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I thought this was one of the more important points in the article. > The Santa Fe Independent School District’s neighbor, the Texas City Independent School Di

I thought this was one of the more important points in the article. > The Santa Fe Independent School District’s neighbor, the Texas City Independent School District, also purchased AnyVision as a protective measure against school shootings. It has since been used in attempts to identify a kid who had been licking a neighborhood surveillance camera, to kick out an expelled student from his sister’s graduation, and to ban a woman from showing up on school grounds after an argument with the district’s head of security, according to WIRED. > “The mission creep issue is a real concern when you initially build out a system to find that one person who’s been suspended and is incredibly dangerous, and all of a sudden you’ve enrolled all student photos and can track them wherever they go,” Clare Garvie, a senior associate at the Georgetown University Law Center’s Center on Privacy & Technology, said. “You’ve built a system that’s essentially like putting an ankle monitor on all your kids.” As a society I think we need to be concerned about what happens when this technology becomes more wide spread and normalized. I’m not holding my breath though.

yosito 5y ago
When it becomes normalized? It's already teriffyingly normalized.
- mikeiz404 5y ago
  Do you have some specific examples you can share? No examples, outside of social media and authentication, come to mind for the US. I’m probably out of the loop on this one. Edit: I did find mention of facial recognition being used for 7-Eleven’s in Australia and trialing of the technology at Target and Walmart in the US [0]. > [7-Eleven] confirmed that the data captured by the facial recognition software that is being introduced nationally, will be used to verify customer feedback rather than as a measure to prevent theft – in the US, Target and Walmart among others have experimented with facial recognition to combat shoplifting and fraud. The article also had this at the end. > Facebook also submitted a patent for in-store facial recognition tech that would provide retail staff with customer information drawn from social media profiles in a bid to deliver a more personalized service. Edit: And this ACLU article [2] from 2018 implies many large US retailers are using it in store as well without notifying customers. Edit: Oh and schools as mentioned in this article. On a related but maybe ironic note SF and some surrounding municipalities have suspended since mid 2019 the use of facial recognition by government departments (with the exception of ports) [1]. So at least there is that. However private companies and people can do as they may. > In the Bay Area alone, Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto and Santa Clara County (of which Palo Alto is a part) have passed their own surveillance-technology laws. Oakland is also currently considering whether to ban the use of facial-recognition technology. > The ordinance… outlaws the use of facial-recognition technology by police and other government departments > However, the ordinance carves out an exception for federally controlled facilities at San Francisco International Airport and the Port of San Francisco. > The ordinance doesn’t prevent businesses or residents from using facial recognition or surveillance technology in general — such as on their own security cameras 0. https://techwireasia.com/2020/07/why-7-eleven-australia-is-using-facial-recognition-in-stores/ https://techwireasia.com/2020/07/why-7-eleven-australia-is-u... 1. https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/tech/san-francisco-facial-recognition-ban/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/tech/san-francisco-facial-rec... 2. https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/are-stores-you-shop-secretly-using-face https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-te...
6rgiutryjf 5y ago
Sounds like if anything we can chill out. Or was your point not to highlight that the technology is even useful beyond just catching school shooters? Seriously, this mission creep concern is just preaching to the choir for easy attention. No one who was fine with surveillance tech before is going to change their mind after hearing it turned out to be more helpful than imagined at solving problems.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  This technology will inevitably be abused to do terrible things to these kids. I have absolutely no doubt about it.
ajsnigrutin 5y ago
Covid masks + sunglasses were a great thing for surveillance. Otherwise, "think of the children" will always prevail in western cultures, and parents will sign everything just to protect their kids, even from nonexisting harm... sadly.
- bsenftner 5y ago
  I work in FR. The first PR move when covid hit was to publish videos demonstrating our accuracy with both a medical mask and sunglasses on. The technology still works, with a less than 8% drop in accuracy for single images, and less than 4% drop with motion video.
  - rgrieselhuber 5y ago
    I assume it's looking at more than faces then? Gait, earlobes, etc.
    - bsenftner 5y ago
      Face, head, ears & shoulders, with full 3d reconstruction and refinement via motion video. Np gait, too easily gamed.
      - noahjk 5y ago
        Any suggestions to lower the %? Small prosthetics under mask for nose/cheeks? Does hair bulk affect head shape? Any suggestion for ears? Shoulder pads? I guess there's not a great way to slim features, only bulk, which may be accounted for? Is this currently mainly matching people with their past self's model, or is this also integrated with data connecting us to our identities (for the average suburbanite who doesn't visit locations which scan IDs frequently)
        bsenftner 5y ago
        Can't say much without revealing trade secrets. However, two things one can do to prevent identification via any FR: 1) place a bright LED somewhere near your face, such as on eyeglass frames or the brim of a hat. That bright LED causes a hot spot in the camera frame with an area of glow large enough to obscure one's face. Additionally, many cameras have a physical mechanism that closes an aperture to reduce the light received - that takes a bit less than a second; if the LED blinks at a rate near that mechanism's adjustment time, it will never adjust in time and the entire frame will always be too bright or too dark in alternation with the LED blink. The second thing one can do is draw or place stickers on your face with additional eyes, noses, and/or mouths on your face. Similar to the fantasy/art makeup look where people paint an additional set of eyes on their forehead - the FR will see 6 eyes or 3 mouths and will reject that as being a human face.

