Decoding a decade of grouper grunts unlocks spawning secrets, shifts

Florida Atlantic University

LinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

A group of red hind groupers, which produce sounds associated with courtship, territoriality or mating.

view more 

Credit: FAU Harbor Branch

More than a decade of acoustic recordings of grouper grunts are providing new insight into how sound can be used to monitor and manage vulnerable fish populations. The research by Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute focused on the red hind (Epinephelus guttatus), a commercially important Caribbean grouper species.  

Red hind are protogynous hermaphrodites, starting life as females and later becoming males. Each winter, they travel more than 30 kilometers to offshore sites to spawn under the full moon in large gatherings. Males use rhythmic, low-frequency sounds to attract mates and to defend territory. This predictable behavior makes them especially vulnerable to overfishing during spawning season.

Rather than traditional survey methods, FAU Harbor Branch and FAU College of Engineering and Computer Science researchers, in collaboration with HJR Reefscaping, the University of the Virgin Islands, and the University of Puerto Rico, turned to passive acoustic monitoring. This technique enables continuous, long-term monitoring of reproductive behavior, even in remote or hard-to-access areas, without disrupting the animals or their habitat.

To examine how red hind reproductive behavior has changed over time, researchers analyzed more than 2,000 hours of underwater recordings from a single spawning site off Puerto Rico’s west coast, continuously monitored since 2007.

Unlike most acoustic studies that track general sound levels, this research focused on specific mating calls tied to distinct behaviors. Red hind produce two primary sound types – one for courtship and another for territorial defense. Tracking these sounds over time allowed researchers to detect subtle shifts in spawning behavior and population dynamics.

The result, published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, is one of the most extensive and uninterrupted acoustic datasets ever assembled for a reef fish species.

The analysis confirmed a consistent seasonal pattern in red hind spawning activity, closely aligned with lunar cycles. However, one of the most striking findings was a notable shift in the balance of call types over the 12-year period. Between 2011 and 2017, calls linked to courtship were more common. But starting in 2018, calls linked to competition and territorial behavior became dominant – nearly tripling over the study period.

“This shift could indicate changes in the population, such as an increase in the number of older or more dominant males, changes in sex ratios, or even a shift in the core spawning area,” said Laurent Chérubin, Ph.D., lead author and a research professor at FAU Harbor Branch.    

Researchers also observed more frequent and multiple peaks in sound production in recent years, suggesting that spawning may now be spread over more days in each lunar cycle than in the past. These changes could be responses to environmental or population shifts.

Importantly, the study shows that passive acoustic monitoring can be a powerful tool for tracking reproductive behavior over time and detecting early signs of population or behavioral change – information that is critical for managing and conserving red hind and similar reef fish species.

“What’s remarkable is that even a single underwater microphone can reveal so much about fish populations,” said Chérubin. “With consistent long-term monitoring, we can pick up early warning signs – like shifts in spawning behavior or population stress – and give resource managers the information they need to adapt conservation strategies before it’s too late.”

 At the center of the analysis was an advanced machine-learning tool called FADAR (fish acoustic detection algorithm research). This custom-built acoustic classifier allowed the team to detect and distinguish between different types of mating calls with extraordinary speed and accuracy.

“This study shows how much we can learn simply by listening,” said Chérubin. “Thanks to FADAR, we processed 12 years of acoustic data in weeks – uncovering patterns that would have taken years to find. It’s a game changer for monitoring and managing reef fish like red hind.”

By using advanced acoustic technology at a single site, researchers can detect shifts in reproductive behavior and population dynamics remotely, providing crucial early warning signs of stress. This kind of data is essential for resource managers developing strategies to protect spawning grounds and sustain fisheries.

“As passive acoustics advances, it’s transforming our understanding of the ocean,” said Chérubin. “By tuning in to underwater soundscapes, we’re discovering not just when and where fish spawn, but how those patterns change over time – offering vital insights into the health of marine ecosystems.”

Study co-authors are Caroline Woodward, United States Geological Survey; Michelle Schärer-Umpierre, Ph.D., associate researcher, HJR Reefscaping and the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Richard S. Nemeth, Ph.D., research professor, Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, University of the Virgin Islands; Richard Appeldoorn, Ph.D., a faculty member; and Evan Tuhoy, a Ph.D. candidate, both within the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Puerto Rico; and Ali K. Ibrahim, Ph.D., a research engineer in FAU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

- FAU -

About Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute:
Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators, and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/hboi.

