Kashmir Hill

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Kashmir Hill
Kashmir Hill - 12487663334 (cropped).jpg
Hill in 2013
Born (1981-03-05) March 5, 1981 (age 43)
OccupationJournalist
Alma mater Duke University
New York University
Notable worksYour Face Belongs to Us

Kashmir Hill (born March 5, 1981) is an American technology author and journalist employed by The New York Times . Her book, Your Face Belongs to Us, explores facial recognition technologies

Contents

Life and career

Kashmir Hill was born and raised in Florida, and earned degrees from Duke University and New York University where she studied journalism.[ citation needed ] Prior to joining the New York Times in 2019 Hill wrote for Gizmodo Media Group, Fusion magazine, Forbes , and Above the Law. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Washington Post .[ citation needed ]

She presented a TED Talk on privacy and mobile devices. [1] [2] Hill appeared as herself in the 2017 documentary The New Radical , and in the TV series American Masters , Real Future, and America Declassified.[ citation needed ] Hill's reporting on matters of data privacy have been cited by lawmakers [3] and credited with influencing public policy. [4]

Writing

In January 2020, Hill wrote an article for the New York Times [5] about facial recognition company Clearview AI, exposing the company's technology as flawed, describing its aggregation of facial imagery as privacy-eroding, and reporting on false arrests made based on the application's erroneous results. The article and additional reporting by The Times prompted Senator Ed Markey to press Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That for assurances [6] that the technology would not harm children's privacy or be made available to authoritarian governments.

Encouraged by response to the article, and with more stories of privacy abuses and misidentifications, in September 2023 Hill authored the book Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It, [7] published by Random House ( ISBN   978-1-3985-0918-4). The book tells the story of how Clearview AI's facial recognition technology has been used (and misused) by law enforcement and private industry, threatening individuals' safety and privacy. Your Face Belongs to Us was named among the Best Books of 2023: Technology [8] by the Financial Times and featured extensively by such outlets as C-SPAN, [9] PBS, [10] The New Yorker, [11] ABC News, [12] MSNBC, [13] Reason Magazine , [14] and more.

Your Face Belongs to Us was shortlisted for the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize. [15]

In a January 6, 2024 Times article, Hill described her personal struggles with smartphone addiction, and positive experience switching to an older flip phone. Then, on February 1, 2024, in an article entitled "A Practical Guide to Quitting Your Smartphone", [16] she inspired the global "Flip Phone February Challenge" [17] to help people suffering from smartphone addiction anxiety.

On March 11, 2024, the New York Times published a story [18] authored by Hill in which she detailed how automakers like General Motors, Honda, Kia, and Hyundai were sharing driver data with data brokers like LexisNexis in violation of privacy policy. On March 22, 2024, as a result of the story and several lawsuits resulting from the disclosures, GM announced it was ending the practice. [19] And according to a follow-up article published on April 30, 2024, senators Ron Wyden and Ed Markey have since urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate data sharing practices, while the Government Accountability Office had gone "car shopping undercover to see whether salespeople were overselling autonomous driving abilities." [20]

Personal life

Hill and Trevor Timm as new parents in 2016 Kashmir Hill and Trevor Timm 2016 01.jpg
Hill and Trevor Timm as new parents in 2016

Hill is married to Trevor Timm, also a journalist, and co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. [21] [22] They have two daughters. [23] [24]

Awards and honors

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References

  1. Mattu, Kashmir Hill and Surya (2018-07-18), What your smart devices know (and share) about you , retrieved 2024-02-13
  2. Hill, Kashmir. "Kashmir Hill | Speaker | TED". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
  3. Pacheco, Lawrence (2019-04-11). "Prepared Remarks of Attorney General Phil Weiser at FCBA-IAPP Symposium on Data Privacy". Colorado Attorney General. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  4. https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Clearview-AI-Cover-Letter-and-Report.pdf
  5. Hill, Kashmir (2020-01-18). "The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  6. https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/senator_markey_letter_to_clearview_ai_-_112023pdf.pdf
  7. "Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill: 9780593448564 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  8. "Best books of 2023 — Technology". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  9. "[Your Face Belongs to Us] | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  10. Hill, Kashmir (2023-09-21). "Kashmir Hill chronicles the rise of controversial AI app in new book | American Masters | PBS". American Masters. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  11. Jackson, Adlan (2024-01-15). "A Facial-Recognition Tour of New York". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  12. Ramos, Stephanie (September 19, 2023). "Video Kashmir Hill on how facial recognition tech changes 'ability to be anonymous'". ABC News. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  13. "Why Is This Happening? "Your Face Belongs to Us" with Kashmir Hill". MSNBC.com. 2024-01-26. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  14. Bailey, Ronald (2024-01-23). "Is facial recognition a useful public safety tool or something sinister?". Reason.com. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  15. 1 2 "Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize | Royal Society". royalsociety.org. 2024-02-08. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
  16. Hill, Kashmir (2024-02-01). "A Practical Guide to Quitting Your Smartphone". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  17. America, Good Morning. "A look at the 'flip phone February' challenge". Good Morning America. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  18. Hill, Kashmir (March 11, 2024). "Automakers Are Sharing Consumers' Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies". New York Times.
  19. Hill, Kashmir (March 22, 2024). "General Motors Quits Sharing Driving Behavior With Data Brokers". New York Times.
  20. Hill, Kashmir (2024-04-30). "'Smartphones on Wheels' Draw Attention From Regulators". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  21. Timm, Trevor (6 March 2022). "My Wife Tracked Me, for Journalism - The New York Times". New York Times . Archived from the original on 2022-03-06.
  22. "Trevor Timm". Freedom of the Press Fpundation . 16 June 2023. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  23. Hill, Kashmir (7 October 2022). "This Is Life in the Metaverse (Published 2022)". The New York Times . Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  24. Timm, Trevor. "You know, I used to be quoted by name as an expert in the @nytimes . Now it's just "my husband" this, "my husband" that... 🙄🙄". X . Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  25. "2016 Best in Business Honorees". SABEW. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
  26. "Making Technology Work for Your Reporting". National Press Foundation. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  27. "Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu, Gizmodo Media Group". National Press Foundation. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
  28. "Times Wins 7 SABEW Awards". The New York Times Company. 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2024-10-25.
  29. "CSAW Cyber Journalism Award". CSAW. Retrieved 2024-10-25.