI, arguably the most well-known of the companies in the U.S., is the world's largest maker of commercial and hobby drones, which will remain for sale in the U.S.
- DJI has reportedly provided drones to Chinese police for surveillance in Xinjiang, where more than one million Uyghurs and other minorities are being held in "re-education centers" that human rights groups say are akin to concentration camps.
- The company was also placed on the Department of Commerce's Entity list in 2019 for enabling human rights abuses.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES 
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Six women filed separate lawsuits against Tesla, claiming the company has done little to address a culture of sexual harassment at its factory and site in Fremont, California. The suits come about a month after Fremont factory worker Jessica Barraza first filed her lawsuit containing similar allegations of a hostile workplace. Tesla assembly line worker Erica Cloud sued shortly after, bringing the total number of lawsuits to eight. More: - The lawsuits accuse Tesla workers and managers of catcalling, suggestive comments, and inappropriate touching.
- Many of the women said they wore baggy clothes to protect themselves. They also reported depression and anxiety stemming from the treatment.
- Some of the women said they were ignored or transferred to other stations after reporting the behavior or were afraid to report it in the first place.
- The harassment allegedly grew worse whenever CEO Elon Musk tweeted out content mentioning “69,” “420," or “S3XY,” an acronym for the company's Model S, 3, X, and Y, according to one of the plaintiffs.
- Tesla has not commented on the suits. This month, the company reportedly launched a “Respectful Recharge” program with new mandatory training on its anti-harassment policies.
THE WASHINGTON POST
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Apple has removed mentions of its plan to scan for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) photos on iPhones and iPads, suggesting its rollout may be delayed or scrapped altogether. The company has yet to comment on why it withdrew references to the feature on its Child Safety website. More: - The CSAM detection system would scan users' iPhone photos for recognizable hashes in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s database.
- Those would be cross-referenced on a list of known CSAM hashes. Matches would be reviewed by Apple and referred to authorities.
- The feature faced criticism for potentially opening the door to wider surveillance and being ineffective.
- On Monday, Apple launched a feature in iOS 15.2 that detects nudity in Messages on children's devices.
MACWORLD
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Google says it will place unvaccinated employees on paid administrative leave and eventually fire them if they don't comply with its vaccination rules. A memo obtained by CNBC said Google's 150,000+ employees had until Dec. 3 to declare their vaccination status and upload documentation, or apply for medical or religious exemptions. More: - The company said employees have until Jan. 18 to comply or will be placed on “paid administrative leave” for 30 days.
- If they still aren't in compliance with the mandate, the employees will go on "unpaid personal leave" for up to six months and eventually be terminated, according to the memo.
- Google appears to be following a prior Biden administration order that said companies with 100+ workers must make sure staff members are vaccinated or tested regularly by Jan. 18. A federal court issued a stay halting the order last month.
- Google recently delayed plans to return employees to offices in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company will wait until 2022 to re-assess when the offices could re-open.
CNBC
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Tech lobbying trade group the Internet Association (IA) could dissolve as early as today amid financial difficulties and a less unified membership. The group formed in 2012 and was once highly influential, representing the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft, before its members became increasingly at odds, according to reports. More: - According to Axios, the IA's board is scheduled to meet today and is expected to formally vote to dissolve the group.
- The move comes after Microsoft and Uber left the IA last month as its influence in Washington has been waning in recent years.
- The group's members have come less unified as tech companies face antitrust and competition issues, which are areas the IA has generally avoided. They've also clashed over their differing approaches to Section 230.
- A former member told Axios: “What was once a leading voice for tech companies is fading into obscurity with barely a whimper and hardly anything to show for itself."
POLITICO
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 Apple has received patents for its Ring doorbell system that describe using facial recognition and other biometric technologies to identify people and keep watch over communities, Business Insider reports. The patents refer to technologies that would identify people through their faces, gait, retinas, voices, odor, and other characteristics and label them as "suspicious." More: - Ring's internet-connected doorbells don't currently have facial recognition capabilities.
- However, at least 17 patents filed by Amazon now reference the technology. Together, they depict a system in which a neighborhood's Ring systems would work together to provide security for residents.
- The cameras would create composite images of people deemed "suspicious" and automatically alert residents and lock doors if that person appears on camera.
- Ring currently partners with hundreds of police departments and sometimes shares footage with them.
- Last year, Amazon announced a moratorium on police use of its facial-recognition software Rekognition, which is still sold to other agencies as an image analysis service in its AI suite.
BUSINESS INSIDER
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QUICK HITS - China is calling for global rules to regulate AI in warfare as the UN faces renewed pressure to place limits on lethal autonomous weapons.
- Instagram reportedly hit the 2 billion monthly active users mark in October, shortly before Facebook changed its name to Meta.
- Twitter is introducing auto captions for new videos uploaded to the platform in "most languages."
- Microsoft is making end-to-end encryption widely available for one-on-one calls in Teams.
- WhatsApp now lets users disable their "Last Seen" status.
- Amazon introduced a Santa Claus voice for Alexa.
- Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, a space tourist aboard the ISS, shared a time-lapse video of his orbit around Earth:
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 |  | Beth is an Inside Analyst and a former public policy/investigative reporter. She has covered AI, VR, technology, and e-commerce for Inside. When she's not busy writing, she's hiking in Arizona's desert, playing pickleball, or trying out new Mexican food recipes. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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