 

About Florida Atlantic University:

Florida Atlantic University serves more than 32,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the Southeast Florida coast. It is one of only 21 institutions in the country designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as an “R1: Very High Research Spending and Doctorate Production” university and an “Opportunity College and University” for providing greater access to higher education as well as higher earnings for students after graduation. In 2025, Florida Atlantic was nationally recognized as a Top 25 Best-In-Class College and as “one of the country’s most effective engines of upward mobility” by Washington Monthly magazine. Increasingly a first-choice university for students in both Florida and across the nation, Florida Atlantic welcomed its most academically competitive incoming class in the university’s history in Fall 2025. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

A red hind grouper. 

Credit

FAU Harbor Branch

Recording Red Hind Grouper Grunts [VIDEO] 

Each winter, red hind groupers gather under the full moon, grunting low-frequency calls to attract mates and defend territory. Researchers used acoustic passive technology to detect their grunts by deploying specialized underwater microphones via the autonomous wave glider, a device they developed themselves.

Audio of Grouper Grunts [AUDIO]

Red hind groupers make low-frequency grunts to attract mates and defend territory. 

---

DOI

10.1093/icesjms/fsaf138 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Assessing red hind (Epinephelus guttatus) spawning aggregation changes from long-term relative variations in call types associated with reproductive behaviors

 

With no prior training, dogs can infer how similar types of toys work, even when they don’t look alike

Cell Press

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Gaia with a pile of toys

view more 

Credit: Claudia Fugazza

As infants, humans naturally learn new words and their associations—like the fact that forks are related to bowls because both are used to consume food. In a study publishing in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on September 18, a team of animal behavior experts demonstrate that dogs can categorize objects by function, too. In a series of playful interactions with their owners, a group of Gifted Word Learner (GWL) dogs were able to distinguish between toys used for tugging versus fetching, even when the toys in question didn’t share any obvious physical similarities—and then could remember those categorizations for long periods of time, all with no prior training. 

“We discovered that these Gifted Word Learner dogs can extend labels to items that have the same function or that are used in the same way,” says author Claudia Fugazza (@geniusdogchallenge) of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. It’s like a person calling both a traditional hammer and a rock by the same name, says Fugazza. 

“The rock and the hammer look physically different, but they can be used for the same function,” she says. “So now it turns out that these dogs can do the same.” 

The studies took place in the dogs’ natural home environments with their human owners. At the beginning, the dogs spent time getting familiar with verbal labels for two functional groups of objects: pull and fetch. Their owners used these words with specific toys and played with them accordingly even though the toys didn’t share any similar physical features. 

Next, the dogs were tested to see if they had learned to connect the functional labels to the correct group of toys before playing with more novel toys in the two distinct categories. However, this time, their owners didn’t use the “pull” and “fetch” labels for the dogs.  

The team found that the dogs were able to extend the functional labels they’d learned previously to the new toys based on their experience playing with them. In the final test, the dogs showed that they could successfully apply the verbal labels to the toys by either pulling or fetching accordingly, even when their owners hadn’t named them. 

“For these new toys, they’ve never heard the name, but they have played either pull or fetch, and so the dog has to choose which toy was used to play which game,” Fugazza says. “This was done in a natural setup, with no extensive training. It's just owners playing for a week with the toys. So, it’s a natural type of interaction.” 

The authors note that the dogs’ ability to connect verbal labels to objects based on their functional classifications and apart from the toys’ physical attributes suggests that they form a mental representation of the objects based on their experience with their functions, which they can later recall. These findings provide insight into the evolution of basic skills related to language and their relationship to other cognitive abilities, including memory, the researchers say. 

More research is needed to understand the scope and flexibility of dogs’ language categorization abilities. The researchers suggest future studies to explore whether dogs that don’t learn object labels may nevertheless have an ability to classify objects based on their functions. 

“We have shown that dogs learn object labels really fast, and they remember them for a long period, even without rehearsing,” Fugazza says. “And I think the way they extend labels also beyond perceptual similarities gives an idea of the breadth of what these labels could be for dogs.” 

