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I enjoy traveling to Berlin for vacation, as it's a totally different atmosphere around privacy. Default payment is cash, your entry and exit from train station

I enjoy traveling to Berlin for vacation, as it's a totally different atmosphere around privacy. Default payment is cash, your entry and exit from train stations is not tracked (surveilled perhaps, but you do not tap-in/tap-out or god forbid tap your credit card every time you step on a train like SF or NYC), and it's against the law to publish photographs of someone without their consent. Ask IBM what becomes of databases full of people's names associated with their movements.

Zanni 2y ago
I appreciate the response, but it seems that database can be constructed with or without facial recognition because photo ID is already required. So, I ask again, why is this bad?
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  Showing ID to pass a gate is somewhat different than having a timestamped record of the fact that you passed a gate, but I agree that given it's already surveilled it's not a big difference. Still, small differences add up.
aaomidi 2y ago
I think this is silly given how much Germany is actively helping a country where the PM of that country has an arrest warrant out for him through the ICC. Germany is still facilitating an alleged genocide. The only thing that has changed is the profile of the victims. The situation now is even worse, given that practically everyone in the world knows what’s happening but life is going on as normal.
- raxxorraxor 2y ago
  You could have made a sensible argument about how security policies in Israel move in a wrong direction, even if it isn't at all on topic. But you stumbled here too.
  - aaomidi 2y ago
    It’s a reply to this part of OP: > Ask IBM what becomes of databases full of people's names associated with their movements. None of this matters. If a state wants to commit a genocide, they will. Collection of IDs being there or not is a minuscule bump in the road there.
sneak 2y ago
It is not against the law to publish photographs of someone without their consent. People post me to Instagram without my consent in Berlin all of the time.
- spacechild1 2y ago
  It is against the law: https://www.lhr-law.de/en/thema/media-law/the-right-to-your-own-image/ https://www.lhr-law.de/en/thema/media-law/the-right-to-your-...
- jazzyjackson 2y ago
  There are some carve outs for including you in a picture of something else, but there is, at least, social backpressure to swinging a camera around.
kelnos 2y ago
In both SF and NYC you can still buy transit passes anonymously with cash if you so desire. Convenience won, though, it seems.

Zanni 2y ago

I appreciate the response, but it seems that database can be constructed with or without facial recognition because photo ID is already required. So, I ask again, why is this bad?

jazzyjackson 2y ago
Showing ID to pass a gate is somewhat different than having a timestamped record of the fact that you passed a gate, but I agree that given it's already surveilled it's not a big difference. Still, small differences add up.

aaomidi 2y ago

I think this is silly given how much Germany is actively helping a country where the PM of that country has an arrest warrant out for him through the ICC. Germany is still facilitating an alleged genocide. The only thing that has changed is the profile of the victims. The situation now is even worse, given that practically everyone in the world knows what’s happening but life is going on as normal.

raxxorraxor 2y ago
You could have made a sensible argument about how security policies in Israel move in a wrong direction, even if it isn't at all on topic. But you stumbled here too.
- aaomidi 2y ago
  It’s a reply to this part of OP: > Ask IBM what becomes of databases full of people's names associated with their movements. None of this matters. If a state wants to commit a genocide, they will. Collection of IDs being there or not is a minuscule bump in the road there.

sneak 2y ago

It is not against the law to publish photographs of someone without their consent. People post me to Instagram without my consent in Berlin all of the time.

spacechild1 2y ago
It is against the law: https://www.lhr-law.de/en/thema/media-law/the-right-to-your-own-image/ https://www.lhr-law.de/en/thema/media-law/the-right-to-your-...
jazzyjackson 2y ago
There are some carve outs for including you in a picture of something else, but there is, at least, social backpressure to swinging a camera around.

kelnos 2y ago

In both SF and NYC you can still buy transit passes anonymously with cash if you so desire. Convenience won, though, it seems.