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In 2011, taken by the emergence of mass protest movements around the world, artist Zach Blas began making, "Facial Weaponization Suite, (2011 - present)."[Video]
Facial Weaponization Suite is a series of community workshops which discuss and resist biometric facial recognition technologies and the larger political ethos which supports and enforces them. The workshop participants then have their own faces scanned and compiled into a collective mask, a mask which resists any biometric quantification. Vice got Blas on the phone to learn a little more about the project.
The mask does appear to defeat the many algorithms that are currently employed by tracking cameras that are used in many countries. Of course, some countries have already brought in or at least proposed legislation to ban the wearing of any kind of mask in public (unless a masquerade party is being held) but, in the case of a mass demonstration, it might be enough to protect an individual from being recognised or having their movements tracked unless (s)he was physically detained. How long will it be before legislation is brought in to outlaw the manufacture or sale of such masks?
(Score: 2) by lgsoynews on Friday July 11 2014, @08:10PM
As always in the big privacy debate (ie: the fight against the worrying erosion of privacy), this misses the point: using technical means to try to fend-off the ever more present surveillance/spying is a losing proposition.
First, because as soon as a technical solution appears (encryption, VPNs, face-masks), it is going to be banned (usually with unintended results: see the attempts to ban or curb encryption use).
Second, because it will result in the usual "spear vs shield" spiral: a better shield calls for a better spear, which in turn calls for a better shield, ad nauseum...
Third, because of the asymmetry between the people who spy/intrude on our privacy: states & big companies, vs the "common man", with the added problem that most people don't even realize the danger.
I'm very concerned by the downward spiral toward total surveillance that we have witnessed those last decades. It seems to be accelerating, and is a perfect illustration of how technical progress can be misused. I'm really afraid of the short/middle term future. And most people don't ralize how close we are to a total loss of privacy (including in our homes). With any luck the NSA's scandal will help to raise awareness, but I have doubts.
The real solution is NOT technical. It is a matter a politics & ethics (don't laugh) at the level of governements. And I'm afraid that pushing back is going to be VERY hard, and I'm very pessimistic seeing how each new moral panic is used as a tool toward more and more surveillance. In fact, I think that it's already too late to reverse the trend.
The worst risk being that the next generations, being raised in such "no-privacy" environments, won't even realize it's wrong. That's my worst fear.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday July 11 2014, @09:33PM
I don't laugh, I just not holding my breadth until an ethical government emerges.
Until then, even the semi-passive resistance of using non-lethal technical means as civil disobedience seems a more likely way to push back.
Speaking about "missing the point" - the "spear vs shield spiral" assumes a symmetry. Well, break the symmetry and slide into diversification, especially if those means are cheap to produce but expensive to defeat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0