yosito 5y ago

When it becomes normalized? It's already teriffyingly normalized.

mikeiz404 5y ago
Do you have some specific examples you can share? No examples, outside of social media and authentication, come to mind for the US. I’m probably out of the loop on this one. Edit: I did find mention of facial recognition being used for 7-Eleven’s in Australia and trialing of the technology at Target and Walmart in the US [0]. > [7-Eleven] confirmed that the data captured by the facial recognition software that is being introduced nationally, will be used to verify customer feedback rather than as a measure to prevent theft – in the US, Target and Walmart among others have experimented with facial recognition to combat shoplifting and fraud. The article also had this at the end. > Facebook also submitted a patent for in-store facial recognition tech that would provide retail staff with customer information drawn from social media profiles in a bid to deliver a more personalized service. Edit: And this ACLU article [2] from 2018 implies many large US retailers are using it in store as well without notifying customers. Edit: Oh and schools as mentioned in this article. On a related but maybe ironic note SF and some surrounding municipalities have suspended since mid 2019 the use of facial recognition by government departments (with the exception of ports) [1]. So at least there is that. However private companies and people can do as they may. > In the Bay Area alone, Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto and Santa Clara County (of which Palo Alto is a part) have passed their own surveillance-technology laws. Oakland is also currently considering whether to ban the use of facial-recognition technology. > The ordinance… outlaws the use of facial-recognition technology by police and other government departments > However, the ordinance carves out an exception for federally controlled facilities at San Francisco International Airport and the Port of San Francisco. > The ordinance doesn’t prevent businesses or residents from using facial recognition or surveillance technology in general — such as on their own security cameras 0. https://techwireasia.com/2020/07/why-7-eleven-australia-is-using-facial-recognition-in-stores/ https://techwireasia.com/2020/07/why-7-eleven-australia-is-u... 1. https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/tech/san-francisco-facial-recognition-ban/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/tech/san-francisco-facial-rec... 2. https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/are-stores-you-shop-secretly-using-face https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-te...

6rgiutryjf 5y ago

Sounds like if anything we can chill out. Or was your point not to highlight that the technology is even useful beyond just catching school shooters? Seriously, this mission creep concern is just preaching to the choir for easy attention. No one who was fine with surveillance tech before is going to change their mind after hearing it turned out to be more helpful than imagined at solving problems.

matheusmoreira 5y ago
This technology will inevitably be abused to do terrible things to these kids. I have absolutely no doubt about it.

ajsnigrutin 5y ago

Covid masks + sunglasses were a great thing for surveillance. Otherwise, "think of the children" will always prevail in western cultures, and parents will sign everything just to protect their kids, even from nonexisting harm... sadly.

bsenftner 5y ago
I work in FR. The first PR move when covid hit was to publish videos demonstrating our accuracy with both a medical mask and sunglasses on. The technology still works, with a less than 8% drop in accuracy for single images, and less than 4% drop with motion video.
- rgrieselhuber 5y ago
  I assume it's looking at more than faces then? Gait, earlobes, etc.
  - bsenftner 5y ago
    Face, head, ears & shoulders, with full 3d reconstruction and refinement via motion video. Np gait, too easily gamed.
    - noahjk 5y ago
      Any suggestions to lower the %? Small prosthetics under mask for nose/cheeks? Does hair bulk affect head shape? Any suggestion for ears? Shoulder pads? I guess there's not a great way to slim features, only bulk, which may be accounted for? Is this currently mainly matching people with their past self's model, or is this also integrated with data connecting us to our identities (for the average suburbanite who doesn't visit locations which scan IDs frequently)
      - bsenftner 5y ago
        Can't say much without revealing trade secrets. However, two things one can do to prevent identification via any FR: 1) place a bright LED somewhere near your face, such as on eyeglass frames or the brim of a hat. That bright LED causes a hot spot in the camera frame with an area of glow large enough to obscure one's face. Additionally, many cameras have a physical mechanism that closes an aperture to reduce the light received - that takes a bit less than a second; if the LED blinks at a rate near that mechanism's adjustment time, it will never adjust in time and the entire frame will always be too bright or too dark in alternation with the LED blink. The second thing one can do is draw or place stickers on your face with additional eyes, noses, and/or mouths on your face. Similar to the fantasy/art makeup look where people paint an additional set of eyes on their forehead - the FR will see 6 eyes or 3 mouths and will reject that as being a human face.