Day: May 19, 2018

Today in absolutely bonkers allegations, a recently filed lawsuit claims American drone maker AeroVironment transported explosives on a commercial flight and then attempted to cover it up by firing an employee for reporting the incident to the US government.

Per Bloomberg, a wrongful termination complaint filed by Mark Anderson, the fired employee in question, claims the California-based drone manufacturer took a drone rigged with live explosives on a Delta flight from Salt Lake City, Utah to Los Angeles. The drone sat in a carry-on bag during the flight, which had about 230 civilian passengers onboard.

According to Anderson’s lawsuit, which he filed with the California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, the flight took place in April 2015. Anderson, who headed up security efforts for the company’s government programs, learned of the incident a month after the fact and reported it to higher-ups at AeroVironment and the US Department of Defense. (Gizmodo reached out to the DoD to confirm Anderson’s report. We will update this post if we hear back.)

AeroVironment, which apparently has a strict “no snitching” policy, allegedly punished Anderson for notifying the DoD. Anderson claims he was stripped of many of his responsibilities within the firm and was eventually fired without severance. No word on whether the employees who allegedly brought the drone with a damn bomb attached to it onto the plane were also reprimanded.

When contacted about the allegations in Anderson’s lawsuit, a spokesperson for AeroVironment provided the following statement:

AeroVironment believes the complaint contains baseless legal claims that are without merit. The Company will defend itself vigorously once it is served with the complaint, consistent with its ongoing commitment to conducting its business with the highest standards of ethics, safety and integrity.

It is, to some extent, understandable why AeroVironment would be freaked out about the government learning of its supposed reckless behavior. The company is pretty reliant on government contracts. According to AeroVironment’s most recent annual report, it disclosed that 55 percent of its revenue comes from jobs as the primary contractor or subcontractor for government agencies—including 37 percent coming from the DoD. It even lists its dependency on government payouts as a risk factor for investors.

Still though, if Anderson’s account is accurate—his lawsuit said the company was in “violation of a host of laws and safety regulations” by transporting the explosives in the manner it did—what the hell are you doing bringing a bomb-equipped drone onboard a commercial flight?

The TSA has a long list of items that are not allowed on flights, and explosives certainly top that list. They won’t even let you take “realistic replicas of plastic explosives” let alone the real thing. They won’t even let you say “bomb” without detaining you, let alone carry one on the plane. It’s not clear how they got the drone past security, though it’s worth noting explosives have grown increasingly difficult to detect thanks to new bomb-making techniques. Anyway, a good rule of thumb is don’t take explosives on planes.

[Bloomberg]

At least one school in China is trying out face recognition software that scans students’ faces to check if they’re paying attention in class, Epoch Times reports.

Called “smart eyes,” the tech reportedly provides teachers with real-time data on students, whose “moods” are categorized as surprised, sad, antipathy, angry, happy, afraid, or neutral. Hangzhou Number 11 High School, in the country’s eastern Zhejiang Province, has been trialing the software since March, with instructors for the school telling state-run media they plan to use the software to alter their teaching style.

Teachers are reportedly able to graph student attentiveness over time using the software. Because the facial feedback from students is timestamped, instructors can potentially even discern which specific lesson kids were most distracted in.

It’s not clear what happens when the software flags a student as not paying attention, or in an “angry” or “sad” mood. Are their grades impacted, parents warned, etc? As a more altruistic example, in the video an instructor says the software is smart enough to even detect when a student isn’t feeling well, potentially even before a teacher might notice signs.

But it’s also not clear if the tech actually works as advertised, or if it’s being used in other scenarios. The Epoch Times report does not include information on the makers of the software.

Epoch Times notes that students were, like all of us, very wary of persistent surveillance, but eventually came to see the software as normal. It’s not clear if parents were petitioned before the software was installed, but online responses in China has been largely negative: “They are not studying machines. Any human being will have moments when their mind wanders,” a user wrote on the Sina Weibo microblogging platform.

In the US, schools have turned to advanced surveillance technology, including face recognition, with the goal of protecting students. Schools in New Mexico installed acoustic devices that respond to the sound of gunfire, while schools in Arkansas have allotted thousands for a face-recognition program meant to screen visitors.

[Epoch Times]