### 

  

Caption

Bindi with a pull toy

Credit

Claudia Fugazza

Whisky fetching [VIDEO] 

Arya learning assessment test [VIDEO] 

This work was supported by National Brain Research Program NAP 3.0 of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, and TRIXIE. 

Current Biology, Fugazza et al. “Dogs extend verbal labels for functional classification of objects” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01079-6 

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.   

---

Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2025.08.013 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Dogs extend verbal labels for functional classification of objects

Article Publication Date

18-Sep-2025

 

Biodiversity needs more than just flower strips

Researchers call for diversified measures and collaboration across the landscape

University of Göttingen

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Cultivated landscape structured at a small-scale, featuring rows of trees, grass strips and fallow strips along the fence posts.

view more 

Credit: Arne Wenzel

Strips of land planted with flowers between fields are the most popular environmental measure in agriculture. They attract pollinators such as butterflies and wild bees, look beautiful and can be achieved quickly. However, the goal of creating and maintaining a structurally diverse and therefore particularly species-rich landscape will not be achieved if flower strips are the only measure taken. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have described how agricultural landscapes need to be designed to accommodate many species and to ensure other social and ecological functions such as providing nature for human recreation and climate protection. The perspective article was published in the journal Biological Conservation.

 

The expansion of agriculture across the landscape is the main cause of global species decline. To increase biodiversity in such landscapes, habitats that provide additional resources must be separate from cultivated areas. Strips filled with flowers that live for just a growing season are common in the European Union. However, they only support a limited range of plant and animal species.

 

According to this study, preserving biodiversity requires a variety of measures at the landscape level. Different types of habitats are needed, such as arable land with a variety of crops, together with natural areas for annual and perennial plants on land, as well as in flowing or still water. Reducing the size of arable fields also creates more structures around the edges to provide animals with food, nesting and refuge. Habitats with different structures can complement each other in terms of availability of resources throughout the year, allowing species to move between them. This creates diverse habitat types and communities that are less threatened by extinction and promote important services to the ecosystem, such as crop pollination and biological pest control.

 

In addition, agricultural and environmental programmes should focus more on working together within farming and with other stakeholders. “We need stronger collaboration between all interested groups to create biodiversity-friendly agricultural landscapes with diverse habitats so that the species richness of our cultivated landscapes can be restored and preserved,” emphasises lead author Professor Teja Tscharntke at Göttingen University’s Functional Agrobiodiversity & Agroecology Group.

 

Original publication: Teja Tscharntke et al. Beyond flower strips – restoring biodiversity needs more landscape heterogeneity. Biological Conservation (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111474

  

Flower strips full of ox-eye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) planted between cereal fields.

Credit

Bea Maas

---

Journal

Biological Conservation

DOI

10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111474 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Beyond flower strips – restoring biodiversity needs more landscape heterogeneity

Article Publication Date

18-Sep-2025

 

Etruscan chamber tombs made accessible in digital portal

University of Gothenburg

Facebook

WeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Hampus Olsson, researcher at the Swedish Institute in Rome

view more 

Credit: Jonathan Westin

Imagine stepping into a 2,500-year-old tomb – without ever leaving your sofa. Using advanced digital technology, Swedish researchers have documented and visualized nearly 280 Etruscan chamber tombs in Italy. The result is a new digital portal that opens up this cultural heritage to scholars, students, and the public worldwide.

“We are never the first to visit these places – they have been used by shepherds and farmers and recorded by archaeologists for more than a hundred years. Yet it sometimes feels as if time has stood still, and that we are intruding on a lasting silence,” says Jonathan Westin, research engineer at the University of Gothenburg.

Westin has himself squeezed through narrow openings and crawled along dark passageways to document several tombs around San Giovenale in Italy.

Cultural Heritage in a New Digital Form
The portal, already open to visitors, brings together earlier research from the Swedish Institute in Rome and combines it with new digital documentation made possible by recent technological advances.

“Plumb bobs, measuring tapes, and field notes now share space with photogrammetry, laser scanning, and databases,” Westin explains.

