Fugitive Child Sex Abuser Caught By Face-Recognition Technology 232
mrspoonsi sends this BBC report:
"A U.S. juggler facing child sex abuse charges, who jumped bail 14 years ago, has been arrested in Nepal after the use of facial-recognition technology. Street performer Neil Stammer traveled to Nepal eight years ago using a fake passport under the name Kevin Hodges. New facial-recognition software matched his passport picture with a wanted poster the FBI released in January. Mr Stammer, who had owned a magic shop in New Mexico, has now been returned to the U.S. state to face trial. The Diplomatic Security Service, which protects U.S. embassies and checks the validity of U.S. visas and passports, had been using FBI wanted posters to test the facial-recognition software, designed to uncover passport fraud. The FBI has been developing its own facial-recognition database as part of the bureau's Next Generation Identification program."
Where? (Score:2, Interesting)
If you can't hide in Nepal, where can you hide?
Re:We Are All Under Suspicion Now (Score:5, Interesting)
The government already owns the database of passport photos. It's theirs. Every person who has a photo in there gave it to the government. In this case the FBI did a cross reference between 2 databases owned by the government. They did not force or coerce any private entity or individual to divulge private information to them. They weren't using any sort of real time or recent time surveillance. I don't see how you can make any rational suggestion to stop this situation short of abolishing passport photos and the subsequent database of them.
You may not like it. You may think this is another step on the slippery slope, but what specific part of this do you recommend be changed?
Should the government not be allowed to look at their own data? Do you think government agencies should not be able to share data? Do you think passports should not require photos? If you can come up with a way to stop this you can work on changing things. Otherwise, you're just whining about things.
Re:We Are All Under Suspicion Now (Score:0, Interesting)
> The government already owns the database of passport photos. It's theirs.
WOOOSH!
I mean FUCKING A WOOOSH!
We did not give them those photos for them to use for anything they feel like.
We gave them the photos for one specific purpose - to facilitate our ability to travel in other countries. That's it.
> what specific part of this do you recommend be changed?
Do not repurpose data just because it is convenient.
Jumping to conclusions (Score:1, Interesting)
The problem with tin foil hattery is that it usually fails both Occam's razor and Hanlon's razor. You, in contrast, aren't really thinking at all. Walk with me.
Of course they'll be using "(alleged) (child) sex offenders" first, as it's a touch (oh the awful puns) less worn than "terrism!!1!", so makes for good headlines with the "the government must do something!" crowd. Seems good use of tech, right? Now try again, and start to think this time. What will it mean in the long run?
For the thing is that with every bit of tech and every database link, the law enforcement complex is building a veritable machine to go after people. I'm putting that wrong. To positively hound you everywhere you go. To make every step you take a "point of contact" at which they can at least track, and maybe apprehend you. Even the photo on your driver's licence is a convenient source to seed the database, maybe the security footage taken when accessing ATMs would be too. Why not have ANPR cams take a bigger picture and do facial recognition too? Let's tap all the public and private CCTVs we can and feed that to the recognition software too. Let's slurp in credit card data (with name attached) in real time and match against watchlists. Your name, your fingers, your face becomes a weapon to be used against you. Presumably this will only be used against bad people, the very worst, at first. But the rub isn't in that they're going after (allegedly) bad people, it's in that "at first". Where does it stop?
The answer, as we've seen before, is that it will not stop. At all. They'll expand until at some point your biometrics will be collected at every street corner and will flag you for as simple an infraction as jaywalking or swearing. Hey, maybe we can even make it "convenient" for you and auto-deduct random fines from your fine account with the government. Then couple it with your bank account (already the case in some countries) so the government can help itself at need. And oh does the government have money needs. Go over this once again slowly, and see how this is a fairly natural progression when seen from the bureaucrat's perspective. For it isn't your perspective and your values at play here, it's the government's, the bureaucrat's. Just add time and we'll get there.
There's also the problem that the justice crowd is very hard put to have "results" to show for all the budget they're burning, which puts more emphasis on "obtaining convictions" than it does on "doing justice". Just two examples are Aaron Schwarz and Alfred Anaya. The worst thing is that the justice department is unable to see the problems with this approach and so is busily finding ways to expand it. It makes for potent seasoning to this already onerous mix.
Add it all together and you get a world I wouldn't want to live in, with or without tin foil hats.
Re:It's tinfoil time! (Score:3, Interesting)
Some of these people were being improperly classified as conspiracy theorists.
I am aware there are some who see conspiracy at every turn, as if no event on the radar could simply be happenstance. Shit does just happen, sometimes.
But, there were many who read Orwell and were convinced government would eventually devolve to this. Whatever they used to be called, it can now be said they appear prophetic.