The surveillance company announced it's making a tool called "Audit Assistance" mandatory for all customers, claiming it's already helped catch abuse. But the company has yet to explain how the tool works in detail, raising questions about its effectiveness.
that the Audit Assistance can flag “what may look like an odd search history from a specific user,” helping customers understand how their users are operating the system.
A flag does not mean that it is definitely abuse — it only means it warrants further investigation.”
Helping the customer => entirely dependent on how the violating org handles these.
Even usefulness is entirely dependent on how effective the flags are in the first place. If false positives are too high, even good intended may call not worth it.
It may even be counter-productive if perpetrators cheer each other on when getting flags but no consequences.
Without transparency on 1. flag conditions 2. number of flags per org 3. results of org response/flag-flagging… who wants to trust this?
Helping the customer => entirely dependent on how the violating org handles these.
Even usefulness is entirely dependent on how effective the flags are in the first place. If false positives are too high, even good intended may call not worth it.
It may even be counter-productive if perpetrators cheer each other on when getting flags but no consequences.
Without transparency on 1. flag conditions 2. number of flags per org 3. results of org response/flag-flagging… who wants to trust this?