With this combined material, he and colleagues at the University of Gothenburg’s research infrastructure for digital humanities have built a digital model and an interface where each tomb can be explored.

A Virtual Experience of Hard-to-Reach Tombs

The project has also produced a Virtual Reality application designed to give users a more embodied sense of the tombs.

“Above all, the 3D scans allow people who have never been able to travel to these sites or descend into the chambers to both experience them and extract new data for the first time,” says Westin.

In reality, the tombs are often difficult to access. They are located far from public roads and often require crawling through collapsed passages and thick dust.

“Quite often you have to wriggle through debris in what, to an untrained eye, might just look like a cave. The air is heavy with dust, and you are acutely aware of how far away help would be if anything were to happen.”

A King with a Passion for Archaeology
The Swedish Institute in Rome, which runs the project together with the University of Gothenburg, has played a central role in Swedish archaeology in Italy since 1925. The institute was heavily involved in the major excavations in southern Etruria in the 1950s. Today, its library is one of the world’s leading resources in Etruscology, visited by scholars from across the globe.

“The excavations gained significant media attention, both in Sweden and in Italy, thanks in large part to King Gustav VI Adolf’s involvement. The king, himself an archaeologist with a deep passion for ancient cultures, personally participated in the excavations up until the year before his death in 1973,” says Hampus Olsson, senior lecturer at the Swedish Institute in Rome.

He and the other project members now hope that the digital database will continue to grow and become a resource for even more Swedish, Italian, and international projects.

Used in a New Course in Rome
Starting in 2026, the portal will also be used in teaching. Students at the University of Gothenburg will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in data collection, 3D scanning, and digital publishing in collaboration with the Swedish Institute in Rome.

Visit the portal: https://etruscan.dh.gu.se/

 

---

Method of Research

Case study

Thyssenkrupp says India’s Jindal Steel makes bid for steel business


By AFP
September 16, 2025


Once a symbol of German industrial might, Thyssenkrup's fortunes have waned in recent years - Copyright AFP/File Brendan SMIALOWSKI

Louis VAN BOXEL-WOOLF

India’s Jindal Steel International has made an offer for Thyssenkrupp’s steel division, the German company said Tuesday, in what would be a mega-deal for the struggling industrial titan.

Once a symbol of German manufacturing might, Thyssenkrupp has fallen into crisis in recent years as it battles high manufacturing costs at home and fierce competition from Asian rivals, particularly in the traditional steel business.

The sprawling conglomerate — whose businesses range from auto parts to submarine-making — has long been seeking to get rid of the loss-making steel unit which is in the midst of a painful restructuring.

It confirmed in a statement that it had received a “non-binding” offer from Jindal Steel International for the purchase of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe (TKSE).

The group said it would “carefully review” the offer and pay “particular attention” to what it would mean for jobs.

Jindal said it was “committed” to the production of green steel, which has been a key focus for Thyssenkrupp in recent years.

Neither side mentioned a possible purchase price for the steel business, but the news sent the conglomerate’s shares up almost eight percent in Frankfurt.

Juergen Kerner, workers’ representative on the Thyssenkrupp board, said the offer from “growth-oriented” Jindal Steel was “good news” for employees.

“Jindal Steel has its own access to raw materials and expertise in the green transformation,” he said, adding it was important to enter into discussions quickly to “gain clarity” on important questions.

The steel unit had announced in November last year it would seek to cut 11,000 jobs by 2030 — about 40 percent of its workforce.

The Indian offer however sets up a potential battle with Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who last year acquired a stake in TKSE through his holding company EPCG.



– Green steel –



Thyssenkrupp has been seeking to navigate the long-term costs of the green transition.

CEO Miguel Lopez warned in March that a new site in the western city of Duisburg, which forms the heart of its steel operations, designed to produce carbon-neutral steel might not be profitable.

In a statement, Jindal Steel said it was committed to making green steel at the same time as turning a profit.

“We believe in the future of green steel production in Germany and Europe,” said Narendra Misra, head of European Operations at Jindal.

“Our goal is to preserve and advance the 200-year-old heritage of Thyssenkrupp.”

Jindal said it would invest in further green steel production and make Thyssenkrupp “the largest low-emission steel producer in Europe,” adding that it already had a similar site in Oman which is due to start production in 2027.

A spokesman for Kretinsky’s EPCG declined to comment on the Indian offer.

Previously Thyssenkrupp has said discussions were ongoing with the Czech billionaire about “an equal 50/50 joint venture”.

Offloading the steel business is part of a broader plan to split Thyssenkrupp into a series of standalone businesses with the aim of boosting profitability.

Robotaxis as a new medium of public transportation in some U.S. cities

By Markos Papadatos
September 18, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL

Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco. Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Waymo, the American autonomous driving technology company, is teaming up with the tech transit startup Via where it will integrate its autonomous vehicles into city public transit networks. It is slated to start with the growing suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.
Robotaxis in Arizona

In the city of Chandler, Arizona, according to The Verge, Waymo’s robotaxis are expected to join the town’s Flex microtransit service.

According to Reuters, the service will be introduced “this fall in the city’s on-demand small-scale public transportation service, Chandler Flex, which is powered by Via’s software.”

Presently, travelers can book their rides via the local Flex app, where they can be picked up by a shared vehicle and subsequently are taken to their desired destination with the chance to connect to Valley Metro bus routes.

In the near future, travelers will be matched with Waymo’s fully autonomous vehicles as part of the service.
A cost-efficient option, which is also accessible for teenagers

This service is slated to fun from Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. with rides booked through Chandler Flex costing just two dollars for regular riders, one dollar for seniors and wheelchair users, and free for middle and high school kids.

Speaking of teenagers, Waymo introduced “teen accounts,” where teenagers in Phoenix (as young as 14 years old) can use this service without their parents.
Robotaxis in San Francisco

This isn’t Waymo’s first introduction into the public transit world. A year ago, it tested out a system to credit customers that use robotaxis to connect to or from transit stations in the San Francisco Bay Area; moreover, this company offered discounts to transit riders in the Los Angeles area.

Waymo also offers paid driverless rides to the public in Austin and Atlanta.

Daniel Ramot, Via’s co-founder and CEO, feels that this partnership with Waymo will help AVs (autonomous vehicles) to become accessible to millions of public transit riders, which will “enhance mobility, lower operating costs, and improve safety outcomes.”
Pros and cons of this autonomous vehicles (AV) feature

Some of the negatives of this feature are that some experts worry that autonomous vehicles might remove riders gradually from transit, which might lead to service cuts.

Also, most people that use ride-shares might not want to transfer to another mode of transportation, especially since they just want to get their destination in the fastest manner possible; moreover, regular transit users (who often tend to me more low-income) may experience difficulties affording rideshare trips.

The partnership has the potential to introduce more passengers to Waymo’s driverless technology. The idea of autonomous rides along a planned route for a low cost and a flat fare will certainly open up this new form of technology to a new portion of the population.
Alibaba enters the robotaxi market

In other robotaxi market news, Yahoo Finance reported that Alibaba Group Holding has jumped into the burgeoning robotaxi market by investing in Hello, a ride-hailing business. This is a bright and promising area for artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Written By Markos Papadatos
Markos Papadatos is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for Music News. Papadatos is a Greek-American journalist and educator that has authored over 23,000 original articles over the past 19 years. He has interviewed some of the biggest names in music, entertainment, lifestyle, magic, and sports. He is a 16-time "Best of Long Island" winner, where for three consecutive years (2020, 2021, and 2022), he was honored as the "Best Long Island Personality" in Arts & Entertainment, an honor that has gone to Billy Joel six times.

Germans turn to health apps as insurers foot the bill


By AFP
September 16, 2025


German health insurers now cover 56 different online healthcare applications 

- Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP JUSTIN SULLIVAN

Léa PERNELLE

German doctors are increasingly prescribing smartphone health apps alongside pills and therapy to patients, marking a growing trend towards digital healthcare.

Civil servant Mona Noe, 30, has long kept close watch over her diet in order to reduce cramps and bloating caused by irritable bowel syndrome.

Noe managed to persuade her doctor to prescribe her the app Cara Care, where she receives wellness tips and keeps a food diary to identify her pain triggers.

“It is difficult to do it by yourself,” she said, preparing a vegetable stir fry without peppers or tomatoes at her home in Schleiden in western Germany, as per the app’s instructions.

