The company behind a network of automated license plate reading cameras is losing its public safety contracts across Silicon Valley. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is the most recent slate of officials to join Los Altos Hills and Mountain View in severing ties with Flock Safety over concerns the company has enabled unlawful...
San Jose mayor’s social media use faces criticism
Just weeks after announcing his run for governor, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan launched two new social media accounts on X and Instagram, each one designated as a city-backed account for official messaging. The move in February came amid City Hall grumbles about the mayor’s longstanding practice of using individual social media accounts for both...
Bernie Sanders warns about AI ‘tsunami’ at Stanford town hall
Workers, students and researchers in Silicon Valley are no strangers to the idea that artificial intelligence may be coming for their jobs. Many are under the impression that it’s not a matter of if, but when. But for Sen. Bernie Sanders, a longtime critic of the billionaire class, the new technology has ramifications that go...
San Jose slow to tell workers about data breach
San Jose administrators have disclosed that private information for current and former city employees may have been compromised, following a data breach last month. The incident occurred on Jan. 9 when a “workforce member” lost a USB drive that may have contained Social Security numbers, according to a letter city officials sent to people whose...
Santa Clara County may ditch camera vendor amid privacy issues
Cities across Silicon Valley may be on the cusp of cutting ties with a surveillance company linked to local police departments’ cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Santa Clara County officials this week signaled growing distrust with Flock Safety, a company that sells license plate reading cameras to cities across California, over concerns the...
San Jose adds AI tools to its disaster tactics
San Jose faces a wide array of disaster risks — everything from wildfires to floods and mass shootings — each of which poses its own difficult questions for emergency management officials tasked with leading the city’s evacuation efforts. But those emergency planners will soon get a high-tech assist in these life-or-death calls from a cutting-edge,...
San Jose approves expanded Taser, body cam contract for police
For years, police technology firm Axon Enterprises has been dogged by accusations that it’s attempting to unfairly corner the market on Tasers and body-worn cameras for law enforcement. Despite some hand wringing, the San Jose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday, with Vice Mayor Pam Foley absent, to approve a new, expanded contract with the firm to...
Trump executive order clears way for TikTok deal
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed off on an agreement on a TikTok sale he said would bring the app into compliance with U.S. law. The agreement gets the app one step closer to complying with a 2024 law that forced ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based corporate owner, to sell the platform or have the app banned...
The White House says TikTok will be sold to a U.S. joint venture
After four deadline extensions to force a sale of TikTok, the U.S. is finally close to a sale agreement for the massively popular video platform, a White House official said Monday. The deal will move TikTok’s ownership to a U.S. joint venture compliant with a 2024 law forcing ByteDance, Tiktok’s corporate owner, to sell the...
Trump chip deal critics say it undercuts U.S. becoming AI leader
Some Democrats are troubled by President Donald Trump’s recent deal to allow two tech companies to sell artificial intelligence chips to China as long as they provide the U.S. government some of the revenue. “I certainly have concerns about what we might call linkage, that is linking revenue to the Treasury to national security decisions,”...