from the 1984-wasn't-supposed-to-be-a-playbook dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
How to hack your face to dodge the rise of facial recognition tech
UK police forces are increasingly experimenting with controversial new facial recognition (FR) technology for crowd control and locating suspects. Critics, however, have labeled the trials a shambles, pointing to the high error rate and even higher cost of the program.
Documents released under Freedom of Information Act requests have shown that collectively South Wales Police and London's Metropolitan Police have spent millions of pounds on trials of the technology, despite the fact that both systems have been shown to have an error rate over 90 per cent.
Similar trials around the world have raised concerns around the technology, including in San Francisco where privacy advocates are calling for a ban on the use of FR by law enforcement.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Revek on Friday March 22 2019, @11:12PM
Its funny how I thought burning chrome was just fiction.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @11:17PM
We must all become Elvis impersonators.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @11:26PM
The 90% error rate is for identifying individual suspects. But the system's accuracy rises to 97% when used as intended to identify people with dark skin and facial hair... which is no surprise since it was trained on datasets from Tower Hamlets.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Friday March 22 2019, @11:31PM (13 children)
yet non-existant on practical ways to spoof FR systems. I live in San Diego, which has just installed surveillance cameras on every streetlight. [sandiegoreader.com] Who has access to this data? Umm, trust us. What are you doing with this data? Umm, trust us. How long do you keep this data? Umm, trust us.
I'm old, one thing I learned as a teenager that never changed is Don't Trust The Government.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday March 23 2019, @12:19AM (10 children)
They mention 3 ways: occlusion (hide your face), dazzle [cvdazzle.com] (distort the elements of you face CV recognizes) and distraction [ahprojects.com] (wear multiple elements resembling faces to draw away the CV. Yes, clothing included)
How are they not practical?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Saturday March 23 2019, @12:34AM (5 children)
I said "practical". Walk around with a full face covering you're pretty obvious. If you don't know how to apply the makeup (article gave nada on this) it's useless. Walk around with distraction and it's useless unless you know how, which the article didn't mention.
So, I'm an average Joe that lives in San Diego. How do I walk around without having my every movement recorded and retrievable, based on "follow snotnose for a week", reason "he gave money to Mayor Faulkner's opponent"?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday March 23 2019, @12:56AM (1 child)
You just sic the cops on Ethanol-Fueled.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 23 2019, @03:24AM
If they are watching me, then that would be a great waste of effort and taxpayer dollars. With neighborhood package thefts at an all-time high, and bums creeping ever-northward to encircle their overpriced properties like never before, maybe they should petition San Diego to get a single beat-cop out there to handle that business. All it would take is one beat-cop to shoo the riffraff away (just like they were doing a few years ago).
And it's telling that they can no longer get a single dedicated beat-cop out there.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday March 23 2019, @11:16AM
If you mean "I don't know the pattern", TFA gave you links + I linked them in my comment.
If you don't know anything how to apply makeup, Youtube is full of teenagers who get their zillions of views on makeup lessons.
To the point car/traffic safety awareness viral campaign [huffingtonpost.com] used these channels.
Who knows? Joe from San Diego may learn something so well [youtube.com] it may land him a contract as Michel Jackson. Or scare kids [youtube.com]. Or provide good enough services [youtube.com] for others that "gave money to Mayor Faulkner's opponent".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Sunday March 24 2019, @12:31AM
My bad, I mis spoke. Should have been "where has snotnose been for the last 6 months", reason "he gave money to Mayor Faulkner's opponent".
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Monday March 25 2019, @01:34PM
There are examples (many pretty obvious and "weird" looking, but many would not be out of place on a 1980s punk) at https://cvdazzle.com [cvdazzle.com] In particular, take a peek at the "Style Tips for Reclaiming Privacy"
Alternately, start drinking Faygo [allure.com]. Whoop! Whoop! [metrotimes.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Saturday March 23 2019, @01:20AM (2 children)
> 3 ways: occlusion (...), dazzle (...) and distraction
The title suggests a fourth: Hack your face, literally.
Cops might be puzzled, but the facial recognition SW can't be designed to handle people who seemingly just walked off a Picasso painting, allowing you to escape the database.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Saturday March 23 2019, @03:14AM (1 child)
I don't know. Let's say the computer spits out a "can't recognize" error for particular faces. So a human takes a look at a snapshot and sees a person doing a KISS impersonation. Same thing next camera. Same thing next camera. Eventually they find where you frequent, live, or work and figure it is worth the resources because you must be up to something if you are trying to evade detection.
Anyway, it is clear that what fools a computer, makes you extra-identifiable to a human behind a computer.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday March 23 2019, @11:27AM
I wouldn't be so sure [smh.com.au], what if presented with the face of Queen Elisabeth or Kate Blanchet [smh.com.au]?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @06:11AM
European countries are meeting that challenge by banning face coverings. In the name of "freedom from religion".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @12:42AM
"I'm old, one thing I learned as a teenager that never changed is Don't Trust The Government."
love the tentacle
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 24 2019, @04:08PM
I've cut back my driving quite a lot for this reason (I already only travel with my cellphone off unless I have a pressing phone call or text related to my travels.) There are cameras on around 25 percent of the traffic signals around town, as well as highway cameras placed with the traffic cameras over highway overpasses. All of these handled by corporations in order to circumvent constitutional protections, because somehow it is legal if they word the payments to the company the right way, even though the company is a subcontractor and supposed to be under the same restrictions regarding use of the surveillance as the government as a result.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2019, @02:53PM
Clothing that rises above the shoulders? E.g. high collars
Brimmed hats
Carry an unbrella. Walk under it where practical.
Make up for changing skin tone.
Fake hair. Have several.
How far do you want to take this?