“The app has transformed my cooking by helping me avoid certain foods.”

Applications that help patients quit smoking, fight obesity or improve their mental health often cost hundreds of euros a month, but insurance companies are helping by footing the bill.

The programme Noe uses is one of 56 now covered by German health insurers, signalling the country’s turn towards digital health over traditional pen and paper options.



– ‘Around the clock’ –



The digital health tools, known as “DiGA” in Germany, have been available on prescription since 2020, typically on three-month renewable subscriptions.

In the five years since the programme began, more than one million prescriptions have been written, according to a study by digital healthcare sector association SVDGV.

Nearly 60 percent of doctors in Germany have prescribed at least one DiGA, and the number of prescriptions written for them in 2024 was up by 85 percent from the previous year.

Johannes Patze, a doctor in Frankfurt, said he prescribes them “almost daily” — particularly for mental health support while patients are on a waiting list for a therapy appointment.

The apps provide patients with personalised mood tracking, online consultations with professionals, meditation sessions and motivational notifications.

The benefit, Patze said, is that “they’re available around the clock, 24/7”.

But they come with a cost. A three-month health app subscription costs 600 euros ($705) on average.

Health insurers have paid out 234 million euros for subscription services since 2020.



– ‘Easing the burden’ –



Germany’s Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds has criticised “excessive” application pricing and warns that there is little hard evidence to back up how effective they are.

But Patze told AFP that the apps could prove a reliable way of lowering healthcare costs in years to come.

Germany spent 326.9 billion euros on healthcare in 2024 — higher than in previous years and partly due to an ageing population.

“The costs are probably lower in the long run since patients are better taken care of,” said Patze.

Digital health consultant Henrik Matthies agreed.

“It’s an upfront cost,” he said, “but it helps patients get back to work sooner, easing the burden on the healthcare system.”

The success of health apps in Germany is partly down to a fast-track approval process that is unusual in a country often mocked for its tedious bureaucracy.

App developers can obtain provisional approval for a programme within three months of applying. They then have a year to demonstrate its clinical effectiveness.

This speedy process “was a catalyst” for the system, Matthies said. Of 228 applications made in the past five years, 43 have received full approval and 13 are still under review.

The ethics of workplace facial recognition: Is robust policy the answer?


By Dr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR

DIGITAL JOURNAL
September 16, 2025


Facial recognition technology. — Image by © Tim Sandle

The major telecoms company AT&T recently tracked employee attendance to find so-called ‘freeloaders’. Specifically, AT&T tracked employee attendance using an automated system that includes methods like geo-fencing, mobile check-in, and biometric readers. This system enabled managers to see real-time attendance status and receive alerts for unplanned absences.

Facial authentication can improve workplace security, but adoption must be transparent, ethical, and paced thoughtfully to avoid backlash. In this recent case, AT&T acknowledged that their attendance tracking system was not fully accurate and as a result this caused frustration among employees.

The technology deployed by AT&T was initially used to identify non-compliance with return-to-office policies. After this, management opted to extend it, and the aftermath created an adverse reaction from their employees.

Beyond this incident, the concept of attendance tracking underscores a bigger trend. This has led many commentators to declare that there needs to be ethical boundaries when using this technology.

Mike Nielsen, CMO of RealSense, a pioneer in AI-powered computer vision, and expert in biometrics, has highlighted the ethical use of biometric data collection.

Some companies see advantages in the adoption of this form of technology:


Convenience & Speed: Facial authentication enables seamless, hands-free authentication, eliminating the need for physical credentials and reducing entry-point friction.

Security & Fraud Prevention: Advanced algorithms and liveness detection mitigate risks of spoofing, identity fraud, and unauthorized access attempts.

Cost Savings: Single-factor biometric authentication reduces expenses associated with credential replacement, administrative overhead, and scalability challenges.

However, as Neilson points out, facial authentication technology raises ethical concerns, particularly regarding privacy, consent, and data security. Enterprises must navigate these issues while concurrently ensuring compliance with a complex regulatory landscape.

