Interpol Pushing World Facial Recognition Database 171
The Register is reporting that according to some reports, Interpol will soon be pushing for a world-wide facial recognition database at the borders of all member nations. "The UK already has airport gates equipped with such technology, intended to remove the need for a human border guard to check that a passenger's face matches the one recorded in his or her passport. According to the Guardian, Interpol database chief Mark Branchflower believes that his organization should set up a database of facial-recognition records to operate alongside its existing photo, fingerprint and DNA files."
There Already Is One (Score:5, Interesting)
Why do you think they have that "tagging" feature for the photos? Didn't you know all this time that you've been training their face recognition database?
Schwab
Alternate Applications (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder how long it will be before this technology is utilized outside the airport gates...like, for example, with all of the myriad CCTV cameras currently infesting London.
What sort of resolution does this technology require? Could the technology be used on the CCTV images?
I'm not sure... (Score:2, Interesting)
Obligatory John Woo... (Score:5, Interesting)
No more drugs for this man!
So, jesting aside, how will this work with cosmetic surgery? Will celebrities getting cosmetic work abroad no longer be identified correctly? Will actual terrorists suddenly become interested in elective procedures just to fool the system? How will the system deal with the fact that people change as they age? Interesting questions.
I wonder if this will become a legitimate tool for law enforcement, or if it will be yet another big brother tool.
Ironic (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems ironic to me that we have the international law-enforcement agencies as well as a ton of cross-border data and system sharing agreements all intended to stop people from crossing the borders themselves. They want information about us to be world wide but they don't want us to be world wide.
Terrorist face recognition! (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, I'm screwed (Score:5, Interesting)
The Federal government has my photo from my passport stored somewhere.
It has my DNA from my stint in the Army.
It has has my fingerprints from security clearance applications and several FBI background checks I've had to go through to be a teacher.
My only solace is, in all of my photos for federal documents I'm frowning like an NFL star posing for a picture, and on all my Facebook pictures I'm smiling.
Though when it comes down to it, if the government goes to crap, I'm screwed.
Re:what is the current accurcy rate? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What if I get a new scar? (Score:3, Interesting)
Unless those are unreasonably large scars, they shouldn't make any difference. Facial recognition typically relies on the size/placement of the facial bones, which generally don't change significantly, barring extreme trauma.
Though the people advocating this need to be sent home to read up on base rate negligence before they continue speaking.
Re:1984 (Score:3, Interesting)
Incorrect. 1984 is what Orwell thought the future would be like in the year 1984.
I always thought that Orwell was an optimist.
Re:Now who is laughing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Growing up in Malawi as a young Dutch boy, I once (age seven or so) asked my nanny, a South-African woman, how she could tell other African people apart, as they all looked the same to me. Not the one's I knew personally of course, just the other 99.9%.
This is the kind of question only a child can and will ask, and after laughing, she confided in me she had the same thought about Europeans (that they all looked alike).
Somehow, I don't think software is going to have this problem, allthough the prejudices of it's programmers might seep in.
All you who say "THEY all look alike", don't worry, THEY think exactly the same thing about you!
Re:There Already Is One (Score:4, Interesting)
I try to envision the right model for security and privacy as small town America. In this model everyone knows everyone else and for the most part, when you see your neighbor, he/she sees you.
Extrapolating this to the modern world, a world-wide facial recognition database would be compatible if the following additional conditions were met:
a) everyone had access to it (Everyone knows everyone else)
b) it was trivially easy to see where the cameras were (when you see me, I see you)
c) cameras were only in a relatively few number of places. (when I'm behind "closed doors" I'm out of public view)
I'm not convinced governments can abide by these above rules, but if they could I'd be OK living in a world-wide "small town".
Re:There Already Is One (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh its ridiculous. The Gadsden flag is a US flag and for a time was the OFFICIAL US flag of the 13 colonies. (denoted by the 13 rattles on the snakes tail.)
Domestic Terrorists
Anti-Government Groups
Often associated with unorganized militias, the Anti-Government movement actually embraces a much larger variety of groups and causes. The extreme fringe believes that the U.S. government is either the enemy or has been subverted by the enemy and must be actively defended against.
There is nothing wrong proclaiming that you want to defend your rights from government. The prefatory clause to the second amendment also states that the local militia is a requirement to security of a free state.
Anti-Government Issues and Beliefs
Gun Control is a conspiracy to enslave us starting with the removal of our ability to either defend ourselves or forcefully change our government.
No we wouldn't want people to be able to defend themselves.
The first ten amendments of The Constitution are God given and all others are temporary, invalid or outright fraudulent.
Totally wrong interpretation of the Constitution. The Constitution is written in negative law. The Constitution does not GIVE the people anything at all. Paper can not grant rights. The first 10 amendments are laws that PREVENT the government from abusing the rights people already have. It is a a restriction on government not on the people and grants nothing to anyone.
All judicial authority resides with the people. The jury, not the Judge, directs trials and can nullify laws they do not approve of.
I can see how law enforcement would screw this up. They worship judges as gods.. you know those lawyers in black dresses. Truth be told a judge is not the *boss* of a trial, he is only the referee between disputing parties. The power does lie with the people, and rightfully so, for is it not right for the people to be especially true for a Representative Republic as opposed to a True Democracy.?
U.S. sovereignty is being surrendered to the U.N., World Court, and World Bank, with the U.S. becoming an economic region of this New World Order.
Anti-Government activists often believe they have never accepted U.S. citizenship or can renounce it.
Federal and State governments do not have the legal authority to levy taxes or interfere with travel or private enterprise by requiring licenses or regulating activity or conduct.
There are people who believe this stuff.. they might even have a point.. Regardless, why does the DHS think someone holding these beliefs is suddenly a "domestic terrorist"?
It's just absurd.. the war on terror is too vague.. it will never end, they will just make up "new" terrorists.