Hacker News Reader

Comment by thatsnotmyusern | Hacker News Reader

> According to the police, these trials ... "will be used overtly with a clear uniformed presence and information leaflets will be disseminated to the public,"

This line really creeps me out. Essentially: "But it's OK, because we're being very clear about what we are doing, handing out leaflets and wearing our uniforms so you can trust us."

If these trials are successful - or, for that matter, if they are not - can we assume that they will drop all of that facade at the earliest opportunity in favour of silent and ubiquitous rollout?

Who will be wearing uniforms and handing out fliers in 1, 2 or 5 years, when facial recognition surveillance technology operates behind every one of the thousands of surveillance cameras that capture our faces and movements every single day?

View on HN

This not a trial, in terms of what a real trial should be.

It is a deliberate wedge strategy that has been employed at least once in the UK before. (I couldn’t find a source right now, will report back when I can.)

The goal is to be able to say to higher powers that «we reached out to the public and they didn’t mind.»

And then it’s made permanent.

I smell a market for facial prosthetics (good ones) and sunglasses. Maybe large hats.

They'll simply pass a law making disguises/obfuscation illegal in public.

Because why would anybody who's not a criminal or up to no good have any issue with the tracking, right?

already a law where i live

https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2010/title-16/chapter-1...

for historical context, this was not passed historically to combat the KKK, who have a storied history in this state. Nor was it passed under national security hysteria. It was passed very recently, to arrest guy fawke's mask wearers at the Anonymous Million Mask March.

Plastic surgery will likely remain legal. I could see a future where people avoid recognition by simply changing their features like a custom video game character.

Plastic surgery might remain legal, but you would likely be required to submit before and after photos. Making it pointless.

If the tech reaches the point where you can do it at home, that won't matter.

You can trivially build banned (some places;) inanimate objects at home, but that does not stop legislators from making those that do criminals. You didnt update FaceRegistry? That's a felony, and another felony for modding your 3d faceprinter to break the FR DRM.

I'm sure that will sit well with Londons large orthodox muslim community.

As someone in the field, I recommend sunglasses and those filter masks common in Asia.

This might do:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/V_for_vendett...

Or paper bags.

How about the old classic -- a Groucho Marx moustache and a pair of glasses? ;)

Or maybe a Theresa May paper mask...

make no mistake, the rest of the world's leaders don't see China as a dystopian hellhole, they see it as a proof of concept. The only way to stop this is now, to strike hard and reject it entirely. Because once it's fully implemented any future rebellions will be able to be snuffed out in their infancy.

IE: Government sees a group of people visiting suspicious websites, they use phone location tracking to see that a small group is meeting up in person, government then uses facial recognition to track them 24/7 and eventually finds an excuse to arrest them before the movement can grow

Although I doubt people will do anything, we're too comfortable and they'll simply boil us like frogs, pushing privacy rights back inch by inch until people finally realize they are against the edge of a cliff

Reply on news.ycombinator.com