Nielsen has contributed to the RealSense and The Access Control Collective white paper, ‘The Ethical Application of Facial Authentication in Enterprise Access Control in Western Markets‘. This document covers:Key ethical challenges and how to address them
Best practices for responsible enterprise deployment
How to balance safety, security, and employee trust

As such, the document argues there is a middle ground. By examining the interplay between technology, compliance, and ethical responsibility, this paper provides a framework for organisations seeking to deploy facial authentication for access control in a way that enhances security while respecting privacy and regulatory requirements.

The paper recommends that the best way to strike a balance is through detailed policy development. This should include establishing clear stances surrounding the ethical use of facial authentication for access control helps ease concerns and defines the unknowns for potential users.

This could include:Employ No Surveillance Policies – Communicate that facial authentication is used strictly for authentication, not for tracking or monitoring.
Commit to Regulatory Compliance as a Baseline –Organisations should proactively implement higher standards for data protection, security, and privacy rather than just meeting minimum legal requirements.
Prioritise Local Processing – Commit to edge-based facial authentication processing where possible to maintain greater control over biometric data.
Engage in Data Minimization and User Control – Take a strict approach to data collection by only storing what is necessary and allowing users to review, manage, or delete their biometric data upon request.

By prioritising privacy, security, and transparency, the report takes the position that organisations can harness the benefits of facial authentication while mitigating potential risks

India’s gaming fans eye illegal sites after gambling ban


By AFP
September 16, 2025


India last month passed a law banning online gambling

 - Copyright AFP/File Sajjad HUSSAIN

Faisal KAMAL with Anuj SRIVAS in Mumbai

India’s ban on online gambling has shuttered a billion-dollar industry serving hundreds of millions of people and torpedoed the sponsorship of the national cricket team.

But players say those determined to bet will find a way to access overseas and unregulated websites while fans of fantasy sport apps can still play, although for prizes and not cash.

Adarsh Sharma, an advertising professional who regularly played fantasy sports games, said offshore sites will “see a sudden boom” as Indian gamblers look for a fix.

“A habit once formed cannot be broken easily,” he said. “It is an addiction and people will find ways to gamble.”

India’s parliament last month passed a sweeping law banning online gambling after government figures showed companies had stripped $2.3 billion annually from 450 million people.

Officials said the rapid spread of the platforms caused widespread financial distress, addiction and suicide, while also being linked to fraud, money laundering and financing terrorism.

The law has been challenged in court by a top online card games platform.

The ban impacts websites and apps for card games and fantasy sports — including India’s wildly popular fantasy cricket — with offenders now facing up to five years in prison.

India’s online gamblers will have to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to trick overseas websites into thinking they are not in the country, and also use proxy credit cards for placing a bet.

The whole process may seem too cumbersome for an average internet user, but gamblers know how to dodge the rules.

“We have done this before and will do it again,” one fan told AFP, asking not to be named. “We will go back to our old ways of making money.”

– ‘Love of cricket’ –

Technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the law separates still-legal eSports “from betting, gambling and fantasy money games that exploit users with false promises of profit”.

Dream11 — which boasts of being the world’s largest fantasy sports platform, with 260 million users — posted notices that “cash games and contests have been discontinued”.

It now offers prizes such as cars, phones and fridges instead.

Dream11 also pulled out of a $43 million deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), with its logo no longer splashed on the jerseys of the Indian players.

Jamshed Noor, a butcher in the capital Delhi, said his top win had been 600 rupees (about $7), a day’s wage for a labourer.

“We play it for the love of cricket,” said Noor. “Money was definitely an attraction, but I still play, despite money being off the table now.”

The law will also shake up the wider sporting industry, including the hugely lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket competition.

“Fantasy platforms are the most aggressive advertisers in IPL and world cricket,” Karan Taurani from Elara Capital said, adding that they would now likely explore the overseas market.

Santosh N, of D and P Advisory, estimated that fantasy sports and crypto platforms accounted for up to 40 percent of the advertisement IPL broadcasters earned this year.

“The fantasy guys will obviously reduce their ad spends because their business model is at stake — or actually destroyed due to the ban,” Santosh told AFP.

That will impact the revenue of the broadcasters, meaning less cash for the league.

“When the time comes for the BCCI to renew media rights in 2027, it could very well see a lower renewal premium because broadcasters can’t afford to pay that much anymore,” he said.