The street finds its own uses for facial recognition

October 22, 2020 7:47 AM

A skilled hobbyist turns facial recognition around Legal issues, a little about methods, ethical issues.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz (12 comments total)

An inevitable development, really, particularly with all the training data being openly available. I expect there'll be a bigger push from law enforcement to enable them to obscure their identities and prevent open public recording of them. I don't think it'll work, certainly not in practice but who knows how far they'll get for theory. I'm curious if pushing for uniform standards might shift public perception of it by having this visible to the folks less accustomed to police grumpiness. If you have obscured faces and badges and nametags in $poor_neighborhood, but that means you've also got Officer Friendly masked up with tape over his badge while standing around waiting for coffee in $rich_neighborhood, too, I don't know if people would be as happy about it.

I do know a cop who has serious opsec on social media, for instance, Facebook - at least for public/friends content, and I don't blame him for it.
posted by rmd1023 at 8:34 AM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thank you for linking to this, Nancy Lebovitz!

Fundamentally, if I understand correctly, at least Howell would not have embarked on this path if the police department hadn't started taping over the names on their badges. So there's a pretty easy way for police departments to reduce the incentive for activists to develop and use this kind of software.

Paolo Cirio is a French artist. “It’s childish to try to stop me,” he said.

is a photo caption which is an abbreviation of the quote:

“It’s about the privacy of everyone,” said Mr. Cirio, who believes facial recognition should be banned. “It’s childish to try to stop me, as an artist who is trying to raise the problem, instead of addressing the problem itself.”

but I really love the short version too and may take it to heart as my "striding forward awesomely" one-liner for, like, when I am a character in a movie trailer.

By the way, I have met Jennifer Helsby, the lead developer of OpenOversight (mentioned in the article), and she is also an engineer and researcher at Freedom of the Press Foundation (and previously earned a doctorate in astrophysics). She is amazing and does a bunch of good work.
posted by brainwane at 8:39 AM on October 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

Every day 2020 reality becomes more like HBO 2019's version of the The Watchmen.
posted by diva_esq at 8:57 AM on October 22, 2020

Love this photo caption:

Paolo Cirio is a French artist. “It’s childish to try to stop me,” he said.

posted by migurski at 9:42 AM on October 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Weren't PD claiming that badges were taped over, all over the country, as a standard act of mourning for some fallen officer or another? Now they are saying it's to prevent "doxxing"?

Aren't cops supposed to be public officials? We pay their salaries don't we?
posted by muddgirl at 9:57 AM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

These developers are far braver than I could ever hope to be. How long before they fall victim to targeted police abuse?
posted by simmering octagon at 11:55 AM on October 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

Good for the goose, good for the gander?
posted by TwoToneRow at 12:20 PM on October 22, 2020

Maybe the cops should only be allowed to use clear masks — in the interest of transparency.
posted by thedward at 1:21 PM on October 22, 2020 [4 favorites]

The same cops who say they don't understand doxxing/it's not a threat when people try to file police reports against online harassers seem to understand the implicit threat very well when it's happening to them.
posted by agentofselection at 2:16 PM on October 22, 2020 [16 favorites]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: police uniforms should be like sports uniforms, and include large unit name and number on the front, and officer name and number on the back.
posted by fings at 10:16 PM on October 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

I imagine that when people start wearing full-face masks, gain analysis would be an option?
posted by gottabefunky at 12:36 PM on October 23, 2020

Author David Brin, in his 1998 non-fiction book The Transparent Society argues for Mr. Howell's position that a ban on surveillance technology will only help those who abuse it. He coins the phrase "sousveillance" as a counter-point to surveillance. By ensuring accountability through "reciprocal transparency," we can detect dangers and expose wrongdoers. We can share technological advances and news, gauge the credibility of pundits and politicians... and maybe even preserve a little privacy. The biggest threat to our freedom, Brin warns, is that surveillance technology will be used by too few people, not by too many.
posted by ambulocetus at 8:19 AM on October 24, 2020 [2 favorites]