http://churchix.com/ Facial recognition software is being sold to churches to take attendance.
Churchix is a face recognition event attendance desktop application. Churchix identifies event attending members in videos and photos. All you need to do is enrol high quality photos of your members into the software data base, then connect a live video USB camera or upload recorded videos or photos – and Churchix will identify your members!
Churchix is designed for Church administrators and event managers who want to save the pain of manually tracking their members attendance to their events.
Privacy campaigners have walked out of talks aimed at creating a code of conduct for companies keen to use facial-recognition technology.
In an open letter, the groups said they had quit because of "fundamental" differences over use of the technology. And there had been little prospect that the talks would have produced "adequate protections" for citizens. People deserved better protection than the talks had been likely to have produced, they said.
The discussions, brokered by the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the body that oversees technology policy issues, began in February 2014. Nine separate privacy groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Democracy and Technology, were invited.
But the groups' letter said the companies involved had refused to accept they needed prior permission from people being identified by the technology. At a "base minimum", said the rights groups, people should be able to walk down a street without having to worry that companies unknown to them were tracking them and trying to work out who they were.
"Unfortunately," read the letter, "we have been unable to obtain agreement even with that basic, specific premise."
Let the "A Scanner Darkly" references roll!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Thursday June 18 2015, @07:39AM
In related news, the cops at the UK "Download" music festival scanned the faces [engadget.com] of all 90,000 customers last week!
The battle has been lost Winston.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sudo rm -rf on Thursday June 18 2015, @08:00AM
That brings very unpleasantly Pink Floyd to my mind:
Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get them up against the wall!
There's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me,
Get him up against the wall!
That one looks Jewish!
And that one's a coon!
Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?
There's one smoking a joint,
And another with spots!
If I had my way,
I'd have all of you shot!
(Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Thursday June 18 2015, @09:51AM
Do we know what they did when they got a hit against their database of criminals?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2015, @03:09PM
That person was never seen again.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday June 18 2015, @12:00PM
I think I just had an instant Zentai fetish! ;-)
Perhaps makeup also will be popular now?
(Score: 1) by darnkitten on Friday June 19 2015, @01:05AM
They'll just back off a bit and do anthropometric ID instead of facial recognition--or start scanning for IR or other invisible spectra.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Friday June 19 2015, @02:13AM
Use flash mobs to assemble and be gone before any recognition equipment can be setup? And "nice surveillance equipment you got there.."
As for the direct counter act. Use aluminum lining and inlays in the shoes etc.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Thursday June 18 2015, @01:12PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves